Will Barton

Will has worked internationally up to Vice President level in the chemicals sector for over 30 years with ICI / Zeneca, FMC and a JV of Monsanto and Akzo Nobel. He then co-founded Oxford Catalysts and became its COO. More recently he has headed up Manufacturing at the at the Technology Strategy Board, where he led the formation of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre, and now focuses, as non-executive director, on early stage companies. He sits on the UK’s Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum (IBLF), the Council and Board of the Chemical Industries Association (CIA), and the Board of the Institute for Manufacturing (Cambridge) thereby maintaining senior level contacts in industry and government circles highly relevant to OB’s business. He is also Chairman of Irish Manufacturing Research, a state-funded organisation set up to take up a role similar to that of the Catapult in the UK. He was awarded an OBE for “Services to Innovation and Manufacturing” in the Queen’s 2016 New Year Honours List.