Q Futures

Technology strategies to deliver business value

Andrew Garman BSc PhD ALCM FRSC

Director

Andrew Garman studied at University College London leaving with a BSc (I) in Chemistry and a PhD. He has worked as a protein chemist with Beecham Pharmaceuticals, as a technology specialist with ICI Diagnostics and as Bioscience R&D Manager for Cambridge Research Biochemicals. In 1992, he headed a high throughput screening technology group at Zeneca. In 1996 he became responsible for assessing the impact of new emerging technologies across drug discovery. In 2000 Andrew was appointed as Director, Strategy Development, responsible for a variety of inputs to facilitate strategy development and support decision-making at a senior level. For two years this role was located in the USA. In spring 2006 Andrew left AstraZeneca to set up Q Futures Ltd. Andrew's major skills are in strategy development, innovation, facilitation and decision support modelling.

Geoffrey Drage BSc FCA

Director

Geoffrey Drage is a graduate in Biochemistry. Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, he worked as an investment banker in the City of London, advising companies on their corporate strategy and undertaking IPO and M&A transactions. He has 20 years of experience of managing and providing strategic advice to SMEs. He is a co-founder of an electronics company that specialises in designing sensor systems and in 2000 he co-founded CXR Ltd specialising in advanced X-ray scanning systems. Geoffrey is a member of the Steering Board and chair of the Audit Committee of the UK Intellectual Property Office and a member of the Audit Committee of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, a UN agency. He is actively involved in the technology transfer market.

Chris Budleigh ACA MBA

Director

Chris Budleigh is a graduate in Industrial Economics from Nottingham University and has an MBA from the Open University. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloittes and after two years with VSO in Zambia he joined the London office of Price Waterhouse. This was followed by financial roles with Allied Lyons and Alliance UniChem. In 1995 he joined LOT Oriel, a leading European supplier of nanotechnology and photonics instrumentation, becoming Managing Director of their UK subsidiary in 1998. As part of his MBA, Chris undertook a research project on university commercialisation in the telecoms sector and he left LOT in 2005 to work full time in technology transfer. Since then he has undertaken a variety of technology transfer and business development assignments including the co-ordination of the European Space Agency’s Technology Transfer Programme in the UK and Interim Director for the Surrey Enterprise Hub. Chris joined Q Futures in 2007.

Jason Burwell EPA MBA MA

Intellectual Property Advisor

A graduate in Engineering from Cambridge University, Jason Burwell began his career at the European Patent Office in Munich. After obtaining an MBA from INSEAD in 1995, he joined a leading Cambridge product-development consultancy as IP Manager and qualified as a European Patent Attorney in 1999. Other roles have included Associate Vice President of Technology Commercialisation at a multinational tech transfer corporation, Associate Director of Ventures for a seed-stage investor and Managing Director of a technology-venture consultancy.

Q Futures also has a growing network of associate consulting companies which can bring in additional expertise covering, for example, micro- and nano-technology, business start-ups and product innovation