Creating connections in Scotland 2025

Dr Poonam Malik is an entrepreneurial academic business strategy leader and an investor in Innovation. She has extensive experience of working in research, innovation, enterprise, governance, health and business sectors globally. Dr Malik is Chair, Co-Founder of Microplate Dx Ltd. A GlobalScot, a Climate Champion for Scottish Enterprise Board and Skills Development Scotland Board Member. Dr Malik has held leadership roles across public, private, higher education and social enterprise sectors. Formerly the Head of Investments at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Dr Malik led on the University’s enhanced investment function from entrepreneurial and commercialisation activities focused on startups, spinouts and spinin companies.

Poonam brings expertise in Life Sciences, Biotech, Health digital and Medical Technology businesses. She is passionate about Diversity, Equality, Inclusive values and climate change. Poonam has held academic positions at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cumbria/Lancaster and in India. She is also an elected Fellow with the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB). Poonam holds an MBA (with Distinction) in ‘Strategy and Leadership’ from the University of Edinburgh Business School, a PhD in Biomedical Sciences/Virology from University of Glasgow, a Masters (MSc) degree in Biotechnology and a Bachelors (BSc) in Chemistry & Zoology from India.

Dr Katya McKenna, NMIS SME Engagement Lead, has 30+ years' experience of working on projects bridging academia and industry in many technology areas, including advanced materials, opto-electronics, food science, spectroscopic analysis, surface science, data analytics, biomedical analytical devices, renewable energy, and other branches of engineering. Over the last nine years at NMIS, Katya has focused on delivery of innovation support and advice to a wide variety of SME businesses. Her keen interest is in developing and implementing best practice approaches to innovation for and with SMEs. A Physicist by her original training, a Physical Chemistry PhD and an RSE Enterprise Fellowship alumnus, she has experience of working in industrial manufacturing environment and has also walked a path of entrepreneurship, as an inventor and a start-up company director, and has delivered many new products, solutions, process improvements for SMEs.

Mark is CEO at IBioIC and is responsible for its strategy and delivery of activities to grow Scotland and the UK’s bioeconomy. IBioIC’s role is to engage, collaborate with, and support large corporates, SMEs, academia and government to accelerate and de-risk commercialisation, and to bring new biotechnology processes and products to market. IBioIC is also the Cluster Management Organisation for the UKRI Innovate UK Launchpad supporting innovation in bio-based manufacturing across Scotland.

Mark joined IBioIC from CPI where he was Business Development Director for the £38M National Biologics Manufacturing Centre in Darlington. Prior to this, he was the Medicines Manufacturing Specialist at the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), and worked for seven years developing the growth of bioprocessing across the UK as part of the bioProcessUK network, within the BioIndustry Association. Mark has also been a steering group member for the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership and led the secretariat function for the UK’s Advanced Therapies Manufacturing Taskforce for the past Minister for Science, George Freeman MP. 

Paul is an entrepreneurial technologist with a substantial track record for applying innovation across multiple sectors spanning academia, government, SMEs and international PLCs. Paul’s early career was with UK MoD, then with QinetiQ. Subsequently, Paul has founded and run his own data analytics business. Currently, Paul is the CEO of CENSIS, one of Scotland’s Innovation Centres focused on sensing, imaging and the internet of things (IoT).

Prof Loyd McKnight is Head of Centre at Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (CAP), Glasgow, UK. Fraunhofer CAP provides contract R&D services to industry and the team has grown to 70 staff and students with expertise in photonics serving more than 120 industrial customers across the UK. Prof McKnight has been responsible for growing the quantum technologies theme at Fraunhofer CAP since 2012 and is an expert in the development of novel laser sources, photon sources and integrated optics which are critical building blocks in many quantum technologies.

Professor Marc Desmulliez, FRSE, FInstP, FIET, is former Associate Principal for Impact, Founder and Manager of the £6M-funded Medical Device Manufacturing Centre (www.mdmc.ac.uk) and Professor in Smart Systems Integration at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland.

He has held grants of compounded value of more than £52M as Lead or co-Lead, published over 521 journal papers or conference proceedings articles, and holds ten patents and three design rights. 

He span out Microstencil Ltd in 2003, a spin-out company specialized in flip-chip bonding technology using stencil printing. The technology was transferred to DEK in 2011 and now is used in all mobile phones in the world. His second company, Microsense Technologies Ltd, aims at non-destructive testing using microwave sensing. This initiative got him the shared £90K first prize in the Converge Challenge 2016, arguably the most prestigious entrepreneurship award in Scotland.

His research interests include medical devices, microwave sensing and bio-inspired manufacturing, more precisely the understanding and translation of natural processes to manufacturing principles, an arguably new topic of research in engineering. 

Paul Blakeman is Strategic Partnerships Manager (Scotland) for CPI, an independent innovation organisation and a pioneering social enterprise that accelerates the development, scale-up and commercialisation of deep tech and sustainable manufacturing solutions.

Paul’s role at CPI involves developing strategic partnerships and projects in Scotland, with a focus on academic as well as public sector and regional development partnerships in support of CPI’s Place strategy. 

Prior to joining CPI, Paul has held innovation leadership roles in the smart cities and sustainable mobility sectors. This includes managing multi-disciplinary research programmes at the Transport Research Laboratory and leading UK product management and innovation for a highways technology company. Paul was also part of the start-up team for the Transport Systems Catapult, establishing their initial portfolio of innovation projects.

Most recently, Paul worked as Head of Innovation for an SME working with cities and communities to implement new technologies, services and strategies to improve outcomes for citizens and the environment. 

Paul holds a BSc Hons in Mathematics from the University of Dundee.

Kezia Williamson is Head of Place at Innovate UK Business Connect where she leads on the development of this strategic priority for the organisation. Kezia has worked in innovation commercialisation for 15 years, both within and across sectors. She has significant experience of developing programmes to enable companies to innovate. Specialising in business innovation and development through access to funding, she has helped companies and consortia across the UK to secure innovation funding, including early-stage equity investment. Kezia has also run innovation funding programmes, managed large, international, collaborative research projects, established a data-driven insights and policy unit, and pioneered diversity and inclusion programmes.

Bruce has a background in photonics and SMEs and in particular innovation.

He works for Scottish Enterprise as an innovation specialist, helping companies to develop a strategic view of innovation and to plan and fund innovation projects.

He also works as an expert assessor for Innovate UK and the European Commission.

Amelia Whitelaw is Director of Interface, a national programme that delivers value to businesses and Scotland’s innovation system by catalysing collaborations between academia and industry, supporting diverse partnerships, and delivering innovation funding programmes. She brings deep experience in building collaborative initiatives that connect research, business, and policy.

Amelia joined Interface in August 2022, following 11 years at London Business School, where she was the founding Executive Director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development - applying business expertise and research to social and economic challenges in developing countries.

Earlier at LBS, she led strategic engagement and curriculum innovation to enhance the School’s global profile and create innovative experiential learning programmes. Prior to this, she supported the Vice Chancellor and senior executives at the Australian National University in developing and delivering its international strategy.

Emma is currently the Senior Enterprise Manager at the Royal Academy of Engineering, leading the development and delivery of the first Enterprise Hub in Scotland. Emma has a background in Biomedical Engineering and initially entered the startup world after working with a prosthetics clinic in Colombia. She has built on her international experience and embedded herself in the Glasgow and Scottish ecosystem through variety of roles including Entrepreneurial Scotland and as business development manager at Novosound, a high-growth tech spinout. Emma also delivers events for startup communities as the Startup Grind Director in Glasgow covering topics from deep tech through to creative industries enjoying showcasing local activity across the city. Her diverse expertise positions her well to champion and support the growth of engineering and technology entrepreneurs across Scotland.

Dr Julie Maxton CBE is the Executive Director of the Royal Society, the first woman in 350 years to hold the post. Before taking up her position at the Royal Society in 2011 Julie was Registrar at the University of Oxford, the first woman in 550 years in the role.

She is an Honorary Fellow of University College Oxford, a Bencher of the Middle Temple, a Freeman of the Goldsmith’s Company, and a Board member of Engineering UK, the Charities Aid Foundation, Haberdasher Aske’s School and of the International Advisory Board of the Blavatnik School of Governance at Oxford University.

Originally trained as a barrister at the Middle Temple, Julie combined a career as a practising lawyer with that of an academic, holding a number of senior academic positions, including those of Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of numerous articles concerned with trusts, equity, commercial and property law.

Dr Poonam Malik is an entrepreneurial academic business strategy leader and an investor in Innovation. She has extensive experience of working in research, innovation, enterprise, governance, health and business sectors globally. Dr Malik is Chair, Co-Founder of Microplate Dx Ltd. A GlobalScot, a Climate Champion for Scottish Enterprise Board and Skills Development Scotland Board Member. Dr Malik has held leadership roles across public, private, higher education and social enterprise sectors. Formerly the Head of Investments at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Dr Malik led on the University’s enhanced investment function from entrepreneurial and commercialisation activities focused on startups, spinouts and spinin companies.

Poonam brings expertise in Life Sciences, Biotech, Health digital and Medical Technology businesses. She is passionate about Diversity, Equality, Inclusive values and climate change. Poonam has held academic positions at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cumbria/Lancaster and in India. She is also an elected Fellow with the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB). Poonam holds an MBA (with Distinction) in ‘Strategy and Leadership’ from the University of Edinburgh Business School, a PhD in Biomedical Sciences/Virology from University of Glasgow, a Masters (MSc) degree in Biotechnology and a Bachelors (BSc) in Chemistry & Zoology from India.

Richard Lochhead has represented the Moray Constituency in the Scottish Parliament since 2006. Prior to that, Mr Lochhead represented North East Scotland from 1999 to 2006.

He attended Williamwood High School in Clarkston and Central College of Commerce in Glasgow, before graduating in Political Studies from the University of Stirling. Immediately prior to his election, he worked as an economic development officer for Dundee City Council.

Mr Lochhead previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment between 2007 and 2016, and was appointed Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade in March 2023.Richard Lochhead was appointed as Minister for Business in May 2024.