Who We Are

Sue is the CEO’s Executive Assistant and also provides Admin support to the wider S5GC Team.

Sue’s background is over 15 years experience working for C Suite Executives in both the Private and Public Sectors and Military Commanders in Jersey, London and Germany.  More recently Sue was the EA to the Senior MoD Civil Servant in Germany and worked with the British Forces in their large scale programme to relocate over 8,000 Troops and their families back to the UK.

Sue is a Member of the Royal Society of Arts Dip R.S.A. and received military commendations from 2* Generals for her work undertaken in Germany.

Vinny joined The Scotland 5G team in April 2022 as Operations Director.

Vinny began his career as a Royal Navy Warfare Officer before joining Scottish Water as a project manager primary managing their corporate performance.

Following this, Vinny held a number of senior positions within the world of sport including becoming the first Operations Manager at Scottish Hockey; Director and Chair at Scottish Archery; and CEO of Scottish Fencing.

Over the lockdown period, Vinny chaired the Scottish Governing Body CEO Forum which engaged directly with the Scottish Government and the Sports Minister to navigate the route out of lockdown for sport and reshape the role sport can play to support the nations recovery.

Jackie joined The Scotland 5G team in May 2021 as Finance and Business Operations Manager.

Prior to this, Jackie has worked within education, holding a key position at Calderglen High School, before moving into the Third Sector, where she worked with charities training clients who faced barriers, upskilling individuals within the local authorities in employability and IT.

Following this, Jackie joined Rathbone Training as Programme Manager for North and South Lanarkshire and was shortly afterwards promoted to Programme Manager for Central Scotland.

Jackie’s major strength is developing the strategies required to achieve the desired results while building a highly motivated team.

Arthur joined The Scotland 5G Centre in May 2022 and is currently responsible for directing the execution of strategic projects.

During his 30+ year career in the telecommunications sector, Arthur held engineering and leadership roles with STC Technology in England, Bell Northern Research in Canada, Ciena Corporation in the USA and Intune Networks in Ireland.  With senior corporate positions in product development, manufacturing/supply chain management, customer service and M&A, Arthur brings a wealth of experience in leading large/complex projects and introducing state-of-the-art networking equipment to carriers and enterprises.

Most recently, Arthur was with the University of Glasgow, where he held a leadership position at their flagship nanofabrication facility.

Arthur is a graduate of the University of Glasgow with a B.Eng. and PhD.

Esther joined The Scotland 5G Centre team as Marketing and Communications Manager in May 2021.

Esther holds a BA (honours) in Business and Administration as well as an MA in Marketing and has over 12 years of international marketing experience with a number of leading companies.

Most recently Esther worked for s1homes, part of the Newsquest Group, as the Marketing Manager responsible for leading the development of the brand and communication strategies and for German Doner Kebab as their International Marketing Manager establishing the strategy and plans for new markets in North America.

Prior to this, Esther worked in several marketing positions within the FMCG sector at Heineken, Mondelez and Avon and has experience developing and implementing marketing and communication strategies, leading offline and online marketing activities, managing B2B and B2C multichannel campaigns, ensuring brand growth and audience engagement.

Siobhan joined The Scotland 5G Centre team as a Marketing Assistant in April 2021 and was promoted to Marketing and Communications Officer in June 2022.

Prior to this, Siobhan held positions at Scottish Chambers of Commerce and Newsdirect and has volunteered for a number of organisations including Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust and Take One Action Film Festival.

Always keen to learn something new, her skill-set spans from event-planning to magazine journalism and social media management, and she has also tried her hand in film-making, political reporting and radio broadcasting.

Siobhan graduated from the University of Stirling with a BA (Hons) in History & Journalism Studies in 2018.

Nicola joined The Scotland 5G Centre team as a Marketing Assistant in August 2021 and was promoted to Marketing and Events Officer in June 2022.

Prior to this, Nicola worked in the Marketing and Communications team in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Strathclyde. She has also worked for the University of Glasgow and has over 8 years experience of working within higher education.

Her work includes event management, content creation, digital marketing, social media management, graphic design, web design/management, video editing and customer relations.

Nicola has a Bachelor of Design Degree from the University of Dundee and graduated in 2009.

She is also employed by the Scottish Rugby Union and assists with match day events.

Graham joined The Scottish 5G Centre team in January 2022, supporting the S5GConnect team, Business Engagement Managers and the wider S5GC team.

Graham has 13 years of experience in customer service and administration within the fitness industry, most recently for the UK’s leading health and wellbeing charity in an administration and client supporting role and he has extensive knowledge of data management, financial reporting and administration using various client software’s.

In a previous role, Graham was voted co-worker of the year.

Kirsty joined The Scotland 5G team in July 2022 to engage with the region’s businesses. She brings a specialist range of knowledge from 14 years in Computer Games Development in Dundee with a background working in STEM skills as well as in-depth project management experience successfully delivering Tay Cities Deal pipeline projects. She joins from the Economic Development team in Angus, focussed on engaging with business stakeholders to identify support entering new and existing markets in key sectors.

Kirsty’s career has a legacy of business development, strategy and investment towards business growth and passionate in creating value through enabling people and businesses realising their full potential. Her key role will be working in partnership across public and private industry to create awareness of 5G application through testing and business support via the S5GConnect Hub.

Sharon Neely joined The Scotland 5G Centre team in August 2022 as Business Engagement Manager for the S5GConnect HALO Kilmarnock Hub based at the HALO Urban Regeneration.

Prior to joining the Centre team, Sharon started her career in the financial sector at Barclays, leading teams across Ayrshire and Dumfries.

In the last 3 years, she’s been involved in rebuilding thriving economies projects, engaging with businesses and the community to address social and economic challenges.

Sharon delivered workshops to businesses, charity partners, schools and colleges on business growth, digital, and employability skills, on top of financial wellbeing. Focusing on technology and innovation to the Eagle Lab programme, she introduced start-up, scale-up businesses that led to her passion for working in the community.

Fiona Smith, Group Head of Aerodrome Strategy for AGS Airports Ltd, is an experienced leader in the aviation sector, specialising in technology identification and its application in operational settings.

With experience gained across seven airports internationally and for the UK CAA, Fiona is a leading figure in the sector. She is a founding member of the industry governance framework on Airspace Modernisation, and Project Director for Future Flight project CAELUS, an Innovate UK funded consortium of 16 companies demonstrating viability of a drone enabled national network serving NHS in Scotland.

She passionately supports initiatives driving social inclusion, sustainability and diversity and inclusion.

Mark has a wealth of experience driving growth for entrepreneurial technology companies in Scotland which include; high end audio manufacturer Linn Products, quantum pioneer M Squared Lasers and digital communications specialist Logicomms.

Having held a variety of senior leadership positions within engineering, procurement, sales and operations, he understands what it takes to take ideas from concept through to delivery and commercial success.

Mark is proud of Scotland’s engineering heritage and looks forward to helping the centre deliver the wider societal benefits that 5G will bring to the country.

Sarah is the Program Director for Digital Infrastructure at Scottish Futures Trust. She leads a team that supports the Scottish Government in the delivery of its 5G Strategy, the Green Data Centre Vision and Action Plan and the Scottish 4G Infill programme, and leads the delivery of the DCMS Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator pilot project Infralink Exchange.

Sarah led the establishment of the Scotland 5G Centre and now sits on the Governing Board with a drive to ensure that 5G is tied into the broad tech scene in Scotland and in particular there is shared best practice across the UK about overcoming the challenges of deploying mobile infrastructure. She promotes Scotland’s 5G activity and specifically the work of the Scotland 5G Centre as part of the UK5G SME&LEP working group and across other collaborative forums.

Helen Harkness is the Head of Research for the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Glasgow. She has an MBA and a BSc Hons in Physics and brings over 25 years of management experience working in manufacturing, healthcare and academia.

Throughout her career, Helen has worked with UK and International customers, and she spent three years in Hungary as part of a start-up team at a greenfield manufacturing facility. She is passionate about the opportunity to support the Scotland 5G Centre and the businesses, innovators and pioneers of Scotland who will deliver creative case studies to showcase 5G capabilities.

Olga is Director of Innovation and Industry Engagement at the University of Strathclyde, where she leads entrepreneurship and investment functions, industrial engagement and development of the Technology and Innovation Centre Zone within the Glasgow City Innovation District.

Olga has a strong track record of delivering successful translation of innovative research into economic growth and societal impact. She founded a technology company based on her PhD research and worked in a variety of roles supporting industry-university collaborations. In her previous role she founded Converge Challenge and grew it to become the largest Scotland-wide programme for converting university knowhow and intellectual property into company creation.

She is a Trustee of Young Enterprise Scotland and a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ‘s Enterprise and Economy Committee.

Chris is Professor of Computational Mechanics in the James Watt School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow. He holds the Royal Academy of Engineering / EDF Energy Research Chair and is co-Director of the Glasgow Computational Engineering Centre. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a Chartered Engineer.  He is currently Vice Principal (Research) at the University of Glasgow, and a Director of the Scottish Research Partnership for Engineering.

His research has delivered advances in the computational analysis of materials and structures, and has led him to work closely with the civil nuclear industry, providing computational modelling tools and advice for assessing structural integrity.

Bob Stewart is a Professor at Strathclyde University where he leads a 5G Software-Defined-Radio team, and where he is also the lead on the University 5G Industry Cluster within the Glasgow City Innovation District.

He has more than 30 years of experience in wireless and mobile, from 1G to today’s 5G architectures. He was previously a Visiting Professor at UCLA Extension School for 20 years, and a founder and the Director of the tech company Steepest Ascent Ltd, prior to acquisition by MathWorks in 2013.

Most recently Bob led the University’s 5GRuralFirst project activity, and now chairs and manages the 5G New Thinking project co-funded by DCMS with lead partner Cisco.

Kerry Alexander is the Director for Infrastructure Finance and Programmes for Scottish Futures Trust where she leads SFT’s work in the Digital, Net Zero and Education infrastructure sectors. A chartered accountant with over 20 years experience, both in private practice and in the public sector, Kerry provides commercial and financial support to infrastructure development that can contribute to vibrant places to live and work in Scotland.

Kerry joined the Governing Board of the Scotland 5G Centre in April 2022 and brings her experience of advising on collaborative partnering arrangements and commercial structures.

Rahim Tafazolli, Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, IET, WWRF and is Regius Professor of Electronic Engineering, Professor of Mobile and Satellite Communications, Founder and Director of 5GIC, 6GIC and ICS (Institute for Communication System) at the University of Surrey. He has over 30 years of experience in digital communications research and teaching. He has authored and co-authored more than 1000 research publications and is regularly invited to deliver keynote talks and distinguished lectures to international conferences and workshops. He was advisor to Mayor of London (Boris Johnson) on London 2050 Infrastructure.

Dr Mike Short CBE joined the Department for International Trade as the first Chief Scientific Adviser in December 2017.
Mike leads the science and engineering profession in the department and ensures its policy is informed by the best science, engineering and technical advice. He advises on technical aspects of future trade deals as DIT looks to create new arrangements following Brexit, and works with the UK’s research, development and academic communities to boost scientific and engineering exports.
Mike has over 40 years’ experience in electronics and telecommunications and served as Vice President of Telefonica, the parent company of 02. He managed the launch of 2G (GSM) and 3G mobile technologies in the UK and led research and development for Telefonica Europe.

Martyn leads the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government which was set up in October 2016 to look at creating, delivering and accelerating innovative digital solutions to help Scottish Councils with the challenge of balancing their budgets whilst still delivering critical front line services.

Martyn is also the Senior Responsible Officer for the Analogue to Digital  Telecare Switchover programme which he works in partnership with Technology Enabled Care , Scottish Government and Health & Care colleagues.

Before joining the Digital Office and indeed Public Sector, Martyn’s career has been in the tech sector working with Private & Public Sector clients to understand and innovate with new Digital technology for over 20 Years. He has worked for companies including Capita Secure Digital Solutions, Telefonica O2UK, BlackBerry, Computacenter and Compaq plus been a board advisor to some start-ups.