Advisory board

James Baker is the 2D materials commercialisation champion at the Henry Royce Institute and CEO of Graphene@Manchester.

The Royce is the UK’s national body based in Manchester for research and innovation in advanced materials – and it is supported by the Graphene@Manchester community which includes world-leading experts and research facilities.

Manchester therefore leads the world in graphene research and James heads the business-facing development of graphene and 2D materials – including the acceleration, application and commercialisation of these new materials and technologies.

With more than 235 researchers across a wide range of disciplines in graphene and related 2D materials, the University is home to the £61m National Graphene Institute, where academics and commercial partners work side by side to develop the graphene applications of the future.

To accelerate taking products to market, the £60m Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) will open later this year. The GEIC will have pilot production facilities and characterisation for the industrial scale-up of graphene, as well as develop graphene and 2D materials applications.

Before joining the University in 2014, James spent 25 years in industry where, most recently, he was Vice-President of Technology Collaboration Programmes and Managing Director of the Advanced Technology Centres for BAE Systems in the UK.

Following graduation, James started his career working for Pilkington Optronics based in North Wales were he undertook a number of roles in the production of electro-optical assemblies and products for the aerospace, defence and space sectors.

After 10 years he moved to GEC Marconi which then became BAE Systems following the merger with British Aerospace and his responsibilities included a number of business management, strategy and technology roles in the BAE Systems Avionics group.

In 2004 he was appointed as managing director of the Advanced Technology Centres in the UK responsible for the development of new and innovative collaborative approaches to technology development and acquisition programmes, as well as being responsible for the leadership of the BAE Systems corporate technology programme and activity which involved the development and commercialisation of technologies from both within BAE Systems and its partners in academia and the supply chain.

James was a representative on the joint Industry/MoD Research and Development Group and a council member of the National Centre for Universities and Business.

A strong promoter of engineering and innovation, James was also responsible for setting up a partnership with UK Sport which provided technology and innovation in support of British athletes and helped in achieving a number of gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics.

James joined The University of Manchester, originally as Business Director Graphene in 2014. In this role he looked to develop the industrial partnerships and collaborations to accelerate the commercialisation opportunities for graphene, building on the knowledge base of The University of Manchester – where graphene was first isolated by Professors Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov.

James is a chartered engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Mr. Barkan founded The Graphene Council in 2013 as global trade and professional community connecting scientists, academics, producers, end-users, and commercial professionals that
have an interest in the research, development and application of graphene.

The mission of The Graphene Council is to be a catalyst for the commercialization of graphene by meeting the needs of the global graphene community, helping to facilitate the development and application of this unique material.

For more than 30 years, Terrance Barkan CAE has been building trade and professional associations on a global basis, working in more than 70 countries on 6 continents around the world developing and implementing association growth strategy projects.

To date, The Graphene Council has attracted more than 30,000 members from around the world making it the largest community for people with an interest in graphene. The Graphene Council produces a weekly graphene intelligence briefing newsletter, contributes to global standards bodies and administers the Verified Graphene Producer™ program.

The Graphene Council is also a Tier 2 Member of the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre (GEIC) at the University of Manchester in the UK, the “home” of graphene.

Under the leadership of Mr. Barkan, The Graphene Council has become the leading global organization promoting the adoption of graphene enhanced advanced materials solutions.

Simon Buckingham is the Technical Leader for Sustainable Materials at Volvo Cars. He is responsible for the technical strategy and long-term direction for materials. Prior to joining Volvo Cars in 2018, he previously held senior technical roles at Jaguar Land Rover, University of Warwick (WMG) and a global engineering consultancy working with Rolls-Royce aerospace.

Coming soon…

Steve has worked at BAE Systems for nearly 32 years, joining the company in 1988 having completed his PhD at Southampton University. His current role is the BAE Systems Head of External Partnerships and Programmes, a role that involves linking BAE Systems UK lines of business R&T requirements to activities in UK universities. As part of this role, he works closely with its Strategic University Partners, UKRI engaging in project development and the peer review process. He is also a member of EPSRC SAN.

Prior to this role he managed the BAE Systems internal research programme (£12m R&T Programme pa), a role that involved setting up and monitoring a large number of linked projects (typically 200 plus) within The Advanced Technology Centres, but also at universities and other institutions. The projects were in areas as diverse as welding to abnormal behaviour analysis in crowds.

Before these roles in the technology acquisition part of BAE Systems, Steve ran the Engineering Capability Programme (~£3m) for several years whilst also leading the Materials Engineering Research Group (16 direct reports) within BAE Systems Research Centre.

• A commercial technologist, and qualified marketer, Tony has spent all of his working life in technology businesses.
• An industrial chemist by education, Tony started his career at Pilkington, the global glass manufacturer, before moving to South Africa to take up a management position in the R&D labs for General Mining Union Corporation (Gencor). Returning to the UK, he then took a technical sales role with Siemens before moving to VG Instruments, first as sales and marketing manager, then director.
• Tony has worked at Lucideon (formerly British Ceramic Research Limited), since 2004 and has taken the former RTO from a support entity of traditional ceramics to an international materials development and commercialization organization, with capabilities in advanced and traditional ceramics, metals and polymers. Lucideon’s world-first technology platforms include Flash Sintering of ceramics, ‘chemical ceramics’ and drug delivery systems.
• Lucideon has facilities in North America as well as the UK and is currently developing an expansion into Asia.

Vitor Farinha Marques is a Chief Materials Engineer at Leonardo Electronics and the Chairman of the Sustainable Materials Working Group. He has over 17 years of experience in materials and advanced manufacturing and previously worked at Honeywell Aerospace, Honda R&D and Dyson across a wide range of areas, such as R&D, digital engineering and global supply chain development. Recently he acted as industry advisor for strategic NIAG/ACT-NATO studies focused on novel materials and energy storage.  He holds a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Oxford (UK), an MBA from Bayes Business School – City, University of London, post-studies in Innovation and Leadership from the University of Stanford (US) and a Master in Materials Engineering from the University of Aveiro, PT.  

Landon Mertz is the Chief Executive Officer of Cerion, and a member of the company’s board of directors. Mr. Mertz joined Cerion as its Chief Financial Officer in January of 2009, taking on responsibility for the company’s overall financial management. In June of 2012, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to joining Cerion, Mr. Mertz was the Chief Operating Officer of the Festival Network, an international company who develops and acquires multi-day music festivals in geographically unique destinations around the globe. During his tenure, he was responsible for the strategic direction and growth of operations in nineteen (19) distinct markets across three (3) continents.

Prior to Festival Network, Mertz served as the Chief Executive Officer of Intermedia, a nationally recognized firm responsible for producing large-scale events, product launches, meetings, conferences and award shows on behalf of Fortune 500 / 1000 companies and consumer brands. Clients included: Goldman Sachs, Hewlett Packard, Hearst Publishing, Fairchild Publishing, Pitney Bowes, SIFMA, Chase, Citibank, GRAMMY Awards, Univision, Vera Wang and Tommy Hilfiger amongst others.

Philip Withers is the first Regius Professor of Materials and is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Indian National Science Academy.  He is the Chief Scientist of the Henry Royce Institute based around capabilities at the Universities of Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College as well as the National Nuclear Labs, and the Atomic Energy Authority at Culham. His research focusses on imaging, modelling and understanding the behaviour of materials in real time and 3D often in situ under demanding environments. To this end he exploits electron, lab and synchrotron X-ray and neutron beams to shine a light on their behaviour. In 2008 he set up the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility, a world-leading suite of X-ray imaging systems, which in 2020 became a founding part of the National Research Facility in Lab. CT.