John Bradford

Current

Flagship Initative Adviser at Knowledge West
Managing Partner at jbsh

Past

Business Development Manager at Futurelab
Business Sector Manager at University of the West of England
Project Manager at University of Plymouth

Research Associate / Lecturer at University of Plymouth
Production Engineer at Crydom Magnetics Ltd

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Education

University of Plymouth
University of Plymouth

Recommended

2 people have recommended John

Connections

263 connections

Industry

Management Consulting

Websites

John Bradford’s Summary

I work with companies to figure out the market potential for their innovation.

I also help people write business plans and to figure out the next actions for their company.

I've done this for the past 10 years. I work part-time on a project between 6 Universities where it fits a University agenda, and part-time for myself where it doesn't.

I organise OpenCoffee and regularly support igLab, SkillSwap, BarCamps, Bristol Enterprise Network and other technology / business networks around Bristol.

John Bradford’s Specialties:

Business case drafting, partnership building, project initiation, PRINCE 2.

John Bradford’s Experience

Flagship Initative Adviser

Knowledge West

(Higher Education industry)

July 2007 — Present (1 year 4 months)

Knowledge West is a Centre for Knowledge Exchange (one of 22 across the UK) involving the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Gloucestershire and West England, Bath Spa College and the Royal Agricultural College, together with Business West.
I am identifying innovative, knowledge-based initiatives that are of significance to the sub-region and building demand-led collaborations. I am identifying specific expertise within the partner HEIs that might be brought to bear on selected initiatives.
As a demand-led initiative I am identifying partners within business who might participate in collaborative reference groups addressing a selected initiative area.

http://www.knowledgewest.org.uk/
Managing Partner

jbsh

(Partnership; 1-10 employees; Management Consulting industry)

May 2007 — Present (1 year 6 months)

Entrepreneurial consultancy inc. business plans, market development, investor readiness and pitching; focusing on engineering and technology sectors addressing B2B, B2C and C2C.
Business Development Manager

Futurelab

(Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Primary/Secondary Education industry)

June 2005 — May 2007 (2 years)

- Drafting business plans to attract spin-out or partnering finance for 8 ventures representing a mix of software and hardware developments. Two were specifically developed as exploitation of internally generated IP (including Patent Applications, Trade Mark Registrations, company and domain name registration, etc). These have been presented to investors verbally at a Venture Fair, in one-on-one meetings, and in writing as investment prospectuses with early successes.
- I initiated Futurelab involvement in building 2 DTI R&D consortia and supported our involvement in 2 FP6 IP project building consortia.
Business Sector Manager

University of the West of England

(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)

January 2003 — June 2005 (2 years 6 months)

As the contact point between the Regional Higher Education Business Advisory Network an industry, I undertook needs analyses to direct business to the best service provider from the network of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and other business-support agencies – particularly Business Links and South West Manufacturing Advisory Service.

- Secured 6 new projects circa £100,000 each over 2 year contract period and supported the securing of a further 5
- When including business benefit to industry partners on the above projects this represents nearly £800,000 value added to the West of England economy (as measured by SWRDA)
- Project managed, reported and over-delivered on UWE responsibilities for Knowledge Exploitation South West project, total project value £4m over 4 years
- Provided direct bid writing support for KESW 2 for a further £4.2m over 3 years
- Developed in-house database to track project delivery
Project Manager

University of Plymouth

(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)

2000 — 2003 (3 years)

- Submitted 3 Expressions of Interest for EU Framework 6 Integrated Projects, circa €10m-€50m using Prince2 method
- Secured 3 EU research projects under Framework 5 (€2m, 18 months, 8 partners; €5m, 36 months, 6 partners; €1.8m, 24 months, 12 partners)
- Responsible for specification, drafting, submission, negotiation, management and close-out of commercial projects (total value £180,000 in 9 months – typically £5k to £50k and between 1 and 12 months) using Prince2 where practicable
- Submission of two SMART Awards (£60,000 each) using Prince2 method
- Drafting Licensing Agreements, Collaboration Agreements and project contracts
- Responsible for Faculty of Technology; Computing, Mechanical and Marine Engineering, Communications and Electronic Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering, Architecture
- Led 2 Admin Support plus co-ordinating commercial suppliers of ICT training modules for EU/RDA funded project (18 months, £256k)
Research Associate / Lecturer

University of Plymouth

(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)

1997 — 2000 (3 years)

- User Navigated Computerised Learning Environment (UNCLE, 18 months, €2m, 8 partners)
- Business Process Re-engineering methodology and Process Based Change management matrix
- Specified cognitive learning structure for software-mediated environment
- Validation with GKN Westlands Aerospace, Spinnaker International, Nokia Fixed Switching and Routerrukki Metaform
- Application of IDEF0 activity based modelling method and development of models in QPR-ProcessGuide4.0 and BPWin
- Familarity gained with Viso Pro, iGrafx – Process for 6 through comparative testing
- MFRG206/MEDM306 – Systems Analysis and Design - Taught project management methods, development of IDEF0 models and database specifications
Production Engineer

Crydom Magnetics Ltd

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)

September 1995 — December 1997 (2 years 4 months)

Teaching Company Scheme (now called Knowledge Transfer Partnerships - http://www.ktponline.org.uk/)
- Developing automated production equipment, supporting design with DFM input, supported production planning with MRP & MRPII theory to practice.
- Development automated production solutions
- Production engineering, Design For Manufacture support
- Production planning, MRP, MRPII, EPR, PBC, TOC, JIT, etc
- Experience with JAVA, asp, TurboPascal, VB6, C++, ADA and PLC's

John Bradford’s Education

University of Plymouth

PhD, Systemic redesign of Manufacturing Systems in SMEs, 1995 — 2000
University of Plymouth

BEng 2:1, Engineering with Manufacturing Systems, 1993 — 1995

I joined the Second Year of the Engineering Degree at Plymouth University from the Royal Navy where I was studying Mechanical Engineering with a view to going into submarines. Unfortunately sailing, mountain biking, bands, etc, upset the balance and I failed the second year. On the positive side, I got to sail in the Fastnet race, gained valuable practical experience with machine tools and ended up doing some very cool research with the University.

Additional Information

John Bradford’s Websites:

John Bradford’s Interests:

Volunteer Skipper within the London Sailing Project. Business Advisor to a Young Enterprise Company in Bristol. Supporter, safety cover for Bristol Sailing School.

John Bradford’s Groups:

DCMS (Creative Economy Programme, Technology Panel)
SW Screen (Innovation Group)
Connecting Bristol (Digital Challenge, Lead for Skills & Mentoring Theme)
Learning SW (Scenario Planning for Education in Digital Age)
Action Learning for Change Management within BSF (led by Nottingham Local Authority)., Mazar Founders, Institute of Knowledge Transfer