Company Board

Chair, Non-executive Director

From a family farm in Devon, John graduated in Agri-Science and then joined Genus Plc working his way through the biotechnology division before his appointment as Managing Director of their Farm Consulting business. John then joined as a partner in Haygrove, growing their Horticultural Technology business from start-up to a £30m global business over a 14-year period. John now works as Chair and Non-Exec Director for a number of businesses across the Agri-Tech sector.

Non-executive Director

As Associate Director of Innovation at BBSRC, Nick’s portfolio includes supporting bioscience translation programmes, developing bio-clusters and the BBSRC Campus network, development of enterprise and entrepreneurial skills and working with the Investment community alongside the UK Innovation and Science Seed fund. Prior to joining BBSRC, he developed the Investor Partnerships programme, led the Biomedical Catalyst and established a long-term strategic plan for bioscience as an enabling technology at Innovate UK. Nick’s background includes 15 years in the Medical Devices Sector, specifically in immuno-diagnostic development and large-scale Monoclonal Antibody production. He was also the Managing Director and co-founder of an Immunohistochemical Screening company.

Non-executive Director

Rob is a solicitor with vast experience in the publicly funded STEM space and leads the only legal practice dedicated to STEM. He has held senior roles with GEC and Courtaulds Textiles. His work on behalf of public funders, universities and learned societies, including Innovate UK, the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, has caused him to advise on some of the more high-profile legal issues that have challenged STEM organisations.

He is a qualified Chartered Company Secretary as well as Solicitor and is also a Non-Executive Director of the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult and the Open Data Institute. Rob is a visiting lecturer in Technology Protection & Management at Warwick University and has worked on two intellectual property cases that were successful in the House of Lords.

Non-executive Director

Iain is Head of the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences. He has expertise in plant, agricultural and environmental sciences with a track record of delivery of research outputs and innovation outcomes. He leads the BBSRC core strategic programme on resilient crops, including developing the science to help agriculture tackle climate change and go net zero. In addition, he is Director of the BEACON Biorefining Centre with partners at four Universities in Wales, and working with industry to translate academic research into new low carbon products and processes. He is also Director of a greenhouse gas removal demonstrator project funded by UKRI and through the Strategic Priorities Fund to upscale biomass feedstocks, and is also topic lead for feedstocks in the interdisciplinary UKRI funded Supergen Bioenergy Hub.

Non-executive Director

Angela Hatton is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation at Aberystwyth University. She has a background in Oceanography and was previously Chief Scientist and Director of Science and Technology at the UK National Oceanography Centre, where she led the UK Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) Programme.

She is currently Chair of the UK Decade of Ocean Science Working Group, a member of the Met Office Hadley Centre Science Review Group, the AberInnovation Board, and a core panel member for the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships. In the past, Angela has played several strategic roles including as Chair of NERC Science Board and the UK’s G7: Future of the Seas and Oceans scientific lead. She was a member of the NERC Peer Review College pool of chairs, Ocean Acidification Programme advisory group, Challenger Society Council, Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) steering committee and the Quantifying & Understanding the Earth System (QUEST) programme integration team.

She has been awarded two NERC Fellowships, a Challenger Fellowship and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and the Scottish Association for Marine Science, and an honorary Professor at the University of Southampton.

Chief Executive Officer / Prif Swyddog Gweithredol

Rhian was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus in 2017. Rhian came to AberInnovation from roles in Technology Transfer and Knowledge Exchange and several commercial roles in biotechnology-based start-up and scale up companies in the UK. In recent years Rhian has held various public appointments including membership of the Welsh Industrial Development Advisory Board, Welsh Food & Drink Industry Board and the UK Science Park Association Board of Directors. 

Rhian currently sits on the Food Standards Agency Board, and serves as a Non-Executive Director to the Wales Office, supporting the Secretary of State for Wales in Westminster. Rhian holds a DPhil in infectious diseases epidemiology from University of Oxford and a BSc (1st class) in Biology from King’s College London and she was awarded the MBE for services to Entrepreneurship in Wales in 2016.