Advisory Board Members.
The IDE advisory board brings together the experience and insight of a broad range of automotive and technology experts to guide IDE policy and strategic decision making.
Professor Neville Jackson
Chairman
Neville Jackson has thirty-six years of experience from Ricardo where he was appointed Chief Technology and Innovation Officer in 2009. As CTO he was responsible for future technology strategy, vision and R&D investment priorities for products and services in surface mobility, energy systems and critical resources.
He is the co-ordinator and author of a wide range of technology roadmaps at National and European level, defining the potential, and technology pathways for transport energy, propulsion systems, future vehicle electrical/electronic architectures and digitalisation/virtual product development. In 2014, Prof. Jackson was named as one of the 20 most influential engineers in the UK by The Sunday Times & Debrett’s for his work in setting the technology agenda.
A graduate of Imperial College, London, he is also a visiting Professor at the University of Brighton. He Chairs both the UK Advanced Propulsion Centre Advisory Board, and the UK Automotive Council Future R&D Team. He is a member of the RAC Foundation Public Policy Committee, a board member and ex chair of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership and a member of the steering group for the UK Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce. He also serves as Vice Chair of the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) and a member of the Industry Delegation for the European Green Vehicles Initiative (EGVI). He is also a Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the US SAE.
Jon Beasley
Director, Technology & Projects, Advanced Propulsion Centre
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Jon Beasley has more than 30 years’ experience in the motor industry working for multinational suppliers and on government and industry programmes.
Jon held various leadership roles within GKN including Group Technology Officer and Driveline Chief Engineer for Aston Martin, Daewoo, Ford Europe, Honda, JLR, Mazda and Volvo. He has worked overseas, establishing GKN’s driveshaft manufacturing operation in Thailand. He was the Programme Director for the Transport Systems Catapult during the critical start-up phase.
At the APC Jon’s key focus is development and management of the projects funded through the competitions, bringing his technical experience of global product development.
Dr. Graham Hoare OBE
President, Global Operations, Britishvolt
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Graham is an experienced executive, with an established track record of innovation, transformation and change management. Graham has a wealth of experience in automotive industry leadership and is the former Chairman and Executive Director for Business Transformation for Ford Motor Company.
Achievements at Ford included the successful restructuring of Ford’s operations in the UK, and re-design of Ford for growth in commercial vehicles and connected electrification.
In addition to his role at Britishvolt, Graham is Chairman of the UK Automotive Council: a successful government – industry engagement which spans more than 10 years and seeks to inform and guide the Automotive Sector in the UK. Technology, supply chain and skills transformations are the focus, now linked to the decarbonisation of mobility. Since 2018 he is also an active fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and am a recipient of an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to the Automotive Industry.
Graham has held executive roles at Ford Motor Company, Jaguar Land Rover and BMW Group, and operating positions in North America & Germany in addition to the UK.
Graham holds an MSc in Engineering Business Management from the University of Warwick, and a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bath.
Mark Garrett
Chief Operating Officer, Ceres Power Limited
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As Chief Operating Officer Mark is responsible for new technology introduction to market readiness and manufacturing supply to Ceres development partners, drawing on his thirty-five years of wide-ranging experience in the automotive industry and related hi-tech engineering sectors. Ceres Power is a technology licensing company at a very exciting stage of its corporate journey; on the cusp of commercialisation of its unique solid oxide fuel cell technology in partnership with global leaders in the energy sector.
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Prior to this Mark spent 22 years at Ricardo PLC, a global environmental and technical consulting organisation. During his time at Ricardo Mark led both US and European automotive divisions as well as establishing Shanghai's Automotive UK Technical Centre based at Longbridge in Birmingham. Before joining Ricardo in 1998, Mark spent his early career with Rover Group leading the development of powertrains for both the MGF and BMW Mini.
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Mark is also the non-executive chairman of Secured By Design (Automotive) Ltd. which provides expert market intelligence in the area of secured, connected and autonomous vehicle technology. In January 2020 he was appointed as a lay council member at Brunel University
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Mark is a chartered mechanical engineer and a fellow of the institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Mark Mathieson
Director of Innovation, McLaren Applied Technologies
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In his role as Director of Innovation, Mark is responsible for the identification of technologies developed throughout the McLaren group of companies that can be commercialised via McLaren Applied Technologies. The route to market includes the definition of the product strategy and development plan, IP identification and the establishment of collaborative relationships with strategic partners.
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The technical scope of his role includes modelling and simulation, data analytics, cloud-based platform solutions, electrification, control and edge computing. The application of this technology is to multiple sectors, including motorsport, automotive, public transport, aviation, defence, aerospace and health.
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Previous to this role, Mark lead an innovative, forward thinking team at McLaren Automotive to define and deliver the next generation of world class technology for high performance road cars. Over the 10 years prior to this, Mark led the Formula 1 powertrain programme for Mercedes-Benz.
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Most recently, Mark was appointed as co-CEO for the alliance between McLaren and Deloitte, sharing the leadership responsibilities with the vice-chairman of Deloitte UK. The objective for the Alliance is to build a 100M USD software products business in six years by taking F1-derived modelling and data analytics to multiple industry sectors where digitization is becoming an imperative as global businesses accelerate into the fourth industrial revolution.
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Mark holds a BEng (hons) in mechanical engineering and an MPhil in engine design from the University of Bath, and has completed the Manufacturing Leaders course at Cambridge University. Mark also sits on the UK Automotive Council and leads the Digital work stream for the industry.
Allan Rankin
Director, Target3D
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Allan Rankin is founder and Managing Director of Target3D, a new emerging technology company focusing on 3D technologies. He built the Target3d team to offer cutting edge solutions from a range of manufacturers who collaborate across numerous industries, including the automotive, serious gaming and creative sectors.
Target3D specialise in utilising innovative technologies in virtual reality, training and simulation, hologram creation, serious gaming, animation & VFX and haptic feedback. Previously, Allan was a Business Development Consultant in a technology innovation agency.
Steve Rothberg
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), Loughborough University
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Steve Rothberg is Professor of Vibration Engineering and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He joined the academic staff at Loughborough in 1990 as an industrially funded lecturer.
His research in noise and vibration measurement and analysis, particularly in the development of laser technology for vibration and motion measurements, has attracted individual awards from the National Physical Laboratory and the Society of Experimental Mechanics, and contributed to Loughborough’s Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Optical Engineering (2000) and High Value Manufacturing (2014). In 2007, after six successful years as Head of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
Steve became Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, leading the Loughborough team on the £40m project to deliver the Manufacturing Technology Centre project, where he is currently a Director. Steve became Pro Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise) in 2011, initiating a culture change across the institution and attracting significant investments to Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park to deliver specific projects such as the new Advanced Technology Innovation Centre. Since 2014, he has been Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research).
He was part of the team that established Loughborough’s London campus on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Loughborough’s lead in the team that secured BEIS funding for the Digital Engineering and Test Centre, forerunner of the Institute of Digital Engineering.
Matthias Wellers
Managing Director, AVL Powertrain UK
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Matthias Wellers is the Managing Director of AVL Powertrain UK Ltd, assuming the position in 2006. Before this role Matthias Wellers was leading the IAV branch in UK and was working as a Senior Engineer in the Research & Technology division of Daimler in Stuttgart.
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Matthias Wellers is an elected member of the UK Automotive Council Technology Group. Since 2016 he has been a visiting Professor at Loughborough University and an advisory board member of the Institute of Digital Engineering (IDE) in London.
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Tianjin University China State Key Laboratory of Engines honored Matthias Wellers as a Professor Honoris Causa in 2013.
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Matthias Wellers is a chartered engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. In 1998 he received the Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Automatic Control, RWTH Aachen. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the RWTH Aachen as well as at the Dartmouth College in USA and the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany.
Doug Wolff
Business Development Manager, Manufacturing, Unreal Engine Enterprise at Epic Games
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Doug leads Business Development for Manufacturing across EMEA for Unreal Engine Enterprise. What that really means is he helps people who want to use Unreal Engine 4 for their businesses get projects off the ground.
Doug has worked in video games for over 15 years, most of those in core game development, and has undertaken the journey into the Enterprise sector over the last five.
Steven Wood
Senior Commercial Manager, Digital Catapult
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Steven joined the Digital Catapult in May 2014 and was responsible for creating the first commercial services provided to address the needs of its growing number of industrial partners. He has over 20 years’ experience of working in the digital sector and was responsible for writing BT's first e-business strategy for B2B clients and turning the concepts into actual services.
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Steven co-founded a start-up venture which grew to operate in seven countries and served over 600 companies in the global advertising and publishing industries. Prior to joining the Digital Catapult, Steven was Head of Business Services at EngineeringUK, an organisation which led the way in encouraging young people to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).