Meet the Judges

Philippa is a Chartered Engineer who thrives on working with a wide range of stakeholders from government, industry and academia to create visionary solutions, challenging existing silos between the sectors. Previously Head of Transport and Manufacturing at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for six years, Philippa has a great understanding of the challenges facing transport and manufacturing both domestically and internationally. With experience from the automotive, aerospace and defence sectors Philippa believes the APC can drive investment that we need to equip the UK with the right capability and technology to be at the forefront of pulling innovative low carbon propulsion solutions through to fruition, accelerating economic return. Through the National Network Programmes Philippa is looking forward to the opportunity to use her experience and knowledge of the UK’s transport modes and infrastructure to build on the strategy already in place, driving through and accelerating deliverables. This opportunity to incubate collaborations, honing solutions to drive UK leadership in terms of exportable products and services.

Tomide is the Co-founder/CEO of Circuit Mind. Circuit Mind is a deep technology company on a mission to 100x the life's work of electronic engineers, teams and companies. The company is building intelligent software for electronics teams which enables them to design faster and better by specifying their input requirements and exploring automatically generated design options in seconds/minutes. Before Circuit Mind, Tomide was an electronic systems engineer at BAE Systems, developing Heads Up Display Systems and Helmet Mounted Display Systems for jet fighter pilots.

Chris Edwards is a freelance technology journalist who has been reporting on the electronics industry for three decades. He is a frequent contributor to New Electronics.

A technical magazine editor for more than 20 years, Paul has spent much of his career in the engineering press, with spells covering most aspects of the sector. He first became editor of Eureka! in 2010 and was part of the team that launched the Engineering Design Show. In 2018, Paul added to his role on Eureka! when he was appointed editorial director of MA Business.

Pete Lomas is Director of Engineering for Norcott Technologies, a UK based electronics design and manufacturing company. He has spent the last 30 years helping bring product ideas to life. He has worked with a wide range of start-ups and blue-chip companies in industries as diverse as video security, fire detection, data communications, engine test, building management, medical robotics and scientific instrumentation for large scientific experiments. 

His passion is encouraging the next generations to engage in STEM subjects and is the co-creator of hugely successful Raspberry Pi computer. He also established the associated charitable foundation and served as a trustee for over 10 years. Its mission is to put creativity, experimentation and fun back into the teaching and informal engagement in computer science and electronic engineering through digital making.

Pete is currently President of the Institution of Engineering Designers promoting all aspects of engineering design and professional registration.

A highly-experienced journalist, Neil has been covering developments in the electronics industry for more than a decade. Editor of New Electronics since 2014, he has also worked across a variety of industries including: telecommunications, automotive, business systems, banking technology and finance.

Richard is co-founder, CEO and Chair of BiologIC Technologies Limited. BiologIC’s vision is to integrate Industry 4.0 technologies to solve enormous challenges faced by humanity (feeding 9.8 billion people by 2050, mitigating climate change and mitigating the threat of diseases) in an environmentally sustainable, economically accessible way.

An authentic and passionate leader, Richard inspires transformational change through the alignment of purposeful vision, talent and quality capital.  He creates significant value through executive leadership, vision and strategy, commercialisation of science, capital market expertise, cultural and organisational change and building scalable capability.

In seven valuable years as interim CEO, deputy CEO, CFO, COO and Company Secretary, Richard was instrumental in growing Horizon Discovery Group plc from an emerging private company of £3m revenue in 2012 to a recognised global leader in gene editing delivering revenue of £60m at a valuation of £350m.  Richard delivered one of the most successful ever Life Science listings on AIM raising £68.6m in a heavily oversubscribed IPO at the top of its valuation range within 3 months, fundraisings in the UK and the US, four acquisitions and hostile bid defence.