Company Boards

Science City York Board

Richard Gregory, OBE – Chair

Richard is a non-executive director of National Australia Group Europe Ltd and of Clydesdale Bank Plc and carries the title of Yorkshire Bank chairman on the National Australia Group Europe Ltd board.

Chair of the Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and an elected member of the Foundation Trust Network (FTN) national board, Richard is leading on the Governance Review of the FTN following its launch as independent organisation in June 2011.

A former managing director of Yorkshire Television, Richard enjoyed a 21-year career in programming and broadcasting, during which he gained a longstanding interest in innovation in technology and working practices. He was awarded the OBE in 2004 for services to Yorkshire.

Professor Nicola Spence

As Chief Executive, Nicola has overall responsibility to the Board for leading the SCY team and the delivery of its programmes and outputs. Prior to joining the company in 2010, Nicola was Chief Scientist at the Food and Environment Research Agency at Sand Hutton, near York where she was responsible for science strategy and quality.

David Dickson

In addition to his role on the Board, David is Chair of SCY’s Audit and Finance Committee. David is Chair 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.

Professor David Fleming

David is Vice-Chancellor of York St John University. He has wide experience of university leadership, most recently as Deputy Vice Chancellor in the North East of England. He has an outstanding track record in the higher education sector within specialist areas of student experience enhancement, learning and teaching, international collaboration, research, third-stream initiatives, and widening access and participation. David also worked for a number of years in professional practice in the commercial sector before entering education.

Kersten England

Kersten England joined City of York Council in October 2009 as its chief executive. She began her career teaching history at Manchester University in the 1980s before moving to work in the voluntary sector for four years.Kersten entered Local Government as a Gender Equality Officer for Kirklees Council in 1990, moving successively to become Head of Training, Head of Strategic Personnel, and then Director of Policy and Performance for Bradford Council. Kersten drafted the council’s first Cohesion Plan and led recovery work after the disturbances in 2001.

After two years with central government as Director for Local Government for Yorkshire and the Humber, Kersten took up the post of Group Director of Community Services with Calderdale Borough Council in May 2007 with responsibility for housing, community safety, arts, museums and libraries, parks and customer services.

SCY Enterprise Ltd Board

Nicola Spence - Chair

Nicola Spence is Chair of SCY Enterprise Ltd. Biography.

Fay Treloar - Director and Company Secretary

Fay Treloar is Director and Company Secretary of SCY Enterprise Ltd. Biography.