Chief Executive, Knowledge Transfer Networklimited

Chief Executive, Knowledge Transfer NetworkLimited

Application Pack

ContentsPage No:

1.Background1

2.About Knowledge Transfer NetworkLimited 2

3.Structure and Governance 2

4.KTN Networks 2

5.Role Specification4

6.Remuneration/Terms of Appointment6

7.Advertisement 7

8.Timetable 8

9.How to Apply8

  1. BackgrounD

Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTNs) enable UK businesses to compete succesfully at the forefront of global technology and innovation. KTNs facilitate the UK’s innovation communities to share knowledge,connect, collaborate and find out about new opportunities in key research and technology sectors.

As a single overarching network in a specific field of technology or business application, a KTN brings people together to stimulate innovation. The portfolio of KTNs collaborate to form a ‘network of networks’.

Collectively, the KTNs aim to deliver several benefits to business communities, through:

  • improving business performance by facilitating innovation and new collaborations, by encouraging people to share knowledge and experiences, between businesses and the science-base, and across sectors;
  • driving knowledge sharing and transfer between the supply and demand sides of technology-enabled markets, through a high quality, easy to use, service;
  • facilitating innovation and knowledge sharing by providing UK businesses with the opportunity to meet and network with individuals and organisations in the UK and internationally; and
  • providing a forum for a coherent business voice to inform the Technology Strategy Board of its technology needs and about issues, such as regulation, which could enhance or inhibit innovation in the UK.

Timeline

In late 2013 the Technology Strategy Board began the process of establishing a single knowledge transfer company called Knowledge Transfer Limited (hereafter, “the Company”) by outlining proposals for the objectives, role, governance and funding for the company.The Technology Strategy Board recognises the key engagement, knowledge sharing and networking role that the KTN communities facilitate and is committed to retainingnetworking as a key element of its business and academic engagement strategy.

Going forward, the objective is to promote:-

  • greater co-ordination, cross-working and collaboration between the KTN communities, including increased networking across the boundaries of existing KTN communities - when dissimilar communities come together, innovative ideas are sparked;
  • increased flexibility in the formation of new communities and cross-cutting activities to support evolving Technology Strategy Board and broader government priorities; and
  • closer and more strategic and tactical alignment between the Technology Strategy Board’s networking activities and business support programmes.

This will contribute to delivering much clearer andmore consistent communications across the whole Technology Strategy Board family, and across the range of business support mechanisms.

  1. ABOUT Knowledge Transfer NetworkLimited

The Technology Strategy Board will on 1st April 2014 place a single grant funding agreement with KTN Limited, established for thespecific purpose of delivering a network of communities and cross-cutting activities within a single Knowledge Transfer Network. The 15 grant funding agreements to run the existing KTNs will all terminate at the end of March 2014, and will not be renewed.

It is anticipated that the funding for this new single KTN will be around £15m pa, where the emphasis will be to balance the maintenance of existing communities andencouraging these communities to engage in challenges that require the cross-community activity.

It is planned that the 60,000+ KTN members will continue to be supported through specialist teams of knowledge exchange professionals. Each KTN community will be led by a senior individual, supported by a team of knowledge exchange professionals and community managers with detailed knowledge of their respective communities.

These KTN communities will be advised by senior business-led groups, as at present, though it is expected these groups will play a more co-ordinated role in developing the Technology Strategy Board’s strategic priorities overall.

It is anticipated that the majority of staff currently delivering the activity full-time through the existing KTNs will be employed by the new company, with only a proportion of work being contracted out, predominantly to support the key ‘back office’ functions, or shorter term cross-cutting activities. However, there will be a need to maintain and build on existing networking relationships that the current KTNs have developed, including those with their existing grant holding organisations and delivery-partner organisations.

  1. Structure and Governance

The Company is a company limited by guarantee. The CEO will lead the Company, with a small team of direct reports to be defined by the CEO and Chair.

The Board is the senior body responsible for the Company’sstrategy and governance whose members, with strong industrial representation, will be recruited in late 2013 and early 2014. Board positions are not classified as public appointments and as such the process for making Board appointments will be undertaken in a manner that recognises the Nolan principles of public life, but will not be a full Nolan process.

The CEO will be a member of the Board and a member of the Company’s Management Committee comprising its senior management team.

4.KTN Networks

The Technology Strategy Board will, as far as possible, preserve the current KTN communities and networks as they move into the new organisation. However, the single contract organisation will facilitate a much more flexible approach, with more of the resource being focussed on cross-cutting activities which will bring together the KTN communities to address time-bounded projects (such as those currently supporting particular Technology Strategy Board competitions) and Special Interest Groups (“SIGs”)operating in space, defence, forensic science and proposed activities, such as access to finance. Also, the goal will be to enable the new KTN to engage more readily with other elements of the broader UK innovation and business support landscape, through single initial points of contact.

Following detailed consultation, the Technology Strategy Board has identified the following KTN communities, although some changes are expected as the KTN evolves. These communities have been identified to ensure the fundamental objective of promoting wealth creation, to support outreach for Technology Strategy Board priorities, Industrial Strategy priorities, and the 8 Great British Technologies.

The proposed 13 communities are:

  • Aerospace
  • Agrifood
  • Biosciences
  • Built environment
  • Chemistry and Materials
  • Computing, electronics and photonics
  • Creative Industries
  • Digital economy
  • Energy
  • Healthcare
  • High Value Manufacturing
  • Resource Efficiency
  • Transport

The Technology Strategy Board will continue to support the current cross-cutting activities, includingthose of the SIGs in space, defence and forensic science, and a much more dynamic management of such cross-cutting activities is expected in the future. Also, the need has been identified to establish a cross-cutting activity around access to finance.

Geographical Spread

The Technology Strategy Board values the current geographical spread of the KTNs, which reflects the field-working approach recently adopted by the Technology Strategy Board lead technologists. The goal will be to retain and build on this geographical diversity, with KTN staff building relationships on behalf of the whole KTN, and the Technology Strategy Board, in their local areas.

5. ROLE SPECIFICATION

ROLE OF THE CEO

The success of the Company will, critically, depend on the strong and visible leadership of a CEO who is highly respected across industry, academia and the user communities. The CEO role will thus be a crucial one, around which a team will be built to address the commercial challenges of developing relevant services and partnerships.

The CEO will work with external stakeholders including companies and researchers in various markets, public sector funders of innovation, and with the Company’sBoard to increase its impact and value to UK plc, whilst internally facilitating processes that lead to excellent decision making within the Company.

The CEO will thus need to be:-

•strong, passionate and visionary in a leadership style that can drive innovation and shape strategic industry-academic partnerships, through strategic influencing and facilitation;

•an outstanding communicator;

•an entrepreneurial spirit identifying opportunities where the Company could have a major impact on the businesses and network of actors it works with;

•an individual who sees the ‘bigger picture’, linking the Company’sactivity with wider economic sustainability and also with areas being developed by the other TSB programmes;

•attuned to thegeneral macro-economic and commercial opportunities opened up by the KTNs;

•highly credible with, and able to work effectively with, the Board; and

•be comfortable and confident managing transition into an emergent organisation.

PURPOSE

The CEO is the Executive Officer of the Company and will be a member of its Board. The CEO is responsible for providing strategic leadership and operational business management via the executive management team.

The CEO is responsible, either directly or through the appointment of senior staff reporting to him/her for the delivery of all Company objectives and the measurement of progress against these.

PRIORITIES

Priorities (first 18 months):-

•set the vision for the Company, its Strategic Roadmap and business plan establishing key objectives and deliverables, with well-structured plan for efficient and lean allocation of resources;

•establish direction and culture, ensuring that sustainability and innovation are embedded into the culture;

•build and maintain management and administrative team and organisation;

•define and implement the minimum practical organisational & operational structures required to deliver the Company objectives;

•establish technical and business advisory boards (as appropriate with the Board’s input) to engage with the broader industry and innovation communities and leverage existing infrastructure and expertise;

•establish and maintain governance and control structures that includes operational (legal, financial etc.) structures, controls, procedures and tools for the effective and efficient day-to-day operation of the Company to achieve compliance with its legal, regulatory and contractual obligations, providing strategic leadership and delivery of well-structured stakeholder governance;

•provide clear communication material for the partners, government and the wider community to establish working relationships with all UK activities in the commercial market; companies, research and technology organisations and universities and ensure they are bought into the forward plans for the Company;

•define and execute a prioritised action plan for engaging with key groups of the Company’s partners and associates; and

•win work and funding and build customer base, securing further private and public funding in line with the strategy and business plan.

Additional Priorities (on-going):-

•establish and maintain metrics and market feedback to measure theCompany’ssuccess is supporting the commercial market, and update action plans to respond to the market need;

•ensure that the Company at all times complies with its legal, regulatory and contractual obligations, including critically the management and control of the KTN Co grant from the Technology Strategy Board ensuring that all activities are in compliance with State-Aid rules;

•develop, in conjunction with the Management Committee (annually and updated as necessary) a sustainable 5-Year business plan with milestones deliverables and work-packages for approval by the Company’s Board in order to reach the strategic goals; and

•promote the activities of the KTN and its potential to stimulate economic growth in supporting applications development.

Other key aspects of the role:-

•ensure the resources (people and facilities) needed to deliver the key business objectives are in place;

•support the Companyin developing and implementing a marketing, communications and business engagement strategy, actively promoting and marketing it to potential clients and partners including promoting real commercial success in the downstream market;

•develop plans for the delivery of results to industry and end-users for commercial exploitation;

•secure further public and private sector funding for research and development activities;

•provide statutory accounts and annual reports to the Technology Strategy Board; and

•engage and interface with the wider innovation community to maximise value generation.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

The Company is seeking an individual who is passionate about the impact that the Company will have on economic growth, sustainability and society in UK and globally. He/she must have a proven ability in building and shaping an environment where industry works collaboratively together and with academia delivering innovations that result in significant improvements in the competitiveness of all parties and deliver societal benefits.

The individual should be a proven leader, negotiator and relationship builder with a track record of delivering success through partnerships. He/she can be an individual from any sector of business or academia who can demonstrate how their expertise is transferrable to the mission and vision of the Company.

This will require the CEO to have:-

•genuine leadership skills, enthusiasm, passion and a sound appreciation of systems plus a good understanding of the relationship between research, development, innovation, and growth;

•sound economic background in evaluating new business opportunities;

•proven abilities to broker very senior relationships and partnerships in the private and public sectors;

•director-level operating experience and responsibility for research and innovation;

•evidence of success in leading and directing research activities;

•excellent promotion and negotiating skills, presenting and gathering support, especially at the interfaces between government, universities and commercial organisations;

•a track record in securing external funding on national and international stages;

•proven ability to inspire & motivate disparate teams towards a common objective;

•experience of design and implementation of organisational structures, particularly for finance and administrative systems and project management;

•experienced contract execution including performance measurement and quality control; and

•proven ability to analyse and present clearly at the highest-level complex information with good attention to detail.

6. REMUNERATION/Terms of Appointment

3 year fixed term contract of employment with KTN Ltd

Start Date:April 2014

Salary:Competitive package

Hours of work:Full time

Location:TBD

7. Advert

Accelerating Business Innovation

KTNLtd

Chief Executive Officer

(Attractive six figure package)

KTNLtdwill manage thirteen knowledge transfer communities tounlock the huge economic potential of knowledge sharing. It is a company limited by guarantee that will provide a range of business-to-business and business-academic engagement that support the Government’s Industrial Strategy and Technology Strategy Board priorities, enabling rapid commercial exploitation of great British technologies.

To ensure the success of the Company, we require a dynamic, world-class entrepreneurial leader who will bring an incontestable record of achievement in strategic co-ordination and facilitation of innovative commercial partnerships at the research-commercial interface and/or in developing and exploiting new business models for collaborationand knowledge sharing between business communities, research and development bodies, financial organisations and academic institutions. You will ensure the merged communities deliver improved economic performance, strengthen collaboration and innovation, maximising the impact of new technology and new research and development through better coordination of resources.

The role calls for a leader who understands how to channel connectivity between knowledge bases to achieve the greatest impact on societies and markets. You will need proven ability to spot new opportunities and to be able to shape and build an environment where academia, innovators and industry work effectively together to drive and exploit innovation that results in realisation of greater value. You will have been pivotal to the delivery of bold visions on the largest scale, using your highly developed political, commercial and communication skills to align support whilst commanding respect and commitment at all levels. Above all, you will have a genuine passion for working with Britain’s best technologists and futurists.

For further information on the role click here

To apply click here

For an informal, confidential discussion on this opportunity, please call our advising consultants:

Baljit Dhadda 020 3137 3452 or 07939 074 973

David Thomas 020 3137 3446 or 07967 172 902

Closing date 11 November

8. Timetable

Indicative timetable (which may be subject to alteration) is as follows:

Closing date11November

Longlist interviewsw/c 25November

Final panel interviews10 December

9. How to Apply

To submit an application, go to

For an information pack and an informal and confidential conversation, call our advising consultants:

•Baljit Dhadda on 020 3137 3452 /07939 074 973

•David Thomas on 020 3137 3446/07967 172 902

You will be required to submit a CV and brief supporting statement that provides evidence of the competencies outlined in the Person Specification. You will also be asked to complete an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.

Reasonable expenses for unavoidable travel expenses in connection with attending interviews will be reimbursed.

Diversity Policy

KTN Ltd is committed to providing equal opportunities for all, irrespective of race, age, disability, gender, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, transgender and working patterns.

This appointment will be conducted in line with principles of merit, fairness and openness.

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