The Research and Development Society

The Panelists

Ian Harvey (Chair)

Ian Harvey has been a student for many years of the history and trends of global invention and technology development and the related role of IP. He has written many articles and book chapters and lectures widely on global intellectual property and technology issues, particularly as they relate to business. He was Chief Executive Officer of BTG plc from 1985 until his retirement in late 2004. BTG is the world-leading technology commercialisation company which has been patenting and licensing globally since the early 1950's. He joined BTG following a varied career first as an engineer with Vickers and Laporte Industries and later with the World Bank. He is currently Chairman of The Intellectual Property Institute Board, Adjunct Professor at the Tanaka Business School, Imperial College and an advisor to the Center for IP Studies (CIP) Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg University the International Intellectual Property Institute, Washington DC.

Miles Eddowes

Miles Eddowes is the R&D Director for Open Innovation in the Home and Personal Care division of Unilever. In this role he is responsible for the formation and implementation of the change initiative that Unilever is using to adopt the principles of "Open Innovation". This impacts a 2500+ person-strong global R&D organisation supporting a portfolio of market-leading brands. Miles joined Unilever in 1995 as a product developer in its then consumer medical diagnostics business, Unipath (Bedford UK). Before taking up his current post in Aug 2003, he spent 3 years in the US (Unilever Research US, Edgewater, New Jersey, USA) as a Program Technical Leader for Unilever's Skin Care and Cleansing business. Miles is a Chartered Engineer with the IET and has a PhD in Medical Physics from University College London. His undergraduate studies were in Engineering Science at University College Oxford.

James Wilsdon

Dr James Wilsdon is Head of Science and Innovation at Demos. He advises a wide range of organisations on science policy and emerging technologies, and has led projects for the Cabinet Office, Defra, DTI, Foreign Office, Environment Agency and the European Space Agency. His publications include The Public Value of Science (Demos 2005); The Adaptive State: (Demos, 2003); and Digital Futures: living in a networked world (Earthscan, 2001). Together with Charles Leadbeater, he is currently coordinating The Atlas of Ideas project, a major study of the future of science and innovation in China, India and Korea. James is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Advanced Studies at Lancaster University and an Associate Director of Forum for the Future. He is an experienced public speaker and has written for a wide range of publications, including The Guardian, Financial Times, Renewal and Green Futures magazine.

Anil Vaidya

Anil Vaidya is Sector Specialist - Biotechnology & Healthcare, at UK Trade & Investment, the Government organisation that supports companies in the UK doing business internationally and overseas enterprises seeking to set up or expand in the UK. As part of this role, he has led a number of high-level business delegations on trade missions to Japan, the US and Germany. With a background in control engineering, he has extensive experience in life science companies including B.P. Chemicals, American Cyanamid, American Standard, Goldshield Pharmaceuticals. CEO and founder of Iatro Medical Systems Ltd - remote radiological reporting web service.

Meetings are open to members and non-members. Members receive benefits including discounted meeting fees on all R&D Society events, access to the members area of the website, and the newsletter.

Meetings of the R&D Society are accepted by many professional institutions as suitable for their CPD requirements.

To receive meeting notices by email, please sign up to our monthly email updates.