The Board
Pictured from left to right: David Dickson,
Richard Gregory, Simon Hill, Brian Cantor,
Bill Woolley and Company Secretary Philip Lewis Ogden
Richard Gregory, OBE – Executive Chair
Richard is the Yorkshire Bank Chair on the board of National Australia Group Europe and is also a non-executive director of the sister bank Clydesdale Bank Plc.
He is a former managing director of Yorkshire Television and former deputy chairman of Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency.
With a long standing interest in innovation Richard is also Chair of Yorkshire Science, and represents the region on the Northern Way Innovation Steering Group and the Technology Strategy Board’s regional strategic advisory group.
He is a former non-executive director of Sheffield University Enterprises Ltd and former chair of Sheffield Hallam University. He was awarded the OBE in 2004 for services to Yorkshire.
David Dickson
In addition to his role on the Board, David is Chair of Science City York’s Audit and Finance Committee and SCY Advisory Board. David is Managing Director of Garbutt & Elliott Ltd, a regional firm of chartered accountants with offices in York and Leeds, where he focuses mainly in advising family companies in strategic matters, including corporate governance, family succession and exit strategies. A Newcastle University Economics graduate he qualified with KPMG, where he went on to become head of the owner-managed business team in Yorkshire.
He is a non-executive director in two successful owner managed businesses and for a number of years he has been a Business Angel in early stage knowledge based companies. In addition to acting as Treasurer of the University of York, David, who is a great believer in putting something back into the community, is currently a director and trustee to several regional organisations in both the business and educational sectors.
Professor Brian Cantor
Brian is Vice-Chancellor of the University of York and is on the Board of Yorkshire Science, the White Rose Consortium, Worldwide Universities Network and the National Science Learning Centre.
He is regarded as a world authority on materials manufacturing and has acted as a consultant for manufacturing companies all over the world. He has worked at Sussex, Banaras, Oxford and York Universities, and with leading companies such as Alcan, Elsevier, General Electric and Rolls-Royce. He has advised agencies such as the UK Treasury, EPSRC, NASA, the EU, and the Dutch, Spanish and German governments, and was a member of the Sainsbury review of UK science and innovation.
Brian was awarded the Rosenhain and Platinum Medals of the Institute of Materials for “outstanding academic/industrial collaboration” and “lifetime contributions to materials science”. He is an Honorary Professor at Northeastern University Shenyang, Zhejiang University and the Chinese National Institute of Materials, and a Member of Academia Europea and the World Technology Forum. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, the Institute of Physics and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Simon Hill
Simon has been Director of Business Development at Yorkshire Forward since January 2006 where he heads up a team responsible for delivering business growth across Yorkshire and Humber and his responsibilities include Enterprise, Innovation, International Trade and Business Relations.
Prior to joining Yorkshire Forward he spent 20 years in manufacturing industry, most recently as MD of Kostal UK Ltd, a successful inward investor to the Yorkshire & Humber economy.
In a career spanning 20 years, Simon Hill has worked across the breadth of business environments, from fledgling start-ups to established big players. He’s faced the challenges and enjoyed the successes of being in business, and brings that experience to his current role.
Bill Woolley
Bill has been working in Local Government for 25 years in West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and North Yorkshire before moving to the new Unitary City of York Council at its creation in 1996.
Since becoming the first Director of the newly formed City Strategy Directorate in 2006 his responsibilities now include the Local Strategic Partnership, Economic Development, Strategic Land Use Planning, Conservation and Urban Design, Transport Planning, Waste Disposal, Emergency Planning, Development and Building Control, and Highways and Traffic. Bill therefore takes prime responsibility for joining up the key strategic functions of Economic Development, Land Use Planning and Transport Planning within the city’s overall strategic plan – the Sustainable Community Strategy – under the Local Strategic Partnership.
