Professor Alan Lowdon

 North East Local Enterprise Partnership, Chair of the Innovation Board

Alan is the founder and Managing Director of TKS Limited and Chair of the Innovation Board, North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

Alan leads the company providing innovation, intellectual asset commercialisation and strategic planning support to international cleantech sector, the UK, EU and USA, in particular.

Also, Alan holds over 30 years’ experience of the international energy and water sectors having held senior roles in the likes of Rolls Royce, British Gas, Suez, Shell, Mott MacDonald and Jacobs.  He has also set up and led 2 University spin-out businesses and held the position of Director of Technology & Innovation at the UK’s National Renewable Energy Centre, now part of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult - an entity that Alan helped the UK Government set up in 2012.  Alan currently operates a portfolio of non-executive director, advisory and investment interests in the cleantech and ports sectors (NED to the Port of Blyth, Northumberland).  He is a Visiting Professor at Durham and Northumbria Universities, chairs the Innovation Board of the NE LEP and is Chairman of the Advisory Board of Durham University’s Energy Institute.

An alumni of holds BSc (Hons:1), MSc and PhD Degrees in Engineering Mathematics and an MBA from Durham University Business School.  He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.