Jane serves as the Executive Director of AIRTO (the Association of Innovation, Research and Technology Organisations), the body representing the UK’s Innovation, Research and Technology sector, fulfilling this role at the National Physical Laboratory since 2011, and since 2021, at the Net Zero Technology Centre.
Jane has a life sciences background. She is a graduate of the University of Reading, and gained a PhD in animal physiology (also from Reading University), and has published widely in the field of neonatal thermoregulation. She began her working life at the Institute for Animal Health, and went on to hold a range of management and leadership roles at King’s College London, within the health schools, and within the university’s research commercialisation and research support division, King’s Business Ltd, where she was Director of Business Development. During her 13 years at King’s Jane was involved with a number of collaborative ventures including Innovation China UK, and London Genetics Ltd, and served as a non-executive Director of Simulstrat Ltd, a wargaming spin-out company which was acquired by Deloitte in 2010.
Jane serves as a Trustee of the Board of the Daphne Jackson Trust, the UK’s leading organisation dedicated to realising the potential of returners to research careers. She Deputy Chair of the Trust and is the Chair of the Trust’s Finance and General Purposes Committee, Chair of the Special Discretionary Fund Committee, and serves on the Trust’s Awards Assessment Panel and Awards Strategy Committee.
Jane has three grown-up sons and lives in Berkshire with her husband, John.