Our team

Jonathan Flint CBE was appointed Chair of CSA Catapult's Board of Directors in 2024.

Graduating in Physics from Imperial College in 1982, Jonathan holds an MBA from Southampton University Management School. He started his career designing scientific and communications satellites at Marconi, where he worked for twenty years, before and after its acquisition by BAE Systems.

He held both technical and managerial roles before becoming a managing director at Marconi and then at BAE Systems. In 2005, Jonathan was appointed CEO of Oxford Instruments – the first substantial spin-out company from Oxford University – where he served for 11 years. Jonathan is currently Chairman of Quantic and Executive Chairman of Refeyn.

Jonathan has also been a Non-executive Director for Stadium plc and Senior Independent Non-executive Director for Cobham plc, a leading UK defence and communications equipment contractor. Jonathan was President of the Institute of Physics (IOP) between 2019 and 2021 and has been a Fellow since 2007. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He was awarded a CBE in 2012 ‘for services to Business and Science’.

Rob Bryan is interim chair of CSA Catapult. He is a solicitor with vast experience in the publicly funded STEM space and leads the only legal practice dedicated to STEM. He has held senior in-house roles with major PLCs, GEC and Courtaulds Textiles. His work on behalf of learned societies, including the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering and the Physiological Society, has caused him to advise on some of the more high-profile issues that challenge STEM organisations. He is a qualified chartered company secretary as well as a solicitor and is also a non-executive director of the Open Data Institute.

Rob is a visiting lecturer in technology protection and management at Warwick University and has worked on two intellectual property cases that were successful in the House of Lords.

Stephen Duffy has around twenty years’ experience in technical, operations and business development roles within the semiconductor and photonics industries. Stephen currently serves as chief executive officer at Optocap Ltd, a technology company offering package design and assembly services for a wide range of optoelectronic and microelectronic devices.

Stephen was co-owner of Optocap Ltd for several years following a successful management buyout (MBO) from previous owners Scottish Enterprise, and was co-owner and executive director at the time of the multi-million-pound trade sale of Optocap Ltd to the German multi-national TUV NORD. He now sits on the executive management committee of TUV NORD Aerospace Business Unit. He has been an expert evaluator for the European Commission for a number of Horizon 2020 R&D projects for semiconductors and photonics and was a previous member of the European Space Agency working group for hybrid and packaging of semiconductor devices.

Stephen has co-authored a number of technical papers on compound semiconductors and photonics, and is the author of several trade articles on semiconductor packaging. Stephen holds a BSc (Hons) in laser physics and optoelectronics from the University of Strathclyde.

Dr Wyn Meredith is director of the Compound Semiconductor Centre, a new joint venture between IQE Plc and Cardiff University, focused on technology translation of research and design in compound semiconductor materials and devices. Dr Meredith is also an expert advisor to the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Cardiff University’s Department of Physics and the UK National III-V Centre, and he provides executive level advisory services to numerous SMEs in the field of semiconductor technology.

Lorraine Rienecker is an experienced executive leader and board member with a proven track record in delivering business transformation and growth in aerospace and defence, industrial and service businesses, including private equity. She continues to support deal transaction and execution services and, most recently, was managing director of operations for Brookfield. Prior to that, Lorraine was president of Meggitt’s Customer Service and Support Division and a member of the executive leadership team for 12 years, leading strategic growth and commercial development. She also has extensive board experience, both with the Vitec Group and as chair or member of the board and sub-committees for three private companies.

Other senior roles include leading strategy for BAE Systems, consulting in A&D for Booz Allen and Hamilton, and being the programme manager for Bombardier in Canada. Lorraine is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, has a degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA from INSEAD business school.

Tammy Lillie is the chief people officer and main board member for the Met Office — an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It makes meteorological predictions across all timescales from weather forecasts to climate change. This appointment involves engagement and empowering people, both inside and outside the Met Office, to be better informed and act with confidence.

Graduating from University College and Imperial College, London, with degrees in mechanical and environmental engineering, the first half of Tammy’s career was spent in ship building design where she progressed to chief engineer at BAE Systems and was a senior principal lecturer at Warsash Nautical College, teaching merchant seafarers. She then moved into human resources, using engineering principles to embed HR transformation into organisations through talent, leadership and cultural change.

Tammy is passionate about realising the potential of people to drive the business forward. Tammy is a chartered fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and a chartered fellow of the Institute of Personal Development. She also holds an advanced diploma in coaching. Prior to joining the Met Office, Tammy headed the organisational capability team at Bristol Water, led global talent and learning at Dialog Semiconductor, and created a global learning and talent function from a standing start for Spirax-Sarco Engineering.

Raj Gawera has over 25 years of experience in short range and wireless communication technology R&D, business development and marketing. Raj was part of initial IEEE 802.11 team to define the first WLAN standard in 1996 — a technology which has now shipped over 5 billion units.

Raj also helped pioneer the first 3G data transmissions working with Motorola and others to demonstrate one of the first video calls at the 3GSM show in 1998, many years before 3G licences were awarded. Raj was a founder member of startup UbiNetics (1999), that successfully exited in 2005 for over $120m.

As part of that deal, Raj joined CSR and ultimately took the role of vice-president of marketing, where he was part of the team that acquired SiRF Technologies for $136m (2009) to add GPS technology to the CSR portfolio. In 2012, he helped sell CSR’s handset business to Samsung in a deal worth $310m for 310 staff. As part of that deal, Raj took up the role of VP Marketing responsible for defining future wireless products.

In 2014, Raj was promoted to head up the SCSC subsidiary leading the silicon and software development for Samsung’s connectivity solutions. Raj now has responsibility for several European development centres delivering leading-edge technology into Samsung’s semiconductor division. The technology from these development centres has now been in mass production in hundreds of millions of units across multiple global customers in mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) products.

Layla is the Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon, where she was elected as a Liberal Democrat in the 2017 and 2019 general elections. She read physics at Imperial College and holds an MA in comparative education.

Prior to her election, she worked for over a decade as a maths and physics teacher, primarily teaching the International Baccalaureate. During this time, she also worked for a social enterprise leading curriculum development and the teaching staff delivering revision courses for students in person and online.

Layla has an international background; her mother is a Christian Palestinian from Jerusalem, and her father was a British EU Ambassador — as such, she has lived in many countries including Belgium, Greece, Ethiopia, Jamaica and Jordan. In parliament, Layla advocates for evidence-based policy making.

Recent campaigns include repealing the Vagrancy Act, a law that makes it illegal to be a rough sleeper in England and Wales, and banning NDAs in cases of sexual misconduct, bullying and harassment. She is foreign affairs spokesperson for her party and chairs the respected All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus. She also previously served on the Public Accounts Committee.

Debbie Wilkinson is a chartered accountant and brings to the Catapult over 15 years’ director-level experience in an innovative engineering/manufacturing business.

Serving the majority of her time in finance, Debbie also has experience in operations, sales and marketing, and general management. She joined CSA Catapult’s board in July 2022 to lend her expertise to the Audit and Risk Committee and ensure all appropriate governance and compliance is followed.

In addition, her commercial SME knowledge will be of value to help support the Catapult during the next phase of our strategy. Debbie holds a BEng in mechanical engineering from Cardiff University.

As chief financial officer and executive member of the Catapult’s board of directors, Becky is responsible for all financial, legal and compliance aspects of the Catapult to ensure that the organisation is best placed to deliver on its strategy. She provides strategic direction for the Catapult’s finance, legal, procurement and business systems teams.

Becky brings financial expertise from several sectors including private healthcare, asset management and commercial property investment and development in the UK, Europe and Middle East. Prior to joining the Catapult, Becky led the strategic and operational finances across a wide portfolio of private hospitals for Spire Healthcare PLC. Since joining the Catapult in 2018,

Becky has built a professional and proactive team which drives performance monitoring and effective decision making. Becky holds a BSc (Econ) in accounting and management from Cardiff University, is a fellow chartered certified accountant (FCCA) and was promoted to the board of the Catapult in the summer of 2021.

As CEO and executive member of the board, Martin leads the strategic direction of the Catapult, driving its approach to accelerate the UK industry’s ability to exploit advancements in compound semiconductor technologies. Previously, as the Catapult’s CTO, he led the strategic direction of its four key technology areas in power electronics, RF and microwave, photonics and advanced packaging.

Martin’s wealth of global technology experience has been developed through a host of technical and commercial roles, with responsibilities covering the UK, Europe and North America. Prior to joining CSA Catapult, he led the business and technology development for Microchip’s (Microsemi Corporation) advanced packaging business where, during his 20-year tenure, he played a key role in transforming the company’s focus from analogue telecoms to wireless digital communications.

Martin has been involved in collaborative research for nearly 20 years, holds several patents relating to microelectronic packaging and, since 2003, has been a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the School of Engineering at Cardiff University. He is deeply passionate about building communities, particularly locally, where he has served as a community councillor.

Martin plays a leading role in the world’s first compound semiconductor cluster which will help build a successful UK compound semiconductor community.