An award-winning scientist is among four new members of the Interface Strategic Board, who took up their new roles this month (November).

Dr Eve Bird is an internationally renowned industrial biotechnologist who heads up research and innovation at cleantech company Celtic Renewables.

The other new Board members are Dr Martin Hawley, Co-founder of Airspace Unlimited Scotland; Graham Watson, an experienced non-executive director and senior executive; and Louisa Macdonell, the former CEO of the Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS), the membership body for community-led enterprising organisations.  

Dr Siobhán Jordan, Director of Interface, said: “It is a great reflection on Interface that the positions attracted such high calibre applicants. The breadth of experience that our new members offer from a wide range of industries and the third sector will be a great asset to Interface as a whole – they all have great passion for innovation and collaboration between business and universities and colleges.”

Dr Martin Hawley is Co-founder of Airspace Unlimited Scotland, which was established to support the digital transformation of airspace management and aims to reduce fuel burn and greenhouse gas emissions from aviation. He has worked in both academic and industrial research, has been an aviation consultant for 25 years, and has established several companies.

Graham Watson is an experienced non-executive director and senior executive with a strong commercial track record.  He has a mix of board responsibilities in Scotland, including Executive Chairman of Scottish Health Innovations Ltd, The Law Society of Scotland, the Court of Heriot-Watt University and Scottish Futures Trust.  He is a former partner in a Big 4 accounting firm, with extensive experience of working with SME clients delivering business development, strategic planning programmes and leading change initiatives.

Louisa Macdonell is the former CEO of the Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS), the membership body for community-led enterprising organisations. Louisa is also a member of the Board of Social Investment Scotland (SIS), the responsible finance provider and is an entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Edinburgh Business School and mentors a variety of small businesses, particularly those run by women.

Prior to joining DTAS, Louisa was Head of Economic Development at the Scotland Office, delivering Scotland’s first rural regional growth deal, and worked in energy strategy development at Scottish Enterprise.

Dr Eve Bird, Research and Innovation Director, Celtic Renewables, is an industrial biotechnologist who heads up research and innovation at Celtic Renewables. She has worked in the biobased chemicals industry for over a decade and is an international expert in the industrial acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation process, where her work ranges from genomes to bioreactors. Eve has risen to the top of her field and leads a highly skilled multi-disciplinary innovation team behind the world’s first ABE facility run on sustainable distillery by-products.

Photos shows clockwise from top left: Graham Watson, Louisa Macdonell, Eve Bird and Martin Hawley.