Advisory Board

Mike Bassett graduated from Bristol University in 1993, where he studied Mechanical Engineering. He then studied for a PhD at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST,) focusing on the thermodynamic modelling of internal combustion engines.

Mike joined Lotus Engineering in 2000, where he worked in the Software Development Department, specializing in the modelling of internal combustion engine performance and drive-cycle simulation of conventional and hybrid vehicles. He moved to MAHLE Powertrain in 2007 to join the Performance Analysis Group.

Mike is currently Chief Engineer in the Research and Advanced Engineering Group, where he is responsible for leading MAHLE Powertrain’s research activities in the UK, where there is a strong focus on new technology and capabilities for electrified mobility.

Mr Campbell is responsible for overseeing Electroflight’s overall technical strategy and new product development. His role ensures Electroflight remain at the forefront of the aviation electrification sector and continue to expand into new areas of innovation in new markets around the world.

Douglas has forged a reputation as one of the automotive and motorsport industries’ leading experts in the field of energy storage, having developed KERS for Formula 1 teams, battery systems for several high-profile automotive programs and for the FIA Formula E race series. His strong experience and expertise have transferred over to aviation and are ensuring Electroflight grow to the next level of commercial growth and technical innovation.

A chemical engineer by education, Richard Clark is the Global Lead for Energy Storage at Morgan Advanced Materials, (LSE: MGAM), a leading global carbon and ceramics manufacturer which has been directly involved in the lithium-ion battery industry since 2000.

Richard has worked on many of Morgan’s recent technological developments in carbon and ceramics, including anode materials, separators and thermal runaway propagation prevention and mitigation systems for lithium ion-batteries.

Morgan’s latest development in the lithium-ion space is in the area of solid state electrolytes for which several patent applications are in process, with Richard leading business development activities as well as being a named co-inventor. He has been based in England, Korea, China and currently U.S.A.

Ian Constance joined the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) as CEO in September 2015 during his leadership APC has guided funding into 150 low-carbon projects projected to save over 260 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of removing the lifetime emissions from 10.2 million cars and creating or safeguarding over 50,000 jobs in the UK.

Ian’s approach at the APC has been to provide focussed support to anchor and grow UK research and development and industry insight to transition the UK automotive supply chain to clean propulsion systems. He has been instrumental in the development and deployment of the Automotive Transformation Fund.

Ian has held positions globally in the automotive industry with over 25 years’ experience.  Prior to APC Ian worked with Ford Motor Company in Detroit where he was most recently Global Chief Engineer for Large Cars.  Ian has also spent six years at Ford’s Asia Pacific HQ, first in Bangkok and then in Shanghai.

Ian gained an engineering degree from Aston University, an MSc in Advanced Automotive Engineering from Loughborough University and is a chartered engineer and in 2019 was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Bath.

• Mark Copley is an Associate Professor of Electrochemical Materials at WMG.
• His research spans active materials, additives, scale-up, processing and novel cell design. Areas of application are lithium ion, sodium ion and solid-state batteries.
• Markhas recently joined WMG, previous to this he was a Senior Principal Scientist at Johnson Matthey, working on projects relating to developing new classes of active battery materials and demonstrating their viability at scale. He has also collaborated, extensively, on developing next generation battery technologies.

Shmuel is a leading international expert in the business of Power Sources, Energy storage and EV’s. Prior to founding the company, Shmuel held positions as a power sources, engineering and quality control team manager for over 20 years. Shmuel holds a BSc. in mechanical engineering from Tel-Aviv University and an MBA in quality control and reliability engineering from the Technion Institute in Haifa, as well as an Electronic Technician’s diploma.

Robert (Bob) L. Galyen, is recognized as one of the top executives in the battery energy storage world and science/engineering-based communities. He is a highly sought-after public speaker as a subject matter expert.  His positions as CTO of CATL (the world’s largest battery manufacturer), Chairman of SAE International Battery Standards Steering Committee, SAE Fellow, Chairman Emeritus and CTO of NAATbatt International, provides him a unique leadership perspective in the global battery industry.  His degrees in chemistry and biology, along with decades of engineering experience and executive roles, provides him a unique view in a leadership or consulting role in cross functional technology areas. He has patents, publications and participates on multiple BOD’s and TAB’s.  The 44 years’ international work experience has given him a visionary perspective on worldwide business, making him uniquely qualified as a global energy storage and scientific/engineering community thought leader. Bob is married with 3 children and 7 grandchildren.

David Greenwood is Director for Industrial Engagement, and CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult at WMG.

Previously, David established and led the Energy Directorate at WMG where he led a team of over 200 researchers and engineers. Projects spanned a number of fields, including cars, trucks, boats, off highway machinery, aircraft and motorcycles. His research spans batteries, electric motors, power electronics, and the integration and control of these for propulsion and energy applications.

David moved into academia after 20 years in industry latterly as Head of Hybrid and Electric Systems for engineering consultancy Ricardo UK Ltd.

Professor Greenwood holds advisory and board positions for the Advanced Propulsion Centre, Innovate UK (Faraday Challenge and IDP), and the Faraday Institution. He is head of the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s Electrical Energy Storage Spoke.

• Stephen Lambert received his Doctorate from the University of Warwick by looking at the applicability of hybrid and electric drivetrains in motorsport.
• Following this he worked at Lotus Engineering, developing hybrid and electric demonstrator vehicles for a number of OEMs. Through this role, he found himself working closely with battery manufacturers as a key partner for these projects.
• He has since worked in various roles around developing battery technology in areas such as Formula 1 and high performance road cars.
• Steve is now responsible for the electrification strategy for McLaren Applied, where he is helping deliver advantage by empowering customer to introduce and protect new vehicle concepts and technologies and to drive differentiation in the market.

Peter B. Littlewood is Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. He served as the 13th Director of the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, after having served as the associate laboratory director of its Physical Sciences and Engineering directorate. He spent the previous 14 years at the University of Cambridge, where he last served as the head of the Cavendish Laboratory and the Department of Physics. Littlewood is internationally recognized for his research in a number of areas, including superconductivity, semiconductor optics, and magnetic materials. Littlewood holds a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences (physics) and a doctorate in physics, both from the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Manlio V. Morganti obtained is BEng from Milan Polytechnic, his MSc from Northumbria University, both in Mechanical Engineering. He gained his PhD from Cranfield University, with a thesis on multi-domain battery modelling and experimental validation. He worked on battery and thermal management modelling first at Delta (Cosworth Group) and then joined Jaguar Land Rover. His current responsibilities involve 1D battery pack modelling with a focus on cooling integration.

Prof. Jacqui Murray B.Sc. M.Sc. M.Res. MBA C.Eng. C.Env. FIMMM FWES

As Director – Battery Materials Recycling (Interim), Jacqui’s is leveraging BritishVolt’s battery expertise and operations alongside Glencore’s decades of recycling experience to ensure battery materials are retained in the supply chain. BritishLoop is future of sustainable battery materials. She sits on the Auto Council’s “Supply Chain to Net Zero Group”.

Previously, Jacqui was Deputy Director of the UK Government and UK Research and Innovation’s Faraday Battery Challenge and delivered this £541m programme in research, innovation and commercialisation that established the UK as the centre of battery science and manufacturing it is today.

Appointed in 2022 as Chair of the SmartNanoNI Advisory Group, a Seagate led consortium increasing both innovation capacity and accelerating manufacturing productivity in nano manufacturing and photonics – placing Northern Ireland at the centre of the UK and global ecosystem.

Coming soon…

Jeff Pratt was appointed Managing Director of the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) in June 2018.

Jeff was previously General Manager at Nissan’s lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant based in Sunderland (UK). He joined Nissan in 1987 and held various management positions within the vehicle manufacturing plant in Sunderland, which included responsibility for the construction, commissioning and operation of Nissan’s UK battery plant. Prior to this, he held management positions within Nissan’s Trim and Chassis and Paint Shop.

Jeff has extensive experience in production engineering, as well as more than 20 years’ senior management experience.

UKBIC is a £130 million pioneering battery manufacturing development facility, which was opened by the British Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Boris Johnson in 2021.  The unique facility provides the missing link between battery technology, which has proved promising at laboratory or prototype scale, and successful mass production.

Coming soon…

Cedric Rouaud has been Global Technical Expert and Project Director for Ricardo in thermal management and waste heat recovery for conventional and electrified vehicles (passenger car and commercial vehicles including battery, electric motor, power electronics, fuel cell) since 2017.

He joined Ricardo in 2008 as Principal Thermal Engineer and in 2011, he became Chief Engineer for powertrain development and thermal management. Dr. Rouaud began his professional career at Renault as a research thermal engineer in 2000, while fulfilling his doctorate diploma at the University of Poitiers on thermal management of hybrid electric vehicle. He became Renault’s Chief Engineer for thermal management in 2008.

Coming soon…

Nigel is an independent consultant on battery design with over 30 years of experience in the automotive industry in both Engineering and Research at Jaguar Land Rover. He is a consultant on pack design for automotive, aerospace as well as fundamental research programmes. He has strong working relationships with the UK battery research programs in the universities and a strong developed network across the battery supply chain worldwide. A solid grounding in physics and vehicle design allows him to look at whole battery design concepts and optimisation.

Developed and applied novel whole vehicle energy calculations for vehicle powertrain optimisation and applied these techniques to UK Auto Council program looking at fundamental optimisation of the EU vehicle fleet. Finally deploying these techniques to optimise electric vehicle system sizing against performance parameters. He has lead a number of novel whole vehicle propulsion research programmes as well as being responsible for setting up and leading a national UK research programme on battery design.

• Co-creator of Limo Green, co-wrote application for £4.1m TSB funding through to technical leadership of project and project completion.
• TSB project High Efficiency Transmission technical lead for JLR.
• Technical lead on Ultra Lightweight Range Extender project (gas turbine). Wrote technical assessment document for Tata investment into Bladon Jets.
• LCVTP technical lead.
• C-X75 co-creator of driveline, modeling of drive system to give performance and emissions numbers. Wrote technical presentation material. Technical lead at pre-show journalist preview and at Los Angeles car show Nov 2010.
• Wrote and correlated a high level vehicle energy and performance model that has been used throughout development of Limo Green and for sizing of C-X75.
• Co-wrote successful TSB application for £19m funding for REEVolution.

Nigel has been responsible for managing battery programs from fundamental research through concept pack design to application on live vehicle programs, including working with large battery suppliers from Korea and China.

• C-X75 Hybrid Battery pack design
• Jaguar Ipace
• Range Rover Evoque PHEV
• Range Rover / Range Rover Sport PHEV
• Responsible for all battery research programs 2012 to 2020
• Responsible for all battery concept designs 2016 to 2020
• Nigel was a core member of the battery sourcing team working with purchasing and engineering on delivering a long term strategy for all batteries: 12V, 48V, PHEV and BEV.
• Faraday Institution Expert Panel Member 2017 to 2020

Prior to work in electrification Nigel was an Acoustic Technical Specialist with awards for development of solutions, patents and measurement techniques for sound quality. Techniques that have been applied by a number of vehicle brands to optimise the sound in the car whilst still in concept and engineering design.

Selin Aria Tur is a MSc. degree electrical engineer working for CNH Industrial as their Vice President of Advanced Technologies and Innovations. She has spent over 20 years of her professional career in developing electric/electrified vehicle powertrains, components and systems for passenger and motorsport racing cars including Formula 1 and Formula E working for Williams Advanced Engineering, Mercedes HPP and AVL. Moving into commercial vehicle segment in 2018, her focus has been electrification of on-highway and off-highway vehicles for the first few years. In her current role, she leads overall technology development teams working on agricultural and construction vehicles.

• Dr John Warner is a sought after and recognized battery industry expert, speaker, author and an experienced sales, business development, strategic marketing, and product management executive with over 30 years in the automotive and battery industries.
• Currently, Dr Warner serves as Chief Customer Officer for American Battery Solutions and as Founder and President at Warner Energy Consulting LLC.
• Previously Dr Warner served in executive sales and marketing leadership positions with EnerDel, XALT Energy, Magna Steyr Battery Systems and Boston-Power as well as spending more than 13 years with General Motors.
• In addition, he serves as Chairman of the industry trade group NAATBatt International and sits on several SAE battery committees.
• Dr Warner published his first book “The Handbook of Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Design” in 2015 and his second book, “Lithium-Ion Chemistries: A Primer” in published in May 2019.

Martin Wood has had a 25+ years career in industry largely in the automotive sector. He started his career at Ford Motor Company in the UK, taking positions in both Engineering & Manufacturing functions, working in new model development, test and launch. His experience was widened within the commercial departments of Ford, taking management responsibility operating in Eastern Europe & Africa, he subsequently joined the Ford Components Division, which became Visteon in 1997.

Martin joined a major 1^st Tier automotive supplier, Kostal GmbH & CO KG, in 1998 becoming Sales & Marketing Director in 2001, and later taking responsibility for Quality Assurance. Martin became CEO / Managing Director of the Kostal UK operation in 2005 with responsibility for all UK Engineering & Operational activities, and additionally responsible for Scandinavian customers.

Martin has also operated in leadership positions for other engineering businesses working in advanced manufacturing, in a number of different territories, markets and sectors.

In 2016 Martin joined UK Trade & Investment’s (UKTI) Automotive Investment Organisation (AIO) as Business Development Director, with specific responsibility for the automotive supply chain and the reshoring activities driven by the Automotive Council. The AIO is now the Automotive Sector Team and part of the Department for International Trade (DIT), where Martin most recently had responsibility to lead DIT’s efforts to attract investment into Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) supply chains.

In 2022 Martin joined the Office for Investment as Chief Advisor for Industrial Transformation, supporting the UK’s ambitions to achieve Net Zero.