Developing Science & Innovation Parks Conference

Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus – Dr Rhian Hayward, Chief Executive Officer

Having recently completed phase one of the campus development, Rhian is overseeing phase two’s ongoing construction and is participating in the event to share her knowledge, expertise and learning from driving the scheme. 2021 will be a key year for AberInnovation and its growing community of rurally based companies. Rhian will discuss how the campus will have a positive impact for the county of Ceredigion and the steps needed to enable further investment and to development in the agri-science cluster.

Cambridge Innovation Parks – Professor John French, Director of Development & Sustainability

Home to 75 companies and spread across three sites, Cambridge Innovation Parks are an integral part of the region’s economy. They have ambitious plans to expand their estate and a further 10 buildings will be developed across the 27 acres of land that make up their location.

BioMed Realty – Orestis Tzortzoglou, Vice President, Development UK

Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst – Dr Sally Ann Forsyth, Chief Executive Officer

With their ever expanding campus situated in Hertfordshire, Sally-Ann’s organisation has positioned itself as vital to UK PLC.  As base to 40+ companies and 250,000 sq ft of office space, the park is rapidly expanding and as part of this session she will go into detail on what the future may hold in regards to development.

UK Science and Innovation Parks Association – Professor Patrick Bonnett, Director & Vice Chairman

Aside from his role at UKSPA, Patrick is Development Director of the UK’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing and Professor of Practice, Innovation Environments at Newcastle University. He has worked widely across the applied research and innovation arenas for the past 35 years and is well connected to national policy makers who are placing a major emphasis on the sector in the forthcoming comprehensive spending review.

JLL – Dr Glenn Crocker, Senior Consultant

Glenn Crocker is an experienced CEO, company founder, non-executive director and investor in the life sciences sector. He was CEO of BioCity Group since mid-2003, shortly after it was founded, becoming Executive Chairman at the start of 2019. In April 2021 BioCity was acquired by Trinity Investment Management and a new company, We Are Pioneer Group Ltd was created, of which Glenn is a director. He has a DPhil in Immunology from Oxford University and qualified as a chartered accountant with EY, working with biotech companies in Palo Alto, California and Cambridge, UK, where he headed up the UK Biotech practice for EY.

At the end of 2018 he joined JLL to lead the firm’s national life science practice, focused on advising property investors, developers and corporates on the strategic opportunities within the sector. He remains a senior independent consultant with JLL.

He is a director of the UK Science Parks Association and a non-executive director of BDD, BioAscent and Alderley Park Ventures and a governor of Trent College.

In 2014 Glenn received an MBE for services to the biotechnology industry.

3PM – Suzannah Howson, Partner

3PM are Project, Programme and Portfolio Managers, they manage the lifecycle of projects of varied complexities, across all stages and throughout many sectors. 3PM’s Partners have extensive experience in the commercial and science sectors of the property industry and are leading professionals in the science environment. They are working on the following Science Parks in the UK, Wellcome Genome Campus, Stevenage Bio-Campus / GSK Stevenage, Oxford Science Park, Cambridge Science Park, Discovery Park, Pirbright Institute to name a few. They have written leading research papers for the BCO ‘The future of business parks’ and have a new paper coming out in September entitled ‘Who is the Science Tenant?’. They are working with some of the leading scientists in the country and are using their extensive expertise to help change the future of project management.

The Oxford Science Park – Piers Scrimshaw-Wright, Chief Executive Officer

As a jewel in the crown of the OxCams Arc, the Oxford science park is home to a multitude of blue chip organisations and continues to expand. As the park moves into its next phase of development, Piers will be on hand to talk about how the park will look over the coming 10 years, the learnings from previous developments and how he sees the innovation park sector changing moving forward.

Bidwells – Nick Pettit, Partner

Nick has spent 30 years working in the property industry, and his clients include Abzena, Cambridge Consultants, Babraham Research Campus, Convergence Pharmaceuticals, NAPP Pharmaceuticals, TTP plc and Trinity College, to name a few.

Hethel Innovation – Imogen Shipperlee, Innovation Manager

Based at the Scottow Technology Park and renowned as one of the UK’s best accelerators for science businesses, Imogen is well placed to talk about the evolution of the park and how her organisation supports the companies who invest, develop and manage occupation of that site. Representing Hethel, she will talk in depth about what kind of built environment considerations will need to be taken to create successful spaces similar to Scottow.

Discovery Science Park – Mayer Schreiber, CEO

Discovery Park is in the midst of major transformation and an ambitious development programme for which they have just received a multi-million pound investment to accelerate. The park is home to major blue chip organisations such as Pfizer and as part of their strategy will continue to build homes and complex laboratory space. In this session Mayer will go into detail about the future vision for the park.

Turnstone Estates – Tim Deacon, Director

Turnstone Estates are one of the region’s most important developers, being involved in the office, retail, leisure and mixed-use sectors. Their £65 million Colchester Northern Gateway scheme which is being forward funded by Canada Life will see the development of a 200,000 sq ft leisure scheme including a 12 screen hotel, nine restaurants, a hotel, 750 space carpark and more. They are also leading on the local landowners element of Waterbeach New Town in Cambridgeshire which has been granted planning permission for 4,500 new homes, £100m contribution to local infrastructure and large amounts of employment space, schools and public realm.

Exeter Science Park – Sally Basker, Chief Executive Officer

Exeter Science Park was developed to stimulate a knowledge-based economy in the South West, delivering skilled jobs, high productivity and economic growth. The science park has recently completed the development of a £5m net zero centre, supporting over 100 jobs. A £20m, 140-room zero carbon hotel is also underway at the science park. The project will also include landscaping, the integration of renewable energy, and the addition of 25 solar-powered electric vehicle charging points.

Acuity Law – Barry Sankey, Partner

With nearly four decades’ experience of the science, technology and research park sector, Barry has worked with many of the UK’s leading parks and has been actively involved in the UK Science Park Association since 1993. Whether it’s designing the structure for management of a new park or centre, or its day-to-day management and letting of units, its funding – including State Aid – and all related matters, or a park’s compliance with regulations for everything from GDPR to MLR for virtual tenancies and hot desks, there are few aspects of the operation of science parks and innovation centres that Barry has not explored. Having recently joined Acuity Law as a partner, he is able to draw on their commercially driven seventy-strong team to support his clients in the sector.