Chris Oglesby

Chief Executive of Bruntwood; Executive Chair of Bruntwood SciTech

Areas of expertise: Property development; city, town centre and innovation ecosystems; responses to government policy; corporate and public sector partnerships

As Chief Executive at Bruntwood since 1999, Chris is the majority shareholder of the business, which remains family owned and operated.

Chris champions the growth of city-wide ecosystems through a strategic partnership approach between business, science, academia and local government. As such, he has played an active role in many public and private sector partnerships including Manchester's Oxford Road Corridor, the Greater Manchester LEP, Manchester Climate Change Forum and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

With a background in economics, Chris is a highly respected figure in the wider business community in the North.

Kate Vokes

Non-Executive Director

Areas of expertise: The power of cultural partnerships; philanthropy; social impact

Kate is a Non-Executive Director at Bruntwood, having previously fulfilled director roles in Marketing, HR, Culture and Social Impact.

She is also the Chair of Trustees at the Oglesby Charitable Trust, and sits on the Board of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Young Manchester and the Shared Health Foundation.

With a unique blend of commercial and philanthropic experience, Kate has valuable expertise in supporting the long-term prosperity of regional cities through meaningful cross-sector partnerships.

Andrea George

Director of Town Centres and Consumer Brands

Areas of expertise: Role of retail in the ecosystem for towns and cities; Bruntwood's model/blueprint for placemaking; comment on publications or government policy affecting high streets or town centre footfall.

As Director for Town Centres and Consumer Brands, Andrea is responsible for overseeing our placemaking strategy in town centres ensuring their ecosystems are optimised for long-term prosperity. She has an extensive background in real estate, land management and urban regeneration, and has held senior positions at Tushingham Moore and Knight Frank.

Her insights on the role of retail in UK economic growth are frequently sought after by independent local and national media outlets.

Jessica Bowles

Director of Strategic Partnerships and Impact

Areas of expertise: Government policy; city ecosystems; cross-sector partnerships; civic engagement

Jessica is Bruntwood's Director of Strategic Partnerships and Impact. Having joined the business in 2016, she previously held the post of Head of City Policy at Manchester City Council, supporting work on devolution and the Northern Powerhouse. Prior to this, she held several roles during a 15-year career in Whitehall.

Interested in cities and what makes them tick, her role at Bruntwood is particularly concerned with our external relationships with city partners and our social value agenda. She is regularly consulted for commentary on numerous macro-topics including government policy, UK economics and nationwide infrastructures.

Jamie Clyde

Regional and Innovation Services Director, Bruntwood SciTech

Areas of expertise: Jamie is regional director for Bruntwood SciTech in Cambridge and Birmingham and also leads the delivery of Innovation Services to help companies in the Bruntwood SciTech network to form, scale and grow.

After studying Engineering, Jamie became a management consultant, partnering with a small team to grow and sell two companies with international corporate client portfolios and now has over 25 years experience of start-ups and corporate innovation, gained in many high growth businesses across a variety of sectors.

Jamie has also led a number of corporate start-ups. He was Chief Customer Officer for the launch of Virgin Mobile SA, building an organisation of 750 staff in less than 6 months; he was founder and CEO of British Airways/Comair’s SLOW Airport Lounges which won a series of international awards; he launched EDF Energy’s spin out Hoppy, and co-founded the fintech 22SEVEN which was acquired by Old Mutual. Prior to joining Bruntwood SciTech, Jamie advised Regus on its global transformation into IWG group, helping to establish a number of new brands.

Jamie is a non-exec director of RBCHS (UK’s largest Community Hydro Scheme), a mentor for the Prince’s Trust and an RSA Fellow.

Dr Kath Mackay

Director of Life Sciences, Bruntwood SciTech

Areas of expertise: Dr Kath Mackay is Director of Life Sciences for Bruntwood SciTech - the UK’s leading property provider dedicated to driving the growth of the UK science and technology sector. She has a keen interest in growing the life science industry, and businesses and infrastructure within the sector, ensuring the UK is the best place to establish and scale a life science organisation.

As Director of Life Sciences, Kath is responsible for developing the life science vision and strategy for Bruntwood SciTech, external affairs, and developing sector specific innovation services and investment support for the life sciences business across our network of campuses. Kath also oversees Alderley Park - the UK’s largest single- site life science campus - the new £210m Birmingham Health Innovation Campus, and Citylabs in Manchester, the world-leading health innovation and precision medicine campus in partnership with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

Kath joined Bruntwood SciTech from the executive board of Innovate UK where she led the team responsible for growing and scaling businesses working in the biomedical, health, agriculture and food sectors, creating and delivering a £700m portfolio of infrastructure, Catapults, grant and loan investments. Kath is also Non-Executive Director of the Northern Health Science Alliance, the North of England’s health partnership, UKRI’s National Biofilms Innovation Centre, and Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership.

Deb Hetherington

Head of Innovation, Bruntwood SciTech - Leeds & Manchester

Areas of expertise: Deb Hetherington is an award winning facilitator of business support and growth consultancy with over 10 years experience supporting startup and scaling businesses. As Head of Innovation for Bruntwood SciTech in Leeds and Manchester, Deb leads the design and delivery of innovation services and business support to a wide range of disruptive digital and tech startups and scale ups at the ‘home of tech’ Platform in Leeds and at Manchester Science Park, Citylabs and Circle Square in Manchester.

Deb has a particular interest in Data & AI led innovation, and the potential implications these rapidly advancing technologies are likely to have on both business and society alike.

She is an Associate at Leeds Beckett University and plays an integral role in connecting young businesses with knowledge transfer based innovation filtered through academic
institutions. Deb is also one of the Directors of Leeds Digital Festival, an open platform tech event based in Leeds with thousands of attendees from across the globe both virtually and physically.

Deb’s passion for diversity within the digital space resulted in co-founding the
community led organisation WILD, which aims to educate and encourage more diverse
groups into digital roles to ensure the digital workforce is truly representative of society

Deb is also on the boards of Leeds City Council Digital and Leeds Tech and a member of the steering groups for Leeds BID and the Leeds LEP innovation team.