Advisory Board Members
Mr Peter Laybourn, Chair of Advisory Board
Chief Executive, International Synergies Ltd
Peter is the founder and Chief Executive of International Synergies. Peter devised International Synergies’ flagship project the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) and has since helped to see similar projects established in over 20 countries around the world. Peter graduated with a degree in Economics and Ecology from the University of Southampton and spent 18 years in the aerospace manufacturing industry as contracts and commercial manager at GEC Marconi, Smiths Industries and Meggitt Aviation & Marine before completing a second degree in Marine Environmental Management.
Peter established the Business Council for Sustainable Development-UK in 2002 and held the position of Deputy Chief Executive for four years before leaving to establish International Synergies. Peter was the Sustainability Leader of the year in 2013/14 and is often asked to be a keynote speaker on industrial symbiosis and the circular economy. He has provided expert evidence to many bodies including the House of Lords, House of Commons and European Commission; leading to the inclusion of industrial symbiosis in a number of policies and to the G7 making industrial symbiosis the first themed workshop under the new “Alliance on Resource Efficiency”.
Floriane Fidegnon
Head of Industry, Technology & Innovation, Policy Connect
Floriane joined the Industry, Technology and Innovation team at Policy Connect in January 2021. She is responsible for the strategic management of the ITI team’s work across the Manufacturing Commission, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Manufacturing (APMG),
All-Party Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group (APDIG) and All-Party Parliamentary Data Analytics Group (APGDA). She is currently also a member of the Design Economy Steering Group, Transforming Foundation Industries network plus advisory board and the Make UK equalities working group.
Floriane has a BEng in Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Warwick. She has also worked for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) within their respiratory supply chain. Her past experiences include founding and directing the Warwick Women’s Engineering Society, a Royal Academy of Engineering Future Leaders Scholar, a Stemettes alumna and as a freelance policy consultant and science communicator. Floriane has worked with various organisations promoting Diversity & Inclusion across the STEM sector.
Prof Ben Clegg
Head of Operations & Information Management Department, Aston Business School
Professor Ben Clegg's research, teaching and consulting activities focus on operations and process improvement. He draws upon theoretical ideas, such as systems thinking and multi-organisation enterprise management, to implement practical solutions for organisations. In turn practical case studies and insights are used to further develop theory about operations and process improvement.
Ben joined the University of Aston Business School in 2003 and is currently engaged in research, teaching and consulting activities focused on operations and process improvement such as the European Regional Development Funding, Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise Network (KEEN) Project with Coen – ‘Growing an SME using Enterprise Management Principles’. His work draws upon theoretical ideas, such as systems thinking and multi-organisation enterprise management, to implement practical solutions for organisations. In turn, practical case studies and insights are used to further develop theory about operations and process improvement. His specialist research interests include, multi-organisation management of enterprises, improvement of operations management practice: people, process and technology, and systems thinking.
Prof Sam Turner
Chief Technology Officer, High Value Manufacturing Catapult
Professor Sam Turner is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult. Sam works across the HVM Catapult centres and stakeholders, including government, to develop manufacturing strategy for the UK. He is part of the Made Smarter strategy implementation group led by Juergen Maier and was part of the review team. In this role Sam has chaired the D4I digital industry group, the Through Life Engineering Services (TES) Council and the IMechE Manufacturing Industries Division.
Sam joined the HVM Catapult team in 2017 from his role as CTO of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing, where he worked on a range of projects and capabilities including the flagship digital facility Factory 2050, machining, casting and composites technology. As a founding member of the AMRC, Sam led the growth of the AMRC’s Machining Group, with successes in delivering impact to UK industry, before moving into the CTO role. Sam has over 20 years experience in manufacturing working across the aerospace, steel, defence, automotive sectors.
Prof Lenny Koh
Director of the Advanced Resource Efficiency Centre (AREC), University of Sheffield
Professor Lenny Koh, BEng (Hons), PhD, FRSA, is a Chair Professor in Operations Management, Founders and Directors of the Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM) Research Centre at the Management School & the Faculty’s Centre for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (CEES), at The University of Sheffield, UK. She is also the co-founder of Supply Chain Management and Information Systems (SCMIS) Consortium, a global network of leading academic and practitioners driving research and knowledge exchange on supply chain and information systems.
A world leading mind recognised amongst FRSs and Nobel Laureates within the University, Lenny is a Senior Chair Professor, an internationally renowned and established authority in supply chain especially on low carbon and sustainability, with a high H-index (World number 2) and high research income generation in her discipline internationally. She is active in leading a 2022 Futures initiative advancing resource efficiency and supply chain disciplines, navigating a new translational model for connecting invention/basic science at lower TRL to higher TRL.
Prof Michael Bourlakis
Director of Research, Cranfield School of Management
Professor Michael Bourlakis holds the Chair in Logistics, Procurement and Supply Chain Management. He is the Director of Research for Cranfield School of Management, the Head of the Logistics, Procurement and Supply Chain Management Group and the Director of the Centre of Logistics, Procurement and Supply Chain Management. He was appointed at Cranfield School of Management in 2013. Previously, Michael worked at Brunel University Business School (Leadership Roles: Director of Postgraduate Studies for 7 MSc programmes, “Impact” Champion for REF2014, Director of OASIS Research Centre), Kent University Business School (Leadership Roles: Head of Marketing and Supply Chain Management Group, Director of Enterprise), Newcastle University (Leadership Roles: Director of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes), Oxford University Templeton College (Oxford Institute of Retail Management), Leicester University Management Centre.
Dr Tom Kirkham
Business Development Manager, STFC (Science & Technology Facilities Council)
Tom is a Business Development Manager at the Hartree Centre working across industry to aid the adoption of technologies that utilise High Performance Computing (HPC) such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), Big Data and Modelling / Simulation to boost productivity. Prior to his work at Hartree he worked for both commercial and research organisation in the domain of distributed computing specifically around data security and the integration of leagacy systems in domains such as manufacturing.
Dr Jakobus Groenewald
Lead Engineer, WMG Catapult
Jakobus graduated with a First-Class BEng Honours degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Bangor in 2010. He subsequently completed his PhD in optical communications systems at the University of Bangor in 2014. In November 2014, he was appointed as a Research Fellow on the ABACUS project that forms part of the WMG High Value Manufacturing team to conduct research into innovative business models and design approaches for extending the in-service battery life of future low carbon vehicles. In 2016 he was appointed as Test Facilities Engineer for the 3xD simulator at WMG. In 2017 Jakobus was promoted to Lead engineer in WMG's Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Research Group.
Andy Whyle
Sustainability Specialist, S-AW
Andy is a Sustainability Specialist who has over 30 years’ experience of sustainable manufacturing. His expertise covers sustainability leadership, circular economy, natural capital development, networking and collaboration. As an IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment) Fellow, Andy chairs the Circular Economy Network Steering and Corporate Sustainability Fellows Working Groups. Recognised as a Sustainability West Midlands Green Leader, he is a proven leading practitioner on a local, national and international basis. As a subject matter expert on the circular economy he co-authored the Business Lens evidence chapter of the Government Office of Science - From Waste to Resource Productivity report, which was utilised to create the Resources and Waste Strategy.
Andy has utilised his experience for DEFRA advisory groups and the UK Resources Council, representing the manufacturing sectors’ material users and producers to increase circularity in the UK. A guest lecturer at several universities, his experience as a practitioner has led to several best practice case studies, developing and demonstrating circular economy solutions.
Prof Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy
Formulation Science, University of Reading
Vitaliy has been Professor of Formulation Science since August 2014, having previously been Associate Professor (Reader) in Pharmaceutical Materials (2010-2014) and Lecturer in Pharmaceutics (2005-2010) at Reading School of Pharmacy. Prof Khutoryanskiy has researched broadly in the area of new biomaterials for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications, with a particular emphasis on drug delivery, mucoadhesive materials, hydrogels, and stimuli-responsive polymers. He was the recipient of the 2012 McBain Medal from the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) for his imaginative use of colloid, polymer and interface science in the development of novel biomedical materials, 2020 Polymers Best Paper Award (MDPI) and 2020 Supervisor of the Year Award (FindAUniversity). He has published 155 original research articles and 22 reviews, accruing over 8000 citations with an h-index of 44 (Google Scholar). Vitaliy has supervised 10 postdoctoral research assistants and 29 PhD students to successful completion.
Prof Bashar Nuseibeh
Software Engineering / Chief Scientist, University of Limerick
Bashar is Professor of Software Engineering and Chief Scientist of Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre (www.lero.ie). He is also a Principal Investigator of CONFIRM - Ireland’s SFI Centre for Smart Manufacturing (https://confirm.ie). His research interests are in software requirements and design; security, privacy, and digital forensics; and the engineering of autonomous and adaptive cyber physical-social systems.
Bashar was Director of Research in Computing at The Open University (OU), where he continues serve as a professor of computing and head of its software engineering and design research group. He was a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London, and is currently an Honorary Professor at University College London and a Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Tokyo, Japan. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems and Associate Editor of IEEE Security & Privacy magazine. Bashar previously served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering and the Automated Software Engineering Journal. He received a Royal Society-Wolfson Merit Award and an European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant on Adaptive Security and Privacy. Bashar is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, the British Computer Society, the Irish Computer Society, and is a Member of Academia Europaea.
Catherine Weetman
MSc FCILT FRSA, Founder of Rethink Global Ltd
Catherine Weetman is an international speaker, workshop facilitator, coach, consultant and host of the Circular Economy Podcast. In 2013, she founded Rethink Global to help businesses, social enterprises and community groups to use circular economy approaches to build a better world. Her award-winning book, A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business, explains the what, why and how of the circular economy. The second edition, published by Kogan Page in November 2020, includes a new chapter on packaging, over 100 new examples, and many more updates. Catherine qualified as an Industrial Engineer and began her career in garment manufacturing, before moving onto logistics solution design, project management, business intelligence and supply chain consulting, including senior roles with Tesco, Kellogg's and DHL Supply Chain. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), a university lecturer and has a Master's Degree from Cranfield University. She supports the Circular Economy Club as a mentor and Chapter lead for the Tees Valley, in the UK.
Brigitte Amoruso
Energy and Climate Change Senior Specialist, Make UK