The Team

Dr Kelvin Donne

AgorIP Scientific Research Lead

Dr Kelvin Donne has extensive experience undertaking research with high technology companies, particularly in the medical device area. He has supervised over 23 PhD students – the majority on collaborative projects with industry - and has won and led a number of EU structural fund projects in the Knowledge Transfer area, with particular emphasis on the SME community.

His research interests are in computational modelling of medical devices and automotive glass fracture.

Kelvin’s role as Scientific Research Lead is to advise the team on specialist scientific queries and to assist with the generation of peer-reviewed research papers that highlight the novel open IP approach that this project is pursuing to stimulate a sustainable model for regional economic growth.

Email: [email protected]

Gemma Parry

Engagement and Communications Officer

Gemma joined the AgorIP team after working as a journalist at the South Wales Evening Post and WalesOnline and later, BBC Wales. She earned a masters degree in journalism from Cardiff University in 2016 following on from a bachelor's degree in History at Swansea University in 2014.

During her career as a journalist, she interviewed the likes of Michael Sheen to David Cameron, and was named Print Journalist of the Year at the Wales Media Awards in 2017.

Her role at AgorIP involves looking after all aspects of the AgorIP story, and generally shouting about the good work that the project is doing in Wales and beyond. She works with the media, the Welsh Government and Swansea University to promote AgorIP on a range of platforms. When she isn't promoting the project, she is behind the scenes of our Twitter account @AgorIP_swan, and on LinkedIn, and doing the fun parts of the project; organising events, creating marketing material and meeting incredible inventors to find out more about their stories.

Twitter: @GemmaParry4

Email: [email protected]

Lorna Evans

Portfolio Administrator/ Paralegal

Lorna began her working life as an analyst programmer in British Steel, Port Talbot after gaining a BSc in Computer Science at Swansea University. This was followed by a brief foray over the border where she worked for Greater Manchester Police as part of a team developing a new finance and personnel system for the force. On returning to Wales, Lorna taught IT for six years at Afan College. With the call of industry proving too great, Lorna returned to software development and worked for EDS and Hewlett Packard for over 16 years. On the closure of the Swansea site, Lorna decided to retrain and was awarded a Law degree in 2017; she then completed her Masters in Law the following year.

A key member of the team, Lorna has responsible for the management of Agor IP and Swansea University’s IP portfolio and database thereto. Her knowledge on aspects of drafting and amending commercial agreements, consultancy agreements, contracts and liaising with third party legal consultants make her the ‘go to’ person within Agor IP for legal matters.

Email: [email protected]

Emma Williams

Technology Transfer Manager

Email: [email protected]

Kasia Williams

Compliance & Data Co-ordinator

Kasia joined the AgorIP team in October 2018 as a Data and Compliance Administrator. She is a qualified teacher with a BA in Applied Linguistics and holds a MA in International Liaison and Communication from the University of Westminster. Having moved from London to Wales in 2011, she pursued a career in teaching and worked as Quality Assurance Auditor for an American background screening company. Most recently, she worked as a Quality Officer on ESF funded project in Gower College Swansea. In AgorIP, Kasia manages the day-to-day aspects of the project in relation to output indicators. Kasia ensures that the project is delivered in accordance with the agreed profile and that its activity is evidenced in a disciplined fashion, satisfying WEFO eligibility requirements and university procedures.

Email: [email protected]

Chloe Gordon

Financial Administrator

Email: [email protected]

Dr Gerry Ronan

Project Director

Dr Ronan worked in the industry for 20 years before joining Swansea University as Head of Commercial Services. He has a PhD in Physics and is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and has worked in the fields of medical devices and drug discovery. At Swansea, he has championed a progressive approach to technology transfer which has created a vibrant pipeline of commercial opportunities.

Email: [email protected]

Ciaran Whyte

Project Manager

Ciaran is a PMI certified project manager who, after a career spanning more than 30 years at IBM, joined Swansea University in 2009 as University Risk Administrator and then Major Projects Programme Manager. He led a team to deploy professional risk management and project assurance activity for the university’s major strategic projects before heading up AgorIP in January 2017.

Email: [email protected]

Berna Jones

Technology Transfer Officer

With 16 years of experience in business and administration. Berna attained a bachelor’s degree in Econometrics and completed a Masters in Business Administration at Swansea Metropolitan University. Before joining AgorIP, Berna managed the Swansea University Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded Impact Acceleration Account Project, helping researchers to engage with industry and to bring their ideas to the market. For this work, Berna won Swansea award for ‘Best Partnership Building with External Stakeholders’. Previously, Berna was a Knowledge Exchange Officer in the Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research, administering a number of externally funded projects designed to engage with local businesses and the public to provide knowledge exchange support and advice.

Email: [email protected]

Dr Mark Bowman

Pipeline Manager

Dr Bowman has been working with Swansea University since 2013. He previously ran the highly successful Welsh Government funded InvestorG8 investment readiness pilot and the Swansea Healthcare Innovation Partnership Programme (SHIPP). Mark also helped to set up the Swansea University Innovation Fund (SUIF) which works with third party investors to finance spin-out companies based on the university’s academic research. Prior to setting up his consultancy company Arche Innovations, Dr Bowman had a diverse career spanning university technology transfer, early-stage venture capital investment management and start-up incubation. As Pipeline Manager for AgorIP, Dr Bowman chairs a Commercial Panel consisting of venture capital investors who make recommendations concerning the viability of projects being considered for funding.

Email: [email protected]

Kyam Gilkes-Murray

Technology Transfer Officer

Graduating from Swansea University Law School in 2016, Kyam joined Agor IP to pursue a career in Intellectual Property (IP). She has recently been promoted to Technology Transfer Officer, and she was previously AgorIP's Portfolio Administrator and Paralegal.

As a Technology Transfer Officer, Kyam is one member of the team responsible for technology transfer and other aspects of the commercialisation of research that takes place in AgorIP and at Swansea University, engaging in a variety of commercial activities.

When not working in the dark arts of IP you will find Kyam watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for the 100th time!

Email: [email protected]

Laurel Jones

Technology Transfer Manager

Laurel enjoyed an extensive career in Business/Commercial banking for over 20 years, latterly as a Business Development Manager for Bank of Scotland based at Swansea.

She joined the University in 2009, originally as the Finance & Compliance Manager for the ESF funded LEAD Wales Programme, where she was responsible for managing a £8m budget in line with stringent EU Procurement guidelines.

Taking up a new challenge with a focus on returning to the Commercial sector, Laurel joins AgorIP from the University’s Research Engagement & Innovation Services Department, where she was an External Contracts Officer, managing a portfolio of European-funded Major Projects totalling in excess of £50m, facilitating financial claims, providing eligibility guidance and overseeing both internal and external audits.

Email: [email protected]

Rhydian Owen

Technology Transfer Manager

Rhydian was born in the late 70s in West Wales, and grew up loving football, playing bass guitar and fishing with his brothers. He disliked dance music, Watership Down, and actually catching any fish.

Rhydian has spent over a decade working as a strategic planner, programme manager and policymaker at different Welsh Universities, the NHS and Welsh Government. He learned how teams and organisations work, and how to improve what they do.

During this time, he developed an interest in working with small businesses, and learned how to apply his corporate planning and management expertise to startup companies. Working for AgorIP, Rhydian now uses these skills to help academics and NHS staff turn their inventions and ideas into viable new businesses.

Email: [email protected]

Steven Powell

Technology Transfer Officer

Steven has worked in Engineering Product Design and Project Management for more than 12 years with Rank Xerox, CMW(Med) Labs, VW/Audi and SMEs. Moving from industry to Higher Education, Steven has worked in both Academic and Project Management roles for 20 years, establishing design under and postgraduate courses including MPhil and PhD supervision as Head of Product Design. Steven’s technology transfer experience covers extensive academic to business engagement and collaboration, and has managed a number of University knowledge exchange innovation projects and programs in the UK and Europe. An active member of the Institute of Engineering Designers (IED) professional body, Steve is a panel member for accreditation of University design courses throughout the UK.

Email: [email protected]

Yvonne Jones

Technology Transfer Officer

Yvonne is a sustainable development specialist; she has a background in science education, waste and environmental management, and is a Lead Auditor for ISO14001. In 2004, having gained an MSc in Education for Sustainable Development she undertook a career change, and began working on local environmental quality, for a prominent Welsh charity. She joined Swansea University in 2007 as a Business Development Officer for an EU funded project, and since then has worked on many others. Over this time her sustainability background naturally led her into the field of EU funding cross cutting themes (CCTs) and she currently she works on CCTs for AgorIP, Seacams2 and The Computational Foundry. She also advises other projects in this area across the University as the need arises. Yvonne is also part of the Secretariat for RCE Wales, a UN supported network of centres of expertise in sustainability education. In this capacity she liaises with universities across Wales.

Email: [email protected]