Our people

Sam Laidlaw

Sam Laidlaw brings extensive experience of working in business both in the UK, and internationally – having held responsibility for businesses across four continents.

Dr Joe Marshall

Formerly Chief Operating Officer and Director of Strategy at NCUB, Dr Joe Marshall took over as Chief Executive in summer 2018.

Prior to joining the National Centre, Dr Marshall has held a number of positions across government and university organisations. As an academic specialising in government education policy and practice he worked with a number of international agencies including UNESCO, WHO and the European Parliament.

A researcher at the University of Manchester, he went onto hold senior lectureship positions at Liverpool Hope University and University of Worcester before working for UK Sport (the government agency for elite sport) and then the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Rosalind Gill

Rosalind leads on NCUB’s policy programmes, as well as member engagement, communications and public affairs. Prior to joining NCUB, Rosalind worked as a Director at the University of Bedfordshire and researcher at Universities UK.

Joseph Taylor

Joseph is responsible for managing NCUB’s policy activity. His professional background is in research, innovation and technology policy. Prior to joining NCUB, he led work on absorptive capacity, research and innovation clusters and the research and technical workforce at the Royal Society. Before this he worked at Universities UK International, techUK and Chatham House.

Talah Omran

Talah is Strategic Partnerships Engagement Manager at NCUB. In her role she focuses on developing and enhancing engagement with our strategic partners.

Talah has extensive experience in academic and commercial research environments, both in the UK and globally. She is passionate about building sustainable and diverse collaborations bridging gaps across business and education.

Prior to joining NCUB, Talah held roles cultivating successful partnerships across HE and industry at Keele University, University of Roehampton, and most recently University College London (UCL). She was also former Deputy CEO for an International Development firm specialising in translating research into impactful, real-world change.

Bethan Hunter

Bethan manages NCUB’s public relations and communications strategies. Bethan has experience working in membership bodies and in communications and public relations agencies. She is responsible for NCUB’s media relations and communications work, our website and social media. She would love to hear from members interested in submitting a blog or success story for publication.

Nick Bowles

Nick manages NCUB’s member engagement and is driven to ensure that members are maximizing the benefits of their membership. Nick has worked in membership organisations for the last 15 years in account management, member engagement, member recruitment and stakeholder engagement from both operational and strategic perspectives. He has an extensive network across both the public and private sector and has a passion for championing diversity, equality, fairness and accessibility in the workforce.

Danni Croucher

Danni develops and leads Skills and Talent policy at NCUB, working with members and government to level up the innovation workforce. Danni joined NCUB from the Institute of Physics (IOP), where she led R&D, education and diversity and inclusion policy, and previously worked in policy, analysis and public affairs at government laboratory NPL, and in social policy at Which?

Jorge Velez Ospina

Jorge works in our Policy and Engagement Team, conducting independent research in areas related to research, innovation and the labour market as well as working collaboratively with researchers and analysts at top UK universities and in the private sector.

Jorge is also an associate faculty at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU, University of Sussex) and has also held positions as a lecturer and research fellow and has carried out commissioned research for the Interamerican Development Bank, Research England, and Ministries in Latin America and Spain. He holds a PhD, MSc and BSc in Economics.

Marcos Rodriguez

Marcos Rodriguez is NCUB’s Policy Analyst. Marcos plays a critical role in helping the NCUB remain at the forefront of emerging research and policy thinking by developing and presenting analysis on key issues related to R+D, innovation and skills.

Previous to the NCUB, he held different roles across the private and academic sectors, including Research Analyst at KPMG and Research Assistant at the University of Greenwich.

Anna Dent-Davies

Anna supports university partnerships at NCUB, with a particular focus on delivering research and innovation outcomes through university-business engagement. Before joining NCUB, she worked as External Engagement Manager for a UK university with a particular focus on developing industry partnerships in the area of life sciences, education, and design.

Ranbir Jabanda

Ranbir is the University Partnerships Manager at the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB). He previously worked for the University of York as their Social Sciences Partnership Manager, delivering projects for the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) and the ASPECT network.

Shivaun Meehan

Shivaun manages konfer’s communications and stakeholder engagement. She has extensive experience as a communications strategist and practitioner in the public, private and third sector, in a variety of industries including technology, logistics, broadcasting and academic publishing.

Graham Doe

Graham is konfer’s Business Engagement Manager.

Louise Lilley

Louise’s focus is on ensuring that the organisation is able to function successfully and respond flexibly to the changing environment. Prior to joining NCUB in September 2019, Louise held a number of senior operations positions, primarily in membership organisations but also in the private and in the education sector.

Katalin Rado

Katalin supports organisational planning at NCUB with a particular focus on project management.  Before joining NCUB, she worked in operations and service development for several small UK charities as well as the NHS.

Professor Graeme Reid

Alongside his role at NCUB, Professor Graeme Reid is Chair of Science and Research Policy at University College London (UCL).

He spent most of his career at the interface between science and government, working in the Business Department, the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury before moving to UCL and NCUB in 2014.

In preparation for Brexit, Graeme and Sir Adrian Smith advised the UK Science Minister on frameworks for international collaboration in R&D. The Government published their report in 2019. Graeme advised the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee during their extensive inquiries into Brexit and, more recently, industrial strategy. He led research policy reviews for the Scottish Funding Council, Welsh Government and Universities Wales.

Graeme is a member of the Council of Research England. He chairs the Board of NPL Management Ltd which oversees the National Physical Laboratory. Previous appointments include chair of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, trustee of the Association of Medical Research Charities and member of the Council of CERN.

Graeme began his career at the National Engineering Laboratory. He has a BSc in Physics and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a Chartered Engineer.

Bob Sorrell

Bob is an independent Technology and Policy Advisor. Prior to that he was BP’s Vice President for Research & Innovation for BP’s global Formulated Products (Fuels and Lubricants) Technology. He also served as BP’s technology policy advisor for the UK and EU. Bob joined BP in 1987 from Durham University having earlier completed his PhD at Cambridge University.