Matthew has been part of the founding team of Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult since 2012, taking on the post of CEO in 2020. Prior to this, he was Chief Business Officer responsible for the strategy, communications, marketing, and business development.

He is credited with leading the design and implementation of the commercial model for the highly successful Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Stevenage Manufacturing Innovation Centre and being a global champion for the early integration of healthcare economics and reimbursement expertise into decision-making and clinical product design. He began his career in international investment banking and venture capital and has successfully invested in and managed a number of biotechnology SMEs and regional operations of multinational organisations.

He has an MA from the University of Oxford in Pure and Applied Biology, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. He is also Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the charity Parkinson’s UK.

Martin McHugh is Chief Executive of the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult driving its approach to accelerate the UK industry’s ability to exploit advancements in compound semiconductor technologies, Martin has over 30 years’ experience in technical and business development roles covering both Europe and North America.

He is a patent holder and has spoken at international conferences in North America and Europe on Advanced Packaging in the area of Medical Implantable Devices. With 15 years’ experience in collaborative research and development, Martin has been engaged in 30 programs with a total project value of £50M covering Advanced Packaging, Embedded Die Technology, High Temperature Electronics and Wafer Scale Modules while at Microsemi.

He sits on the Industrial Advisory Board for the School of Engineering at Cardiff University and is an active member of Compound Semiconductor Cluster in South Wales.

Erika Lewis is Chief Executive at Connected Places Catapult. Erika joined the Catapult from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) where she was Director, Cyber Security and Digital Identity.

In July 2023 Erika was appointed the CEO of the AI Safety Summit. This was a world first event and brought together international governments, leading AI companies, civil society groups and experts in research to consider the risks of AI, especially at the frontier of development, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action.

Previously, Erika Lewis was a part of the set-up team for the London Development Agency (LDA) from April 2000. At the LDA she delivered regeneration programmes across London and was subsequently the Director of Strategy. In 2012, Erika became a Project Director at the Competition and Markets Authority.

Erika joined the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in 2018 to deliver the National Data Strategy. In October 2019 she moved to the role of Director, Cyber Security and Digital Identity where she leads on the economic support for the cyber sector, the development of security approaches for consumer IoT, the government work on Secure Connected Places and Digital Identity in the economy. In 2020 she also led for DCMS on the Covid-19 response package for the Voluntary Sector and in 2023 led on the initial transition programme for the newly formed Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

As CEO of Digital Catapult, Susan is focused on bringing together her 25+ years of experience in the technology sector to guiding and co-creating an ethical approach to advances in technology across multiple industries with an aim to effectively balance our Digital Catapult initiatives from Research and Development through to commercialisation.

Starting her career as a coder, Susan stands out among senior executives due to her demonstrated expertise in successfully leading and expanding corporate and listed divisions, as well as mid-market and SMB private equity organisations.

With a vast geographical scope encompassing the USA, Canada, Europe, and the UK, Susan possesses remarkable transformative abilities and extensive operational knowledge in mergers and acquisitions, making her a seasoned change catalyst dedicated to enhancing shareholder value. Her aptitude for creating innovative business models and fostering collaborations within complex organizations and diverse industries.

Guy was appointed Chief Executive Officer at Energy Systems Catapult, the innovation business, in June 2022. Guy joined Energy Systems Catapult in 2018 as Director of Strategy after working as an energy and political adviser to two UK Government Secretaries of State; Greg Clark and Amber Rudd.

In Government, he was involved in many key decisions, including closing the UK’s coal-fired power stations, greater independence for the electricity system operator, and as an architect of the Clean Growth Strategy. Before joining Government, he was Head of Policy at the challenger energy supplier, OVO Energy and Head of Environment and Energy at the influential think tank, Policy Exchange.

He was previously a journalist, including three years as a foreign correspondent in Hong Kong for the international newswire, AFP. He is a non-executive director with UK100, a charity campaigning for greater environmental action by local authorities. He lives in Enfield, with his wife and two children.

As Chief Executive of HVM Catapult, Katherine Bennett is a proud ambassador for UK design, engineering and manufacturing. Katherine drives UK industrial transformation with industry, academia and government to commercialise cutting-edge research and advance national strategic priorities, including clean energy, health tech and key enablers skills, supply chain and sustainable R&D manufacturing.

In her role, Katherine led the Task Force for Industry Resilience for Critical Minerals for battery manufacture and was a member of the Levelling Up Advisory Council. As part of the Tata Steel/Port Talbot Transition Board, Katherine supports national partners to implement skills and regeneration programmes for those impacted by the transition to low CO2 steelmaking.

Prior to joining HVM Catapult, Katherine spent 16 years at Airbus where she developed Airbus’ UK strategy and led the company’s corporate affairs activities. She also chaired Western Gateway for four years while in this role. Katherine’s significant contribution to the aerospace and aviation sector was recognised with a CBE in January 2019. She has honorary doctorates from Cranfield University and UWE Bristol.

Katherine’s main passion is people and she has led multiple industry initiatives throughout her career to promote diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace.

Chris Molloy has a 30-year international board and executive career across a unique range of life sciences R&D disciplines. His career began in preclinical research at Glaxo, where he was closely involved with the industrialisation of high throughput discovery. In 2004 he moved to Asia as COO of MerLion Pharmaceuticals, a Singaporean biotech that developed into an award-winning multinational anti-infectives R&D biotech.

Chris then ran corporate development for the global informatics firm, idbs during which time it won a Queens Award for Enterprise, became a Fast-track 100 company, and the first UK firm to develop a stratified medicine software platform using real-world health data.

Chris spent three years as CEO of the RSA Group, the global life science executive search specialist, before in 2016 becoming the founding CEO of the Medicines Discovery Catapult: the national centre for innovation in drug discovery. During its first five years the MDC has leveraged its Innovate UK grant by fourfold, worked with over 150 UK companies and assisted the discovery of UK drug assets worth over £1bn. During the pandemic Chris was the founding Director of the Lighthouse Labs – the largest diagnostics project in UK history – and chaired the industry-governmental consortium that increased UK lateral flow manufacturing capacity by twenty-fold. Chris is the non-executive chairman of Thriva – a pioneer in at-home diagnostics; Exploristics and NorthWest EHealth: two UK tech companies using Real World healthcare data to improve clinical development.

He chairs the IP Advisory Committee for the Association of Medical Research Charities and the Industry Advisory Board for Manchester’s Biomedical Research Centre & Health Innovation Manchester. Chris is a Member of the Institute of Cancer Research and holds an honorary chair at the University of Manchester.

Andrew, acting CEO and Director of Professional Services, leads the Catapults Professional Services directorate which includes all enabling & governing services (Finance, HR, ICT, Procurement, Business Improvement / Governance, Administration and Legal services). Having trained with the global Professional Services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, Andrew worked with both private and public sectors delivering audit, financial diligence and consultancy assignments for the firm in the UK and abroad.

He has served as Trustee and Audit Committee Chairman of Scotland’s largest independent charity grant funder, the Glasgow-based Robertson Trust and is currently serving as a Director and Member of the Finance Committee for the Scottish Council for Development and Industry.

John Abbott is the new CEO of the Satellite Applications Catapult. He joined the Catapult from the Real Estate Registry in Saudi Arabia, where he was Chief Digital Officer. John was instrumental in the delivery of the Kingdom’s first ever registry of land ownership as part of a public-private partnership supported by the Public Investment Fund.

John was previously Director of Digital Data and Technology and a member of the Executive Board at HM Land Registry, where he led a successful £200m digital transformation programme and the organisation’s pioneering open innovation programme, Digital Street. Prior to this he was Head of Digital Products at Ordnance Survey where he was responsible for digitising and publishing the organisation’s geospatial data as well as the Innovations Lab and Geovation, a successful start-up incubator, which has supported more than 150 early-stage businesses which together have raised £130m. Earlier roles included Product Director at Mimecast, the UK tech company acquired by Permira for $5.8Bn. He has an MBA from Imperial College London and is married with three children.