Hi, I’m Sean!

Before coming to Exeter in the mid-nineties I previously worked in marketing and business development in London, including on projects for national University bodies where I set up and led joint-ventures for commercialising and marketing HE services. 
I now lead the team at Exeter that connects organisations to the University, creates new opportunities for them and generates innovation. Each year we work on about 2000 projects worth around £70m. We are also responsible for setting up and running major innovation initiatives such as the University’s Innovation Centre, the Exeter Science Park and a series of Research, Development and Innovation Hubs across the SW Peninsula. I was chair of PraxisAuril 2019-21 and chair of the SETsquared Management Board (recognised as the World's number one University Business Incubator). I am a board member of the global Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals which promotes the World-wide RTTP standard. 

 

I studied languages at University and spent a year playing rugby for the French town where I was based.  This improved my vocabulary no end.  I like to think that understanding communication and translating different approaches has been a key to any success I have had in a knowledge exchange role.  Taking the trouble to really understand what someone is telling you and asking stupid questions to get to the heart of the problem is essential.  Given that my background is not scientific I am usually the person in the room who has to ask the stupidest questions!  I suspect that superpower also helped me to create the KE Concordat and develop the international definition of Knowledge Exchange now used around the World.

I am passionate about promoting high standards in university/business collaboration but it can take a long time to become proficient in knowledge exchange and to really add value to the partnerships that you help create. By bringing people together to share their experiences we can speed up the learning process and bring everyone up to a consistent level of excellence.  Also, teaching someone else is a really important way to rethink your own approach and improve your own skills and I certainly always learn something new on each course that I direct.  

If you do business development work in the Southwest Peninsula with a limited base of industrial R&D near at hand you need to be able to demonstrate very active business development skills.  We have to think carefully about our potential customers and plan our engagement strategies to maximise the opportunity. These skills are also used to help our SETsquared partner companies to find customers and funders and to help build the innovation eco-system in our region. While we partner with a lot of regional organisations my work has also taken me all around the World and the lessons I have learned at PraxisAuril events and training courses have worked in pretty much every situation.  And the network of people I have gained has supported me throughout my career.