Meet the Team
Meet the Team
Academic & Network Management Team
Academic & Network Management Team
David Atkinson (Chair)
Advisory Board Chair, UK Head of Manufacturing, Lloyds Bank.
David develops and supports the delivery of Lloyds Bank specialist manufacturing sector support to commercial clients. He leads 13 teams across the UK with a team of over 100 experienced managers.
Iain McKechnie (Deputy Chair)
Advisory Board Deputy Chair, Director of Strategic Programmes, The Advanced Services Group, Aston Business School, Birmingham.
Iain is the Director of Strategic Programmes and the Project Director of a number of business support projects led by ASG. Iain has worked with 150+ manufacturers in his time at Aston and, through the direct utilisation of the latest ASG research, he has helped the firms to improve their Gross Value Add (GVA) by some £31.8m.
Nigel Base
Commercial Vehicle Director, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) is one of the largest and most influential trade associations in the UK representing more than 800 automotive companies. It is the voice of the UK motor industry, supporting and promoting its members’ interests, at home and abroad, to government, stakeholders and the media.
Steve Allen
Partner Alliances Manager, Columbus Global UK
Columbus is a global IT services and consulting corporation with more than 2,000 employees serving customers worldwide. They are experts in designing, developing, implementing, upgrading and maintaining digital business applications that help businesses succeed in the digital transformation.
Alex Bill
Service Director, GE Power
An Aston Business School alumnus, Alex now specialises in advanced services supporting gas turbine and combined cycle power plants leading the services-led value proposition of GE Power.
Paul Brown
Director of Cloud Advisory, Interoute/GTT
Paul leads a Cloud Advisory practice that works with large, complex customer projects and opportunities.
He is a business-led technology strategy advisor with a very successful background in banking, legal, telecoms, public sector, utilities and global & FTSE-250 corporates.
His experience includes driving client advisory projects in digital transformation, cloud strategy, datacentre migration, DevOps, IT investment strategy and application transformation. Bringing together datacentre and cloud solutions capability with business development skills to deliver world-class solutions for clients.
Richard Burnett
Chief Executive, The Road Haulage Association
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) is the only UK trade association dedicated solely to the needs of UK road transport operators. It is the voice of the road haulage profession, a champion of its interests and a respected partner to the broader logistics community.
Richard is responsible for the day to day running of the Road Haulage Association, supported by a leadership team accountable for delivery.
Ed Cowell
CEO, Fraikin UK
Ed became took up the role of CEO of Fraikin in 2016. Established in 1978, Fraikin Ltd is one of the largest providers of commercial vehicle contract hire, fleet management and rental solutions in the UK market. Headquartered in Coventry, they operate a nationwide branch network, supported by nearly 200 third-party approved maintenance providers which are frequently audited to ensure they meet our high standards.
Andy Curtis
Knowledge Transfer Manager - Digital Economy, KTN London
Andy has a background in the Creative, Media and Digital industries that has also encompassed many other technology and innovation led sectors, niches and business markets. He has worked with businesses, local and national government and Universities in client cities and regions in the UK, Europe and North America to support partnerships, programme strategy/management/delivery of growth initiatives and business support programmes in the innovative technology sectors.
Prof Des Evans
Former CEO MAN Truck and Bus UK, Hon Professor ASG
Des, former Managing Director of MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd is a passionate advocate of servitization in the transport industry. Together with the UK MAN Team, transformed the business model of MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd and helped the company become one of the country’s leading providers of advanced after sales and fleet management services for the haulage industry. His knowledge of what does and doesn’t work in practice and tools, techniques and tips for implementing services strategies are key assets to the Centre’s work with industry.
Matt Hague
Executive Director – Product Strategy, Microlise Group Ltd
Matt joined Microlise in 1998 with the responsibility of managing Microlise’s System Integration activities. Matt was responsible for the creation of Microlise Telematics & Transport Management solutions. As Microlise has grown, Matt has taken on a more strategic role and he is now responsible for Product Strategy & Management.
Prof Andy Harrison
Engineering Associate Fellow - life cycle engineering, Rolls-Royce plc
Andrew has been a leading figure for 15 years in Rolls Royce’s ongoing development of advanced services offerings. He is an expert in how services requirements and principles should inform the design and engineering of aircraft engines in order to both optimise the service delivery to customers and also make the provision of services profitable and sustainable for the manufacturer.
Danny Harrison
Head of Business Development, NICKLIN Transit Packaging
Based in Birmingham, Danny has helped the firm to venture into the ‘advanced services’ space and, as a result, the company has grown significantly over the last 4 years. Danny has joined the Advanced Services Group as a Visiting Industrial Fellow and regularly presents to groups of manufacturing SMEs to share his experiences, the benefits and the transformation process that Nicklin Transit Packaging have undergone.
Matt Hotson
CFO, UK & International Division, Royal Sun Alliance
Matt is a senior finance leader with a track record of delivery across sectors - developing, communicating and delivering strategy including M&A. Currently leads finance function of 430 people supporting a £3.7bn premium P&C business with 6,500 employees across personal and commercial lines in the UK, Ireland, branches across Europe, UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Paul Jackson
Managing Director, UV Light Technology Limited
Paul is founder and Managing Director of UV Light Technology Limited who manufacture ultra-violet light equipment for a wide range of industrial, healthcare and food applications. He is also the chairman of the SME Transformation Round Table.
Recent exposure to leading academic practice encouraged him to start a new journey on the Executive DBA programme at Aston University. His doctoral studies are based on servitization and he is a member of the Advanced Services Group Research Team.
Gerry Keaney
Chief Executive, British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA)
Established in 1967, the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association is the trade body for companies engaged in the leasing and rental of cars and commercial vehicles.
Martin Port
CEO, Big Change Apps Limited
Martin has been a leader and innovator in the telematics and mobile software industry since 1998. In 2002, Martin founded Masternaut which quickly grew to market leadership across Europe. As one of the fastest growing tech businesses in the UK, Masternaut was recognised with Tech Track 100 awards in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Martin was the 2008 EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Technology and Communications and was a finalist in the 2011 IoD Director of the Year awards.
Prof Keith Ridgway CBE
Executive Dean, AMRC with Boeing, Sheffield and Executive Chair AFRC, Glasgow.
Keith worked in industry before moving to academia in 1980. He joined the University of Sheffield as a lecturer in 1988, and became Professor of Design and Manufacture in 1997. He worked with local businessman Adrian Allen to launch the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing in 2001. In 2009, he helped launch the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. In 2016 he also became Executive Chair of the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) at the University of Strathclyde and a core partner of the UK High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC).
Keith was awarded an OBE in 2005 and CBE in 2011. He became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2006.
Ross Townshend
EMEA Business Manager - Advanced Services, Ishida Europe
Since joining Ishida Europe in 2017, Ross has taken the lead on the development and adoption of an Advanced Services Strategy within the business, along with managing its data services products for the food manufacturing sector. Through his 15 year career in product management, design and customer support, Ross has become a passionate believer in the significant value gained through partnerships between customers and suppliers. Prior to his current position, Ross worked within the industrial technologies division of Robert Bosch, focusing on manufacturing optimisation within the automotive, aerospace and other major sectors.
Prof Sam Turner
Chief Technology Officer, HVM Catapult
Sam leads the development of the HVM Catapult Technical Strategy and sets the agenda for the HVM Catapult CTO community.
Rachi Weerasinghe
Senior Managing Partner, Gartner Consulting
Rachi is Senior Managing Partner in Gartner's Digital Best Practice. He leads consulting and benchmarking in the UK Public Sector. He specialises in digital Strategy, leading IT enabled business change, business operating model and governance design, IT strategy, IT organisation optimization / redesign, and systems thinking.
Prof Rui De Sousa
Professor of Operations Management, Catolica Porto Business School, Catholic University of Portugal
Rui’s research has received several awards, including the award for the best PhD thesis in Quality Management given by the European Foundation for Quality Management in 2001. He has published in leading international business journals and has been Principal Investigator in a number of FCT-funded projects. He consults regularly in the areas of Operations Management and Quality. He was awarded his PhD in Operations Management, London Business School; MSc in Operational Research, Lancaster University and Licentiate in Electrical Engineering, University of Porto.
Prof Arnold Tukker
Professor of Industial Ecology, Universiteit Leiden
Arnold is Professor of Industrial Ecology and Director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) at Leiden University.
Prior to joining the University he was Business Manager Societal Innovation and Economy at TNO, a large not for profit research organization in the Netherlands, where he retains a 30% position as senior researcher. He currently co-ordinates a number of major research projects worth 15 million Euro with some 20 key European research institutes in the field of resource-efficiency. He has authored 6 books, 47 refereed papers and 7 special issues on sustainability research. He has been engaged with work of the UN on the Green Economy Initiative, the Resources Panel, the Ten Year Framework of Programs on Sustainable Consumption and Production, and Sustainable Development Goals.