Meet the IBIC advisory board

Phil Carvil

Chair

Professor Aline Miller

IBIC Director, The University of Manchester

Sabina Hawthornthwaite

Programme Manager, The University of Manchester

Natalie Jones

Head of Regional Engagement (north-west England), EPSRC

Jeremy Shears

Jeremy Shears is Shell’s Chief Scientist for Biosciences. He leads the company’s strategic thinking and innovation agenda in bioscience. His work areas include bioenergy, such as biofuels, chemicals from renewable feedstocks, and nature based solutions: natural ecosystems as carbon sinks. He joined Shell in 1986 and has held various commercial and technology management positions in the UK, Belgium, United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

Reuben Carr

Since joining Ingenza in 2004, Reuben has spearheaded the company’s core technology development delivering numerous proprietary bioprocesses which has underpinned growth of the company to date. Reuben has delivered, on time and on budget, commercial projects spanning carbon capture utilisation, biobased chemical production, small molecule API production, medical diagnostics and many others.

Adrian Jervis

Adrian is a Research Manager in Unilever where he develops ingredient sourcing solutions through biotechnology towards disruptive innovation and improved sustainability aligned with Unilever's net zero targets. He has a long technical track record in Academia in microbial biotechnology, from glycoengineering to produce novel vaccines to industrial biotechnology for chemical manufacture.

Richard Smith

Richard has spent 40 years in the chemical industry (25 at board level). His roles have seen him based in UK, The Netherlands and India with global responsibilities. He is the COO and a main board director of 2M Holdings Ltd, a portfolio of chemical manufacturing and distribution companies based in the UK, Europe, USA and China.

Farhad Ahmeed

Farhad is Head of Strategic Partnerships at LYVA Labs, an innovation and commercialisation agency for Liverpool City Region, where he leads on identifying and shaping transformational innovation opportunities based on large scale collaborations. He co-currently serves as an Non-Executive Director of an NHS Trust chairing committees relating to People and Culture and Commissioning.

Francesco Falcioni

Francesco graduated with honours in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the university of Milan (Italy) followed by a PhD in Biophysics from the university of York and a postdoc in Biochemical engineering at the technical university of Dortmund (Germany). He has since worked in small and large companies in various fields of applied biotechnology – primarily pharma, but also food and beverages, and fine chemicals.

Anastassia Bolotkova

Anastassia is a Business Development Manager at MIDAS, Manchester's inward investment agency. First training in molecular biology and biocehmistry, she went on to have a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry. Since 2020 she has specialised into business support for life sciences companies, now focussing on supporting the north-west's regional development in this area.

Kirk Malone

Dr Kirk Malone is the CEO of Britest Limited, a company that develops and applies innovative methodologies to support sustainable process understanding. Kirk has extensive experience at the interface of academia and industry and a track record of securing substantial funding for innovation and R&D. He has successfully engaged industry across multiple sectors to transfer knowledge, develop IP, and deliver collaborative projects.