Ian Shortland is Director for Research Integration and Advancement, he is responsible for the University’s Large Corporate Relationships with revenues of £1bn+ and the Market Led Major Research Initiatives. Ian has worked in the higher education sector (HE) for four years and has been responsible for strategy development and delivery, and supporting world leading academics to translate the imperatives of strategic corporate partners into actionable scientific outcomes e.g. the £70m Institute for High Speed Rail and System Integration. Prior to the HE sector, Ian spent his career initially as an engineer in the aerospace and defence sector followed by a big 5 consulting role delivering business transformation and change for FTSE 100 clients. He went on to set up and sell his own businesses and performed NED roles with fast growing companies as well as a FTSE 100 subsidiary; negotiating 14 acquisitions with full P&L responsibility for post-acquisition integration, turnaround and exit for four of them. Ian has an MBA from the University of Surrey and his role as a Director of C-Capture is to represent the interests of the University of Leeds.