Judges 2009

The judges for the British Engineering Excellence Awards have been drawn from a cross section of electronic and engineering design disciplines. They are all technical and well qualified people who champion innovative engineering design.

Message from the Chairman of the Judges

The UK’s engineering industry is going through very difficult times. With the economy brought to its knees by serious problems within the financial services sector, all businesses are suffering to some degree.

But what is fundamentally important is that the UK engineering sector emerges from the downturn in a stronger position, ready to take maximum advantage when the economy begins to pick up.

That is why the British Engineering Excellence Awards are important: they recognise the need for our industry to achieve world class standards and to create world class products with world class quality levels.

Because nothing else will be good enough – good won’t cut it; excellent will be better, but even excellent is at the bottom end of where we as an industry must be.

We as an industry must aspire to be world beating and the British Engineering Excellence Awards recognise this. Being selected to receive one of these awards – whatever the category – will be invaluable to the winning company. And winning the Grand Prix will be even better.

This awards programme presents UK companies with a unique showcase and an opportunity to demonstrate that UK engineering – far from being defeatist and losing out to international competition – is alive and well, innovative and thriving. The Awards will show that our businesses are among the best in the world.

Harry Tee CBE
Chairman

Harry Tee CBE – Chairman

Harry Tee has worked in the electronics industry for more than 35 years, firstly as a design engineer, then moving into sales, marketing and general management.

In 1990, he founded The Roxboro Group PLC and grew this to a £200million company, acquiring companies such as Weston and Solartron. He listed Roxboro on the LSE full market in 1994.

Harry is now chairman of a number of companies, including Dialight, the world’s largest independent solid state lighting company, Scientific Digital Imaging, which he took to the AIM market in 2008, and Piezotag, a start up company developing battery free tyre pressure monitoring technology.

Harry is also chairman of the Electronics Leadership Council, having been appointed by the Secretary of State for Industry in 2005 to form the Council and lead its work. He was honoured by her Majesty the Queen with a CBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours List for his services to the electronics industry.

Tel: 01638 665161
Email: htee@dialightplc.com
Web: www.electronicsleadershipcouncil.org

Richard Noble OBE – Director, BLOODHOUND Project

Richard Noble specialises in developing high risk ventures. Obviously not all of them can be successful, but the Thrust2 programme, which brought the World Land Speed Record back to Britain in 1983, and the Thrust SSC supersonic land speed record programme are the best known.

Richard Noble's other projects include the ARV Super2 light aircraft, the Atlantic Sprinter Blue Riband contender, Programme Funding, an original television funding company, and the last, Farnborough Aircraft, which is creating the first point to point taxi aircraft.

His projects have always tended to be innovative – and that puts them against the odds and against the system, which will always favour the conventional.

As a speaker, Richard Noble explains the huge problems involved in trying to persuade the establishment to consider and implement change and to listen to original thinking.

Richard can be contacted through his PA:

Email: tricia@henleytechnology.co.uk

Kate Bellingham, Presenter and Broadcaster

Kate Bellingham did not set out to become a TV presenter. She was ‘spotted’ whilst working for the BBC as an electronics engineer and invited to audition for a Schools TV programme, ‘Techno’. Having embarked on a career in ‘show biz’, her engineering background, along with a degree in physics from Oxford University and experience as a computer programmer, came in useful during her four years as a presenter on the flagship science and technology programme ‘Tomorrow’s World’.

Kate went on to present her own weekly programme on Radio 5 Live, ‘The Big Bang’ on Children’s ITV and other programmes for the Open University, BBC Schools and Channel 5. Subsequent broadcasts included a seven-part science series for the Open University, an engineering series for BBC2’s ‘Learning Zone’, ‘Testing Times’, a series for Radio 4 about the challenges faced on major engineering projects and a series on maths for BBC Schools Radio.

Among Kate’s current projects is her work as the National STEM Careers Coordinator, supporting the Department for Children, Schools and Families' (DCSF) STEM campaign. She is also Education Ambassador for the 3 year Bloodhound Engineering Adventure – Richard Noble’s latest World Land Speed Record attempt aiming for 1000mph by 2011.

Kate also regularly hosts conferences and seminars for major companies and is very much involved in projects promoting science, engineering and technology to the general public. She is President of Young Engineers, the national network of engineering clubs in schools and colleges, and sits on the Knowledge Management Board for the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and is a Patron of WISE – Women into Science, Engineering and Construction.

In 1997 Kate was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Technology by Staffordshire University in recognition of her work. In 2003 she obtained an MSc in Electronics with distinction at the University of Hertfordshire. Kate was awarded the ‘Public Promotion of Engineering’ Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004, and between 2006 and 2008 Kate qualified and worked as a secondary maths teacher.

Graham Pitcher – Group Editor, Findlay Media Engineering Design Division

Graham Pitcher has worked as a journalist and editor for 28 years. Working mainly in the electronics industry, he also has broad expertise in computer aided design, industrial automation and computing technologies. For the past 14 years, he has been involved with the development of New Electronics and has edited the magazine for more than 10 years. Recently, he has been appointed group editor of Findlay Media’s Engineering Design Division, responsible for New Electronics and Eureka magazines.

An engineer by training, he has worked in the steel and petrochemical industries.

Tel: 01322 221144
Email: gpitcher@findlay.co.uk
Web: www.newelectronics.co.uk

Justin Cunningham – Deputy Editor, Eureka

Justin Cunningham graduated from Kingston University in 2004 with a first class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering. His degree specialised in aerospace technology and he spent 15 months with Astrium Space working on future concepts of spacecraft.

Since then, he has been worked as an engineering journalist. Currently deputy editor of Eureka magazine, Justin spent four years as assistant editor of Professional Engineering, the fortnightly publication of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

Tel: 01322 221144
Email: jcunningham@findlay.co.uk
Web: www.eurekamagazine.co.uk

Anne Miller – Director, The Creativity Partnership

Author of How To Get Your Ideas Adopted (and change the world), Anne Miller is an authority on creativity and innovation, with an enthusiasm for ideas and the expertise to help make them reality. She started her career with an MA in Engineering from Cambridge University, then spent 20 years leading teams developing innovative products for the world’s leading companies. She is one of the world's most prolific female inventors, with 39 patents for a diverse range of products. Her inventions range from power tools and medical products to the manufacturing system for the Femidom.

In 1988, she was a co-founder of The Technology Partnership (now one of Europe’s leading technology innovation organisations) and in 2000 founded The Creativity Partnership, providing consulting and training for some of the world’s most successful organisations. She is also a board member of Stop Climate Chaos, a coalition of more than 60 of the UK’s leading non-government organisations demanding action on climate change.

Email: anne.miller@annemiller.info
Web: www.annemiller.info / www.tcp-uk.co.uk

Andrew Sleigh – Senior Scientific Advisor

Andrew Sleigh was appointed Group Chief Technology Officer in April 2007. He is responsible for leading the development of QinetiQ Group’s technology strategy and is custodian for QinetiQ’s investment processes. He ensures that the EMEA and QinetiQ North America regions have a strong technology axis, are able to sustain the foundations for world class science and innovation, and are fully exploiting opportunities for growth.

Andrew joined QinetiQ when it became a plc in 2001 and before his current appointment, held the position of Managing Director of the Defence & Technology Sector. Before joining QinetiQ, he was Capability Manager for Information Superiority and member of MOD’s Joint Capabilities Board. He has over 30 years’ experience in defence-related technology and its exploitation into adjacent markets. He was a Managing Director in the Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA) until 1997, and before that, worked at the Royal Radar Establishment.

Andrew read physics at St Catherine's, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and was for several years a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, London. He is a Member of OFCOM Spectrum Management Advisor Board, a Member of the SBAC Council and a Member of the NDIC Research and Development Group. He is also a Member of the European Commission Framework Programme 7 Security Advisory Group.

Tel: 01252 392000
Web: www.qinetiq.com

Eric Wilkinson – Head of Product Development

Eric Wilkinson is a Director of Cambridge Consultants and Head of Product Development.

He has managed projects as diverse as the development of the latest in anti-terrorism radar, a revolutionary cosmetics applicator, the world’s most intelligent iron and even something to liven up a can of beer!

This varied experience across a range of different industries has given Eric the insight necessary to manage some of this innovative company’s largest projects.

Tel: 01223 420024
Email: eric.wilkinson@cambridgeconsultants.com
Web: www.cambridgeconsultants.com

Professor John Roulston – Consultant

John Roulston spent 34 years in the European defence industry as a Chief Engineer and Technical Director of Ferranti, Marconi Avionics and BAE SYSTEMS avionics businesses before moving to become Chief Executive of Filtronic in 2004.

He left Filtronic in January 2006 to set up his own company, Scimus Solutions, providing professional services in the technology sector. He was responsible for the formation of laboratories in Edinburgh UK for development of airborne radar processors, software and custom hardware and the underlying systems algorithms. His work has led to highly successful airborne radars in the UK and across Europe. Latterly, in the communications industry, John has seen the coding and filtering principles pioneered in radar applied to communications through the ingress of VLSI, DSP and low-cost multichannel microwave hardware.

John is a fellow of the IET, a Chartered Engineer, a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Industrial Professor of Electronics at Edinburgh University.

He is a member of the UK Electronics Leadership Council, a Board member the Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network and of the Trade Association Electronics Scotland He chairs the IET Engineering Policy Group for Scotland.

Tel: 0131 552 6063
Email: jfroulston@yahoo.co.uk

Nick Appleyard – Lead Technologist, Electronics, Photonics and Electrical Systems, Technology Strategy Board.

Dr Nick Appleyard’s first career, as a condensed matter physicist, culminated in work at Cambridge on quantum behaviour in compound semiconductor devices, after which, with unerring timing, he moved into the semiconductor manufacturing industry in early 2001.

He worked on materials processing equipment for Trikon Technologies (now Aviza) and Surface Technology Systems, developing tooling and processes for etching and thin film deposition. Nick still claims the world record for cutting a trench into silicon using a plasma, at 8inches per hour.

Nick joined the Technology Strategy Board in July 2007 as Lead Technologist for Electronics, Photonics and Electrical Systems. This role involves formulating strategies for government to invest in the future of technology intensive industries, and then delivering on them using a toolkit that includes Knowledge Transfer Networks, R&D project funding, skills placements and policy inputs. The aim is to develop cross disciplinary linkages that underpin new market opportunities, and Nick’s current focus is on the digital economy and low carbon agendas.

Nick is also a director of Westmill wind farm in Oxfordshire.

Tel: 01793 442700
Email: nick.appleyard@tsb.gov.uk
Web: www.innovateuk.org

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