HALLS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Research Support Administrator
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to Kate White
Aldo Segura is focused on realising software-heavy (or digital) projects and building quality relationships between the Innovation Factory and the University's computer science community.
Aldo completed his bachelor's in Biotechnology Engineering, participating in and leading a synthetic biology project that competed in an international event and was awarded a silver medal.
He then came to the UK to complete a PhD in Computational Biology at the University of Sheffield, where he developed and studied yeast decision-making models.
Before his PhD, Aldo gained experience in the start-up environment and completed a project manager internship in the software space.
An alumnus of the University, Andrew Wilkinson is a successful CEO and Managing Director with extensive experience growing international technology companies. He spent many years leading complex, multi-national businesses, operating across a wide range of sectors. He specialises in the industrialisation and commercialisation of innovative technologies, business growth and turn-around.
Andrew joined the University in mid-2016 as CEO of its subsidiary company Graphene Enabled Systems Ltd (GES). Before joining GES, Andrew was the Regional Managing Director of the French power equipment manufacturer Socomec SA. At Socomec, Andrew led three subsidiaries covering North America and the British Isles, whereby he significantly grew the businesses' revenue, profitability and market share.
Before this, he was Sales and Marketing Director of a group business of ICI plc, which manufactured a broad range of industrial and consumer products based on coated and thermally stabilised PET film.
Job Titles:
- Head of the School of Health Sciences
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- Associate Dean for Research Technology
Job Titles:
- PGR Administrator ( SALC )
Visit the Innovation Factory's operations page to learn about the team and their contact details.
The School of Arts Languages and Cultures engages with outside constituencies, organisations and stakeholders with the aim of establishing productive and mutually beneficial relationships.
The School aims to foster and enhance the contribution of the arts, languages and cultures to the wider community locally, nationally and internationally.
Among the areas with which the External Relations team is concerned are social responsibility, community engagement and collaborative partnerships.
For enquiries regarding collaboration, validation, international links and social responsibility, please contact Jade.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
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- Interim Officer ( TBC )
- PGR Operations Officer
Job Titles:
- Director of Faculty Operations
As Director of Faculty Operations, Catherine is responsible for Professional Services across the Faculty. Reporting to the Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, Catherine works closely with the Dean providing sound business advice and leadership on key strategic decisions. As a senior member of the University's Professional Services Leadership Team, Catherine balances the requirements of the Faculty alongside the need for consistency and collaboration across the wider University. Catherine has been at the University since 2001 when she started in the Planning team at UMIST and has moved through various leadership roles within School, Faculty, and central directorates.
Job Titles:
- PGR Administrator ( Professional Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology )
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- Deputy Director ( Global and Transformational Philanthropy )
Job Titles:
- Head of Philanthropy ( Health )
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- Member of the Leadership Team
Dr Amani Abou-Zeid is the twice-elected African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalisation.
For more than 35 years she has served in international organisations, leading and implementing national, regional and cross-continental infrastructure projects in Africa, such as the Single African Air Transport Market, Africa's Single Electricity Market, and the Digital Transformation Strategy.
Her many academic qualifications include a PhD in Socio-Economic Development from The University of Manchester - from which she has also received an Outstanding Alumni Award.
Job Titles:
- Director for Social Responsibility, Internationalisation and Business Engagement
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director and Chair of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee of Openreach
Edward Astle is Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee of Openreach, Chair of the charity upReach - which helps students from disadvantaged backgrounds to get top graduate jobs - and a trustee of the Lakeland Arts Trust.
He spent most of his career in the telecoms and utilities sectors, where he served on the boards of Cable and Wireless, BICC and National Grid. He was also Pro-Rector Enterprise at Imperial College London.
Edward was Chair of the Board of Governors at The University of Manchester from September 2016 to August 2022.
Job Titles:
- President of the Alumni Association for Uganda ( UMAAU )
Edwin Mugume, President of the Alumni Association for Uganda (UMAAU), edwin.mugume@gmail.com
Job Titles:
- Director of Faculty Operations
Ewelina Rozycka has more than 15 years of hands-on bioscience research experience, specialising in cell biology, drug discovery and regenerative medicine. She has worked with academia and industry on pre-clinical projects ranging from early proof of concept to final drug candidate nomination, focusing on cancer research and neurodegenerative disorders.
Most recently, she was responsible for the development and translation of pre-clinical research protocols to clinical- and regulatory-ready manufacturing processes for personalised tissue-engineered products targeting respiratory and immunological disorders at an SME in Leeds.
Ewelina has worked on multiple interdisciplinary programmes, supporting pre-clinical hit to lead optimisation, assay and drug development, and clinical translation of advanced therapies, collaborating with big pharma companies and academia.
Job Titles:
- PGR Administrative Assistant ( Professional Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology )
Job Titles:
- Research Support Administrator
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
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- Member of the Leadership Team
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- Head of Intellectual Property
Freddy has more than ten years of experience in intellectual property management, helping to drive progress and innovation in research.
His broad experience includes roles at the National Institute for Health Research and Imperial Innovations. He is also a guest lecturer at multiple universities, including Imperial College London.
Job Titles:
- Vice Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students
Before this role, Gareth Jones was the Scientific and Technical Officer at Graphene Enabled Systems at The University of Manchester. Gareth completed his PhD at the University of Exeter's Centre for Graphene Science, where he co-authored 11 publications and contributed to multiple international research collaborations.
Gemma leads the Faculty Finance Team and is an Associate Chartered Management Accountant. She has worked in all three Faculties in various finance roles since joining the University in 2011. Gemma studied and gained her degree at The University of Manchester and holds a BA(Hons) in International Business, Finance and Economics.
Job Titles:
- Vice - President and Dean of the Faculty
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director of Faculty Operations
Job Titles:
- Head of Philanthropy ( Humanities and Science and Engineering )
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- Associate Dean for Social Responsibility
Job Titles:
- PGR Administrator ( SoSS )
Job Titles:
- Collaborative Partnerships Administrative Officer
Job Titles:
- PGR Operations Assistant ( Examination - AMBS & SoSS )
Joanna Denbigh has worked in drug development, chromatography, mass spectrometry, metabolomics and lipidomics for more than 17 years at global organisations in an R&D and commercial capacity, such as GSK, Waters, Thermo Fisher and Recipharm.
She has managed large multidisciplinary projects and has experience with regulatory submissions for new pharmaceutical products. She has also held a lectureship in pharmacology and led her research group in biomedical spectroscopy, synchrotron-FTIR and clinical translation of spectroscopy.
Joanna holds a PhD in Biological Chemistry from The University of Manchester and has widely published while working in academia and industry.
Job Titles:
- Head of Events, Projects and Philanthropic Board Management
Job Titles:
- PGR Coordinator ( Experience )
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director, Development Services
Job Titles:
- Head of the School of Biological Sciences
Julie Hesmondhalgh is a Manchester-based actor, writer, theatre-maker and activist.
She set up Arts Threshold Theatre in the early 1990s and co-runs Take Back, a political theatre collective, as well as fundraising group 500 Acts of Kindness. Julie is a patron and supporter of many organisations, including the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, Reuben's Retreat and Arts Emergency.
Her theatre work includes The Greatest Play in the History of the World; Mother Courage and Her Children; and The Almighty Sometimes; and her TV credits include Coronation Street; Dr Who; Catastrophe; and Broadchurch.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Finance Officer
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- Member of the Leadership Team
- Head of Faculty Marketing and Communications
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- Director of Development and Alumni Relations
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- Vice Dean for Internationalisation
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- Member of the Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- PGR Funding Administrator
Job Titles:
- PGR Operations Assistant ( Hub Support )
You can also join the Facebook group for alumni in Uganda, or follow them on Twitter
Job Titles:
- Knowledge Exchange and Impact Officer
Job Titles:
- PGR Administrator ( Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chairman of Chatham House
Lord Jim O'Neill is the current Chair of Chatham House. His previous roles include joint Head of Research (1995-2000), Chief Economist (2001-10) and Chairman of the Asset Management Division (2010-13) at Goldman Sachs; Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (2015-16); Chair of the City Growth Commission (2014); and Chair of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (2014-16). He is the creator of the economic acronym BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China);
Lord O'Neill is a Board Member and one of the founding trustees of educational charity SHINE. He was created a life peer in 2015 and serves as a crossbench member of the House of Lords.
Job Titles:
- PGR Administrative Assistant ( Professional Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology )
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director ( Development )
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- PGR Coordinator ( Progression & Welfare )
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- Member of the Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- Vice Dean for Social Responsibility
Job Titles:
- PGR Admissions Administrator ( AMBS & DBA )
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- Associate Dean for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility
Job Titles:
- Global Volunteer and Networks Officer
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- Member of the Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- PGR Admissions Administrator ( SALC )
- Postgraduate Research Administrator ( Admissions ) Humanities Doctoral Academy
Job Titles:
- Pirttijarvi, Project Manager: Chemistry, Materials, and Translational Funding
After achieving a master's in Chemistry from The University of Manchester, Natalie Mera-Pirttijarvi joined one of the University's spin-out businesses - Nanoco Technologies Ltd - being among its first employees. She worked in the research and development department, leading a team of researchers on a variety of projects involving quantum dots and collaborating with multinational companies interested in technology commercialisation. Now, Natalie puts her chemistry and commercialisation expertise to use at the Innovation Factory, where she has been since 2016.
Job Titles:
- Research Support Officers
Job Titles:
- Vice Dean for Research and Innovation
Job Titles:
- Vice Dean for Social Responsibility
Job Titles:
- Business Engagement Manager, Faculty of Humanities
Job Titles:
- PGR Administrator ( AMBS )
Job Titles:
- Research Support Administrator
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director ( Alumni Relations )
Richard is the Vice Dean for Research and Innovation. He is responsible for research activity in the Faculty, postgraduate research programmes, research infrastructure, business engagement and internationalisation. Richard is Professor of Advanced Electronic Materials within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and undertakes his research within the Photon Science Institute. He leads the EPSRC Programme Grant Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering.
Job Titles:
- PGR Operations Assistant ( Admissions )
Sam Rhoden has a degree in biochemistry from the University of Leeds. During his degree, he lived in China for a year studying Mandarin at a Shanghai University and completed a research internship at AstraZeneca's Shanghai research facility.
He then obtained a PhD in Biochemistry and Medicine at The University of Manchester, followed by a postdoc researching autoantigens for membranous nephropathy, a rare kidney disease.
After his postdoc, he joined Redx Pharma based in Alderley Park as a Research Scientist. He developed novel phenotypic assays, established pre-clinical and early clinical collaborations in the UK, US and Japan and led the evaluation and selection of a first disease indication for a drug candidate in clinical development.
Job Titles:
- PGR Administrator ( Validated Programmes )
Sarah leads the Faculty Human Resources Team and is the Human Resource lead on several University-wide key projects including the staff survey and staff engagement and wellbeing. Sarah holds an MSc in Human Resources and is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Sarah has over 16 years of human resource experience in Russell Group Universities.
Sarwat Howe completed a master's degree in Chemistry from the University of Bristol. She then worked in R&D for HP Labs on next-generation displays. After this, she obtained a master's in Photonics and a PhD in Electronic Engineering from the University of Cambridge, researching flexible nanowire opto-electronic devices.
Following her PhD, she worked in scientific consultancy with clients in a variety of sectors, from food and beverage to oil and gas, then moved to the University of Cambridge's TTO (Cambridge Enterprise), commercialising inventions and building spinouts arising from the life, physical and social sciences. On relocating to Manchester, she worked for Health Innovation Manchester before joining the Innovation Factory in January 2022, where she's a Project Manager in Electrical Engineering and the FSE Outreach Champion.
Sherry Coutu is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who serves on the boards of companies, charities and government. She has founded several of her own companies and serves as a non-executive member of several more.
In November 2014, Sherry authored the Scale-Up Report which urged the UK government to support scale-ups as well as start-ups. Following the report, the ScaleUp Institute was created.
Sherry supports The Prince's Trust, the Francis Crick Institute and Founders4Schools, a charity that helps to improve the employability of young people.
Sonia Nikolovski has more than 12 years of experience liaising with partners to develop and commercialise intellectual property in the clinical and life sciences.
Before her role at the Innovation Factory, Sonia worked in translational biotechnology research in Australia and completed an MSc in Management of Science, Technology, and Innovation from Manchester Business School and a PhD in Biochemistry from La Trobe University in Australia.
Tansi Khodai has several years of work experience in industry and academia. Before being a postdoctoral researcher within the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at The University of Manchester, Tansi was part of the Drug Discovery Unit at Pfizer, Kent.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- Senior Communications Officer
Job Titles:
- Head of the School of Medical Sciences
Vincent Kompany is a Belgian professional footballer and manager who played centre-back for Manchester City Football Club for 11 years and captained the side from 2011 to 2019. He led the club to win the 2011-12 Premier League - their first league title in 44 years - and was named at player of the season.
In July 2019 he became the player-manager at RSC Anderlecht of the Belgian First Division, the club where he started his professional football career aged 17.
Vincent is of Congolese heritage and is an official FIFA ambassador for the charity SOS Children, which aims to provide an education and safe accommodation for at-risk children across the world.
Yousef Taktak has a PhD in Immunology and an MBA. He has worked with the WHO, NHS and the life science and medical technology industry.
He is passionate about developing innovations to improve the quality of patient care.
Using his industrial experience and business and commercial development skills, he has set up his own companies and developed technologies - such as coronary stents and advanced wound care hydrogels - from concept to development, IP protection, finance, commercialisation and exit.
Recently, he has advised health and life science companies to take their products through the development process to commercialisation for improved patient care.
Job Titles:
- PGR Operations Assistant ( Examination - SALC & SEED )