What is your role and responsibility within your current organisation and how does it fit in with the wider industry?
I am the founder, owner and Executive Director of The Graphene Council, a global trade and professional body that represents the global graphene sector. This includes the entire ecosystem and supply chain, from raw material suppliers, producers, application developers, laboratories to end-users.
I am responsible for the business strategy for The Graphene Council and to represent the sector vis a vis regulators, decision makers and stakeholders.
Talk us through your career to date, what are your career highlights?
For 30 years I have worked with trade and professional bodies around the world, having worked in or visited more 75 countries. This experience has allowed me to work with and deeply understand hundreds of trade and professional associations across a very wide range of industries.
My career highlight has been the founding of The Graphene Council and growing it from scratch to a community of more than 30k materials professionals that is setting the international standards for the industry in under 10 years.
In your opinion, what does nanotechnology offer to address present sustainability problems? Do you think nanotechnology will have a big impact on the future of sustainability?
My opinion on this question is clear;
The legacy materials that have been produced and used until today have helped cause the environmental problems we face today and are not going to be the solution going forward.
The world needs new materials that can perform at a much higher level and that can be produced in a more intelligent and sustainable manner. This is the role of advanced 2D materials that are literally being designed from the atomic level.
These advanced materials allow us to create much more sustainable and energy efficient products with greatly reduced embedded carbon.
What innovations are you seeing in the world of advanced materials/nanotechnology that is exciting for the future of the industry?
There are many – energy storage, sensing technology, coatings, building materials, textiles, composites and plastics, agriculture, transportation and defence applications all are already benefitting from advanced 2D materials like graphene.
We have identified more than 45 major markets where graphene has a positive impact making products lighter, stronger, more sustainable and more resilient.
What benefits do you think exhibitors and attendees will get from attending the show?
The Advanced Materials show is the perfect platform for those that want to move beyond just thinking about what “might” be possible and to speak with materials experts that can show you what is possible today.
Bonus Question ✨
- What celebrity would play you in a film of your life?
John Stewart, he has the right level of sarcasm.
The Graphene Council is a global community of more than 30,000 graphene researchers, producers, developers and end-users and is the best source of up-to-date intelligence and networking on graphene commercialization and applications, including: Composites – Sensors – Electronics – Energy Storage – Plastics – Textiles – Concrete – Water Filtration – Lubricants – Coatings – Thermal Management and many, many more.