A warm welcome to Nick Smailes on his permanent appointment to the role of Head of Commercialisation after working as a consultant and highly valued member of the Faraday Institution team for the previous year.
With the Faraday Institution research projects maturing and industry engagement deepening Nick has already played an important role in defining the organisation's commercialisation strategy and his appointment is a next step in the process of bolstering the commercialisation team and capability. Under Nick’s leadership the commercialisation team will grow and work with research leaders to identify and target market opportunities that the UK is in a strong position to capitalise upon. The team will also:
- convene and formalise industrial collaborations as a route to commercialise breakthrough science emerging from research programmes, seeding the UK battery supply chain where appropriate.
- develop and deliver technology roadmaps.
- source resources, facilities, personnel and funding.
In 2015 Nick set up the Energy Systems Catapult on behalf of UK Government. He was an Executive Director there for 5 years, helping to build it into a £20m, 200 staff organisation. His achievements included enabling the Catapult to leverage and acquire the Energy Technologies Institute’s 10-year legacy including its strategic analysis capabilities and the Smart Systems and Heat Programme and also supporting the origination of the Industrial Strategy PFER programme.
In 2008 Nick co-founded and was CEO of PowerOasis Ltd, a spin-out from Motorola. PowerOasis developed energy solutions for telecoms networks in parts of the works where the electricity grid is unreliable or unavailable. Nick built the company into a micro multinational with business in Asia, Africa, Europe and the US before exiting after securing a large round of venture capital investment to further grow the company.
In 2002 Nick co-founded and was MD of SETsquared, the leading global technology accelerator that works with the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. SETsquared has supported over 4,000 entrepreneurs and helped raise over £1.8bn of venture investment.
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