POLYMER TECH AND MEDIA EXPERTS JOIN THE STATIONERS’ COMPANY INNOVATION EXCELLENCE AWARDS JUDGING PANEL
18 FEBRUARY 2022
We're delighted to announce the addition of two new judges – Dr Sally Beken and Andy Wilson - to the panel for the Innovation Excellence Awards this year. They will join an experienced team comprising Vida Barr-Jones, Peter Day, Professor Linda Drew, Helen Esmonde, Jill Jones, and Tim Webb. Professor Linda Drew and Jill Jones co-chair the Awards this year, a first for the Stationers’ Company.
Sally holds a degree in Chemistry and a Ph.D in Polymer Science. She has been in tech transfer for over 15 years and has built numerous collaborations and supported companies accessing funding for innovative projects with expert knowledge of polymers. She has been an Innovation Lead at Innovate UK and monitored a portfolio of over 60 projects and steered the scope for plastics related competitions. She is determined to see less plastic waste entering the environment whilst realising the positive benefits of polymers in mitigating climate change and supporting sustainability. She founded and currently heads up the UK Circular Plastics Network and leads on the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging activity at KTN.
With over 17 years of working on red button interactive television services, broadcast innovation, early BBC iPlayer, product management and digital rights for the BBC, Andy Wilson joined Dropbox from leading the growth and technical delivery of the Digital Production Partnership, where he led the development of a new international format for exchanging video content and commercials. Andy’s previous BBC work included UHD experimental broadcasts with BBC R&D for the 2014 World Cup, supporting the 2012 London Olympics and technical migration for MediaCityUK and New Broadcasting House. He was also Head of Delivery for BBC micro:bit, ensuring 1 million children across the UK discovered coding through a new computing device to help grow their engineering and digital skills. This has scaled to over 4 million BBC micro:bits being deployed globally. Andy led collaboration between 54 partners, to develop and deliver the BBC’s most ambitious education and technology initiative in 30 years.
Andy is Director of Dropbox UK and leads Media for Dropbox, working across Product, Partnerships, Sales and Marketing.
Jill Jones said “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome new judges Dr Sally Beken and Andy Wilson, who bring a wealth of innovation experience to the panel. Their experience is especially relevant as it brings additional expertise to the team, and past entries have included a range of disruptive innovations right across the spectrum of our industries – such as the media campaign from ‘Turn on the Subtitles’, the Internet of Things from Heidelberg, and revolutionary coatings developed by DataLase.”
Linda Drew added “We also look forward to input from the Stationers’ Company Master elect for 2022-2023, Moira Sleight, as she will join the panel this spring. Moira’s election will be the second time a woman Master will head the Company, and that’s really exciting as we actively push on with becoming a more diverse and inclusive Company. Eager to hear about more disruptive innovations and to reviewing more exciting entries this year!”
Entries for the Awards close on 8 April 2022. Click HERE to find out more and submit an entry.