Ian Reid

Professional biography

I am a part time postgraduate research student in economics, undertaking this work alongside a portfolio of activities based around innovation and commercialisation of deep tech.

An eclectic career ranging from blue chips to start-ups, spanning diverse technologies, industry sectors and geographies, with 24yrs in P&L/board roles. This includes as CEO of a Dutch technology PLC, Rood Testhouse International, and several key senior management roles in QinetiQ: Divisional Managing Director of the Air Division in the run up to IPO, Divisional MD of the Applied Research Division, and as CTO.

I have worked at the industry-academia-public sector interface in major innovation ecosystems: Cambridge, on the Ignite! and Impulse entrepreneurial development programmes; Oxford, as CEO of Oxford University spinout PrOXisense; in Scotland, leading the public sector CENSIS Innovation Centre; and collaborating on major projects with partners in Silicon Valley and throughout Europe. Founded Trace Element Associates to support organisations seeking to commercialise research and technology. Projects have included working with spinout/start-up founding teams: post-acquisition integration for corporates: university research commercialisation; and aspects of innovation policy.

A member of Strathclyde University’s Audit and Risk Committee, Chair of photonics start-up Siloton, and NED at UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Enterprise. I am a UKRI EPSRC peer reviewer and Innovate UK assessor. A physicist by training, with a BSc from Imperial College, MSc from Aberystwyth and an OUBS MBA. I am a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Physicist and Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Royal Astronomical Society, and Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Research interest

The phenomenon of industrial districts and clusters. Why and how high technology clusters form and evolve; key characteristics of the ecosystem within clusters; and how information flows into, out of, and within clusters. Seeking to understand the potential economic, and broader, disadvantages and advantages of clustering, and their possible implications for innovation and industrial policy at a regional and national level.