Professor Iain Gray

Director of Aerospace at Cranfield University

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Director of Aerospace, Cranfield University
Policy Leaders Fellow Alumnus, Centre for Science and Policy

Iain Gray is Director of Aerospace at Cranfield University, leading the aerospace capabilities across the University and their strategic relationships with the world’s major aerospace industrial organisations.

Until 2015 he was Chief Executive of Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board), a role he took up in 2007 following its establishment as an executive non-departmental public body. It was in this role that Iain joined the Policy Leaders Fellowship.

Prior to joining Innovate UK, Iain was Managing Director and General Manager of Airbus UK, whose Bristol operation he joined when it was still part of British Aerospace.

Iain completed his early education in Aberdeen, culminating in an Engineering Science honours degree at Aberdeen University. In addition, he gained a Masters of Philosophy at Southampton University in 1989. Iain is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers, and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and in 2007 was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal. In 2011 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a Board Member of Engineering UK, a Governor of the University of the West of England, a Board Member of SEMTA and a Board Member of Energy Technologies Institute. In the New Year’s Honours 2014 he was awarded a CBE for his contribution to innovation, science and technology.