The University of Bristol today appointed SETsquared executive director Marty Reid as director of innovation, and he will take on his new role in March.
One of Reid’s key responsibilities will be the ongoing development of the Bristol Innovation Zone at the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, scheduled to open in the new academic year.
Among his duties will also be further accelerating the university’s commercialisation activities, which have already seen Bristol being named a top 10 European institution for value created by its spinouts.
He will also be tasked with building new partnerships and strengthening collaboration with local incubator Science Creates, set up by Harry Destecroix, who founded University of Bristol spinout Ziylo.
“It’s a privilege to be joining the University of Bristol in this role at such an exciting time. Government, industry, and investment communities are all strongly aligned around the opportunity to realise the full potential of our world-leading university research and Bristol has all the elements to play a major role in this story.
“Our university has a depth of talent and leading innovation facilities in frontier technology areas which will grow the future economy and reshape our word, such as advanced connectivity, semiconductors, quantum technologies, AI, and engineering biology, but also some exciting emerging cohorts of social ventures.
“We have an outstanding track record of translating our work into real business impact, with growing investment in our spinout companies and many examples of flourishing innovation partnerships with global industry.
“Impact at this kind of scale only happens when a depth of brilliant innovative talent is backed by a strong support ecosystem built by dedicated and collaborative people over many years. I’m really looking forward to joining a great team and exploring where we can do even more to support our incredible talent and industry partners.”
Marty Reid
Reid has been the executive director of SETsquared, an incubator and enterprise partnership that counts the University of Bristol as a member, since December 2022. The other member institutions are Bath, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey.
He previously served as the director of Engine Shed and chief executive of Science Research Foundation, which are both attached to the University of Bristol, from January 2020 to December 2022.
Before this, he was the centre director of Future Space, also in Bristol, and corporate strategy manager at Rolls-Royce.
Disclaimer: The University of Bristol is a client of The Next Leap.
