Sir Alan Rudge is President of the ERA Foundation and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Civitas. He has served as a Director on more than twenty company Boards including Deputy Chairman of Experian Plc; Deputy Chief Executive and Main Board Director of BritishTelecom Plc; Chairman of WS Atkins Plc; Chief Executive and Chairman of ERA Technology Ltd; Chief Executive and President of Celtel International BV and a special advisor to General Atlantic Partners. Sir Alan is an Honorary Fellow and past President of the IEE (IET) and a Life Fellow of the IEEE (USA).

He is a former Chairman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Engineering Council and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. He has served as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Surrey and on a number of national committees including the UK Advisory Committee on Science and Technology. Sir Alan is a Fellow the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society and has been awarded honorary doctorates from nine UK universities.

Andrew Churchill is the Chairman of JJ Churchill Ltd., an aerospace precision-engineering business based in the Midlands.

He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the IET as well as a member of the Steering Board and fellow of the 5% Club, a movement of employers driving ‘earn and learn’ skills-training opportunities.

He has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Industrial, Manufacturing and Infrastructure Business Council and for ten years was on the boards of Make UK (The Manufacturers’ Organisation) and Midlands Group Training Services (a centre of excellence for education, training and development of engineering apprentices), as well as six years as a director with the Design & Technology Association (championing D&T education in schools).

Previously, Andrew sat on the Ministerial Advisory Group on Manufacturing, was part of the All-Party Manufacturing Group and a Commissioner for the Manufacturing Commission.

A previous board member of ADS (the trade association representing the UK’s aerospace, defence, space and security sectors), Andrew now serves on their Council and External Affairs Board.

Away from work, he is a school governor and a previous district councillor for South Derbyshire. He was appointed OBE in the King’s first Birthday Honours in 2023 for “Services to Engineering”.

Helen is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the highest honour for an engineer in the UK, and joined Cranfield University as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing in September 2017. She was previously at the University of Leicester where she was Head of the Department of Engineering between 2012 and 2016, chaired the £17M project to rebuild the Percy Gee Students’ Union and served as Graduate Dean. Helen was the first woman President of the Engineering Professors’ Council (the body which represents Engineering in universities throughout the UK) in its fifty year history and has also served as a Vice President and Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2010 she won a national award as a Woman of Outstanding Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology for ‘Leadership and Inspiration to Others’.

Helen is a Fellow of the Institution of Materials, Minerals and Mining and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. She has served on the Skills Panel of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (one of the world’s largest Engineering institutions), the Engineering Leaders Panel of the National Council for Universities and Business, and for five years was Chair of the Education and Skills Committee at the Royal Academy of Engineering. With the MoD she was a Secretary of State appointment to a major safety committee.

Helen chairs the ‘This is Engineering’ project for the Royal Academy of Engineering, a major campaign which aims to encourage more young people to consider Engineering as a career.

Until recently Helen served on the Strategic Facilities Advisory Board for the £200M Sir Henry Royce Institute, a major UK Government Materials Research Initiative, and was a member of the UK Advanced Materials Leadership Council reporting to the UK Government Department for Business Innovation and Skills on national priorities for Materials Research. She was made DBE in the Queens New Year’s Honours 2021 for services to Engineering and Education.

Acknowledged internationally in the field of energy-efficient computing and systems engineering, Professor Bashir M. Al-Hashimi is recognised as an outstanding academic leader and a highly influential figure in the UK HE sector. Bashir is Arm Professor of Computer Engineering and he founded the Arm-Southampton research centre, which is cited by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as an exemplar of industrial collaboration. His research focuses on understanding interactions between hardware and software in constrained computing systems and how such interactions are used through theory and experiment to achieve systems energy efficiency and enhanced hardware dependability. Making fundamental contributions to the field of hardware-software co-design, low-power test and test-data compression and the emerging field of energy-harvesting computing, he led 2 national multi-million-pound EPSRC-funded projects. His research has been recognised by various awards including the IET Faraday Medal (2020).

He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 2023, received a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018 for services to engineering and industry and was knighted in the New Year Honours 2025 for his contribution to engineering and education.

He is Vice President (Research & Innovation) at King’s College London, where he provides the academic leadership for developing and implementing the university’s Research and Innovation Strategy and overseeing new initiatives, whilst continuing to foster inter-faculty and multidisciplinary collaboration to support delivery of King’s strategic goals. He served previously as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences at King’s after undertaking a similar Executive Dean role at the University of Southampton, where he was also a member of the University’s Executive Board.

Will Butler-Adams OBE CEng FRGS FCGI FIMechE is the CEO of Brompton Bicycle. Will started his career in the North East of the UK in the Chemical industry. He joined Brompton in 2002 being promoted to director in 2006 and CEO in 2008. Since 2002, Brompton has grown from around 30 employees, to over 800, while turnover has increased from £2 million to £125 million; now exporting 80% of its bicycles, that are made in London, to over 50 countries globally.

Will was a founding trustee of the Inspiring the Future charity, has served the government as a Commissioner on the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and was a trustee of Investors in People. He is also a visiting lecturer at Imperial Collage. Will has been a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (MIMechE) since 1993 and a Fellow (FIMechE) since 2014; qualified as a Chartered Engineer (CEng) in 2001; has been a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society since 2013; was appointed Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours.

Mike Carr OBE FREng is currently a Non-Executive Director for both Ordnance Survey Ltd and Ploughshare Innovations Ltd . He is Chairman of Astigan Ltd, a start-up based in Somerset, a member of the Enterprise Hub Board at the Royal Academy of Engineering and a former President of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET).

Mike is the former Chief Science Officer for BT where he was responsible for the company’s world-leading research and commercial exploitation unit, including patent licensing and corporate venturing activities.

He has several patents to his name in the field of video compression and is the holder of two prestigious BT awards; the Martlesham Medal for R&D and the BT Gold medal for leading multimedia product developments. From 1999 Mike was based in Silicon Valley, California, USA where he established BT’s US Technology office and Corporate Venturing activity. He returned to the UK in 2001 to lead BT’s Research & Venturing division. More recently he has been a Council Member of the EPSRC and a Board Member of Innovate UK.

He received an OBE for “services to innovation” in 2017.

Sir Iain is Emeritus Professor at Cranfield University and is currently Independent Chair of Futures West, the Non Exec Chair of CFMS Ltd and Chair of the Bristol Aero Collection Trust. He is a Non-Executive Director for advanced materials company Versarien and advisor to a further number of organisations. He was formerly Managing Director and General Manager of Airbus UK and then Chief Executive of InnovateUK. Iain joined Cranfield University in March 2015 as Director of Aerospace and retired from this position in September 2025.

Iain, holds an Engineering Science honours degree from Aberdeen University; gained a Masters of Philosophy at Southampton University in 1989, and has received a number of Honorary Doctorates from UK universities. He was awarded a CBE for services to Innovation in 2014; is a Chartered Engineer; is a Fellow and former Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering; a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2007; is a Fellow and former Vice-President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was knighted in the 2023 Birthday Honours “for services to the Aerospace Industry”.

Dr Golby trained and gained a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering. He held a series of management positions with Dunlop and BTR before becoming an Executive Director of Clayhithe plc in 1992. He joined E.ON UK plc (formally PowerGen) in 2001 where he held the position of Chairman and Chief Executive until his retirement in December 2011.

A Chartered Engineer, he is a fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Energy Institute and City of Guilds. He was awarded an honorary degree from Aston University in 2007 and Cranfield University in 2008. He was also made CBE by HM the Queen in 2011.

He is chairman of Costain Group plc and a member of the Prime Ministers Council for Science and Technology.

He is a past Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Engineering UK.

Tom joined de Zoete and Bevan Stockbrokers in 1983, starting a 36 year career in the financial services industry

Following the deregulation of the city during “big bang” Tom was a key driver in developing and transforming the BZW Private Client discretionary business,

Over the years he has successfully managed Multi-Asset Investment Portfolios for UK tax paying, International and UK Not for Profit clients, including managing the single largest client portfolio with the bank

Before retirement, Tom was a Director in the Barclays Private Bank and Investment Division

He remains a Chartered FCSI at the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment

Andrew’s early interest in engineering and cars led him to Ford and its spin-out, Visteon, where he held a variety of roles which included developing Ford’s first plastic throttle body, delivering Visteon’s European Electronics Manufacturing Strategy and managing a £15 million per year project providing the cooling systems to Kia for their first European car, the c’eed.

After leaving Visteon, Andrew joined Innovate UK quickly becoming Head of Transport where he worked with industry, academia and government to develop and deliver programmes that provided over half a billion pounds of innovation support to the UK transport industry. He also authored the business case for the establishment of the Transport Systems Catapult which he subsequently joined as Chief Strategy Officer. Andrew was a member of all UK Transport related Industry Councils working with government and industry to develop the UK’s capability in Low Carbon Technology and Intelligent Mobility.

More recently Andrew established A+E, a consultancy that has helped many technology companies in the transport sector with strategy development and an understanding of the UK’s innovation funding landscape. He was also MD of Shyft Mobility, a start-up focused on utilising the spare capacity within informal transport.

Andrew holds a BSC in Engineering Management, an MSC in Automotive Engineering Design, Manufacture and Management and an MBA from Henley Management College. He is a Chartered Engineer and is a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers