Team

Nicola Spence is the Chief Executive at SCY. Nicola has overall responsibility to the SCY Board for leading the SCY team and the delivery of its programmes and outputs. Nicola also represents York at the National Science Cities network.

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. She has extensive experience working with government departments and non-departmental bodies to include HDC, EU and BBSRC and is a Trustee for Kew Gardens.

Fay Treloar is the Head of Operations at SCY. Fay leads on securing major revenue and capital investment with overall responsibility for managing the company's Finance, HR, Marketing & Events, Projects and Business Team as well as being an executive member of SCY Audit and Finance committee. An experienced Contract Specialist and Business Development Manager, she also has extensive experience of managing the successful delivery of a portfolio of ERDF funded programmes across Yorkshire & Humber, supporting Knowledge Transfer, Rural Enterprise, IT & Digital, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Business initatives.

Andrew Smith is the Finance Manager for SCY. This is a varied role encompassing managing all the company's financial functions and contributing to business planning and strategic development.

Andrew has a long-held career history in finance spanning manufacturing, engineering, retail, financial services and IT, beginning with British Steel and most recently as management accountant for a printer parts distribution company.

As Administrator, Jayne is responsible for the management of SCY support systems, Jayne is the first point of contact for administrative and finance functions for the company. Jayne is also PA to the SCY Chief Executive.

Jayne has several years accountancy experience, and operating and implementing a full range of administration systems, providing administrative support at a senior level, working both in the public and commercial sectors.

Annette Gamston is SCY's ERDF Project Manager, responsible for overseeing successful delivery of two SCY ERDF projects: The 'Embedded Space and Technology Transfer Project' and the 'Specialist Business and Innovation Services Project.'

Annette has a background in business management and management consultancy and has successfully delivered projects small and large in both the public and private sector. As well as recent experience as an independent business consultant offering business development support and coaching to small business owners and corporate clients, Annette managed transformation projects at the University of Leeds for several years.Prior to this Annette delivered management consultancy on behalf of PwC and management accounting, procurement and supply chain roles within Birds Eye Walls, a subsidiary of Unilever.

Business Mentor Norman’s career spans several director-level and senior management roles across a broad spectrum of key industry sectors to include advanced engineering & manufacturing, telecommunications, construction, speciality chemicals, food & drink, aerospace and environmental technologies.

In addition to significant consultancy experience working with several blue chip multinationals, Norman has worked closely with several key public sector partners such as the White Rose University Consortium and the former Department for Trade and Industry (DTI).

Most recently he has successfully focussed on providing consultancy services to small – medium enterprises. Extensive project management experience includes managing two major DTI biotechnology initiatives providing consultancy to over 400 SMEs in many sectors throughout the UK.

Nick works alongside Norman on SCY's team of Business Mentors. Nick’s career to date has included international, senior management roles in R&D, marketing and strategic management, with additional experience in business consulting, forming strategic alliances, and mentoring technology-driven SMEs.

He has worked in international blue chip companies, covering sectors such as speciality chemicals, paper, packaging and print, and industrial biotechnology.

A previous long-standing career with Clariant International’s paper chemicals business spanned various technical and business roles, including Head of Research and Technical Support and Global Product Line Manager, responsibility for an international business and culminating in his appointment as the Global Marketing Manager based in Switzerland.

In 2007 Nick left Clariant and formed Canda International, a global consulting company with a proven track record of success in supporting SMEs.

In her role as a Business Manager Susan leads on helping businesses build capability by linking SMEs with the skills, knowledge and resource available across the research base and academia, and by facilitating the commercialisation of business products and support available from HE/FE providers

Susan graduated from the University of Stirling with a degree in Business Law. She has been employed within the higher education sector for a number of years. As Business Manager at the University of Stirling ‘s prestigious Management Training Centre, Susan worked with a number of high profile organisations and hosted the University’s own MSC in Entrepreneurial Studies residential teaching events. Having spent 4 years in Australia working at The University of New South Wales in Sydney in a commercial role, she returned to the UK, eventually settling in York. Susan then took up the position of managing the Graduate Entrepreneurship project hosted firstly at Yorkshire Universities and latterly at The University of Huddersfield.

Mark is a Business Manager offering particular expertise in supporting businesses across the bioscience sector.

Mark has a BSc in Virology and a PhD in X-Ray Crystallography. He switched to an almost-industrial role by working as the associate on a successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership project in the area thereby gaining valuable experience of getting business and academia to successfully work together. 18 months in a technology development role in an international SME provided an understanding of industrial wants and needs in an established and growing business. More recently Mark was involved in starting up a company and with proof of concept for the technologies as well as identifying funding. This highlighted the difficulties of working with few resources and gave Mark an understanding of the needs of a bioscience start-up.

Heather Niven is a Business Manager for SCY, providing development guidance and support to companies with a focus on the creative sector. Heather is degree educated in psychology and has 12 years experience as a self representing artist and 4 years previous experience in the private sector as Art Gallery Manager for a large commercial gallery in N. Scotland.

With experience of owning two businesses, (a previous business in Glasgow working in alternative stained glass, which won the Innovation Award in Glasgow in 1997, and her current business as a self representing artist), Heather understands the difficulties facing creative sector companies and individuals and the challenges involved in business start-up within this sector.Heather also has experience working with the public sector, academia and process industries, through a position she held for four years with the Chemical Industry Education Centre (CIEC), based at the University of York.

Carl completes SCY's team of Business Managers, leading on connecting and supporting a wide range of high-growth, innovative companies and offering specialist knowledge of working alongside SMEs across the digital industries.

Carl has 30 years experience in the Broadcast and IT industry, specialising in the design and specification of complex systems. This has included the design of the simulator for Euro fighter to MD of an International company. He has worked with all the major Broadcast and IT manufacturers to integrate systems into Academia and to assist with funding bids across all the market sectors.

Imogen Foster is the Communications Manager and first point of contact for all marketing and communications enquiries for SCY, including virtual business / e-communications, branding and PR.

Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) qualified, Imogen has several years direct experience of marketing science and technology following a long-standing career with York-based Central Science Laboratory.

Prior to her marketing career, she was a Scientific Researcher, specialising in agri-environment invertebrate R&D.

Daniel is the Web Developer at SCY, responsible for the functional development of SCY’s data management, web and digital services, principally the technical development and optimisation of SCY’s website.

Daniel has a background in web & multimedia development and holds an MSc in Creative Technology. Prior to working at SCY Daniel has worked in a variety of capacities within the creative and digital industries, which has included one of the UK’s leading DVD Authoring houses and an online video delivery platform, amongst other roles.

Becky is SCY's Marketing Executive - ERDF Projects and is responsible for researching and writing press releases to targeted media, collating and analysing SCY's media coverage and keeping SCY's online presence dynamic and up to date. Becky also contributes to the planning and delivery of SCY publications, events and marketing materials.

A recent graduate of the University of York, Becky's background is in communications. Before joining SCY, Becky used her degree in English Literature as a solid foundation to complete internships in marketing, PR and creative agencies in Leeds, London and York.