AIRTO is pleased announce Steve Yianni FREng in the role of Vice President of AIRTO, with immediate effect. Steve has served on the AIRTO Board as a Director since 2017.

Steve Yianni FREng, Vice President, AIRTO

Commenting on this development, Dr Paul Howarth FREng, Chair of AIRTO, said: “Steve has been doing important work on behalf of AIRTO, working alongside Richard Brook in his capacity as AIRTO’s President, including developing AIRTO’s position on the government’s goal of reaching 2.4% of GDP for R&D by 2027. We are all grateful for the work Steve is doing in this area, which has creating good opportunities to link with our stakeholders across the government and industry.”

Steve Yianni began his career at the Ford Motor Company, where he worked mainly in Product Development on truck and engine projects. In 1991, he joined JCB, gaining 16 years’ experience in a variety of engineering and leadership roles.

In 2008, Steve joined Network Rail and enjoyed five successful years working within the engineering and technical areas of the business, mainly as Director of Engineering. In 2013, he was appointed as Chief Executive of the Transport Systems Catapult; a position held until 2017.

He now runs his own portfolio career. He is a chartered engineer, fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is also a non-executive director of TWI.

He graduated from the University of Cambridge with an Engineering degree, and an MBA from London Business School. Steve lives in Hertfordshire with his wife, Pam, and they have 3 adult children.

Find out more about our Board.

Notes for editors

About AIRTO
AIRTO is the Association of Innovation, Research and Technology Organisations. Its
membership comprises approximately sixty of the principal organisations operating in the
UK’s Innovation, Research and Technology (IRT) sector. The IRT sector has a combined
turnover of £6.9Bn, employing over 57,000 scientific and technical staff (equivalent to the
academic staffing of the Russell Group of universities) and, for comparison, it is significantly larger than the network of Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany both in size and its scope of activities. The sector contributes £34Bn to UK GDP. AIRTO’s members work at the interface between academia and industry, for both private and public sector clients.

Members include independent Research and Technology Organisations, Catapult Centres, Public Sector Research Establishments, National Laboratories, some university Technology Transfer Offices and some privately held innovation companies.

For further information, please contact:
Dr. Jane Gate, Executive Director, AIRTO Ltd
email: jane.gate@airto.co.uk