James joined the institution in October 2022 in the newly created role of Director of Engineering Policy and Impact.
As Director, he will help us deliver our new impact strategy to ensure our members’ engineering expertise is heard as widely as possible in Government and the broader community
James’s previous role was as Deputy Director in the International Science and Innovation Directorate at Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
In this position, he was responsible for developing the UK Government’s domestic and international science policy, including having direct ownership of policy on nuclear fusion and responsibility for Euratom Research & Training Science Programme negotiations with the EU.
Prior to this, James held a variety of roles in Government, working across a range of strategy, policy and delivery issues. These included leading the joint BEIS – HM Treasury Business Productivity Review on the firm-level actions businesses can take to improve performance, which resulted in the Help to Grow programmes.
He has sat on the governing councils of organisations such as CERN and the European Spallation Source, and worked to create the market for ultra-low emission vehicles within the Office for Low Emission Vehicles.
Before Government, James read Earth Sciences at university, focussing on geochemistry and palaeoceanography.