Keen to provide a focal point for entrepreneurs in Malvern and the surrounding area, Dr Adrian Burden and Dr Emma Philpott decided to open an innovation centre. They wanted a place for new businesses and their entrepreneurial owners to feed off each other's enthusiasm and grow within a vibrant community; like a silicon valley but on the Hills.
Adrian has experienced first-hand the trials and tribulations of starting, growing and exiting from a high technology business. He was the founding CEO of the first spin-off company from the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering in Singapore, moving into a small incubator in the Biopolis and then raising angel and venture capital finance to see the company through to an acquisition. Along the way, the company won numerous awards including the Frost & Sullivan Tech Innovation Award 2007, the ZDNet Asia Breakthrough Award 2006 and Nanochallenge 2005. In February 2015, Adrian was recognised as a Maserati 100 entrepreneur in The Sunday Times. He is author of the business book Start to Exit
Emma has worked in both large and small organizations, including the Ministry of Defence in the UK, the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering in Singapore, Cientifica in Singapore, and is currently the CEO of Malvern's The IASME Consortium Ltd. She has experience of managing large facilities including the wind tunnel at Farnborough and the Nanomaterials and Fabrication Centre in Singapore, and so understands the infrastructure requirements for technology-focused businesses. She has also organised numerous networking events and business seminars in both Singapore and the UK, helping to promote new technology and facilitating businesses to network within their community. In June 2019, Emma was awarded an MBE for services to cyber security. @emphilpott
The Wyche Innovation Centre is managed and operated by Key IQ Ltd, company registration number 07203201.