Profile
John was born in Manchester and after leaving school ran several SMEs whilst studying part time with the Open University for three years. In 1980 he attended Manchester University to study Geology full time and then completed his Masters and began a PhD thesis studying the economic feasibility of mining deep -sea polymetallic sulphide deposits ("black smokers"). During this period he also taught part time with the Open University, Manchester University and Manchester Polytechnic. He also ran a student hall of residence (St Anselms) from 1988 till 1990.
From 1984 till 1995 he was employed by Manchester University as a Research Associate in the Programme of Engineering Science and Technology (PREST) where his main specialisms were the evaluation of programmes of science and technology and the study of the potential for exploiting a wide range of marine resources. In 1995 he left the university to join Segal Quince Wicksteed Ltd (Later SQW Ltd) based in Cambridge where he is still based Since 2005 John has operated as a free lance consultant.
John has extensive international experience covering west and east Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the US and India. Many of these projects were funded by the European Commission (mainly DG Enterprise, DG Research, DG Regional Policy and Europaid). He has performed many evaluations of FP6 and FP7 Programmes.
From April 2006 to June 2010, John was based in Cairo during which time he was Team Leader of a consortium delivering the project, “EuroMed Innovation and Technology Programme” (Medibtikar). He was in charge of over 60 full and part time consultants from 15 countries. Medibtikar covered ten countries; Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine Territories, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
John managed SQW’s work for the UK Office of Science and Technology to develop and implement key performance indicators and a monitoring system for a major new stream of funding for all UK universities. These Knowledge Transfer Programmes were worth £250 million over five years and were designed to increase cooperation between the universities and the private sector.
Finally, John has been involved in establishing and evaluating many clusters in the UK, Ireland, Panama, Poland, Sweden, the Middle East and North Africa.
A full listing of the projects with some more detailed examples are provided under “Projects and Publications”. Click on the button above to download a sample CV.