Professor Dr Wichit Srisa-an, Thailand’s former Minister of Education, is a prominent and respectable figure in the education administration, development, reform, and innovation in Thailand. He received a BA from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and a PhD in Education Administration from The University of Minnesota, USA. Among numerous achievements that have earned him national and international recognitions and accolade, he established 3 universities in Thailand including Thailand’s first distance education university, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU), and the first public autonomous university, Suranaree University of Technology (SUT) where he is currently serving as the Chairman of the University Council, and Walailak University (WU). Moreover, he is also the Founding President of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) and the Association of Universities of Asia and the Pacific (AUAP), to name a few. His other political services included appointments as Permanent Secretary of the Minister of University Affairs, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, and Chairman of the House Committee on Education in the National Parliament. Professor Dr Wichit Srisa-an is bestowed the title ‘Father of Thai Cooperative Education’ by the Ministry of Education for his introduction of Cooperative Education as an education innovation to Thailand at SUT, which has been a model for other universities nationwide to follow. He also founded the Thai Association for Cooperative Education (TACE) of which he is at present the President. On the international front, he is invited to serves as an Executive Committee member of the World Association for Cooperative Education (WACE) and has delivered speeches at various Cooperative Education events. Recently, he established Engagement Thailand in collaboration with the Knowledge Network Institute of Thailand (KNIT), and is serving as the first Chair of Engagement Thailand. For this pioneering role, he has been invited to give keynote speeches and talks on university-community engagement both at national and international events.
Category: 2017 Delegate
Dr Liam Sutton
Liam leads the strategic development and operational management of knowledge exchange services at the University of Bradford. Earlier this year, he developed the partnership and bid that won University Enterprise Zone status for Bradford’s £12M Digital Health Enterprise Zone with BT and Bradford Council, and he now manages the programme during its start-up phase.
Liam studied Chemistry at Oxford and Nottingham, before moving into postdoctoral research at Sheffield, Erlangen-Nuremburg and Leeds to work on organic materials and self-assembly chemistry. He joined chemical company Clariant as an R&D Chemist in 2004, then returned to Sheffield in 2006 to take up a business development role at the Polymer Centre. Polymer Centre Manager since 2008, he developed the Faculty Knowledge Exchange Strategy during 2011/12 and built the Sheffield Science Gateway as a support team focused on supporting growth in collaborative research activity involving the Faculty’s scientists.
Mr Ian Sharp
Ian Sharp CEO DHEZ Ltd & Head of Digital Catapult Centre Yorkshire. Ian Joined DHEZ Ltd in January 2015. Prior to this he ran a small Business Management Consultancy specialising in helping Tech start ups to bring new products to market. Prior to this Ian was President EMEA/APAC for Pace plc where he ran a group of 160+ engineers designing bespoke products for the tier 1 & 2 Broadcasters around the world. An Electronics Engineer by background Ian spent his formative years in a high growth startup that developed electronic products for high volume manufacture internationally. Working with many of the blue chip brand names in consumer electronics and spearheading several new technologies. Ian also sits various boards and advisory panels including the Leeds City Region Innovation and Growth Panel and leads on Innovation Strategy, the University of Bradford’s School of Computing Industrial Advisory Board and the Venturefest Yorkshire steering panel.
Dr Perry Share
Dr Perry Share is the Project Manager for the Connacht Ulster Alliance [CUA]. The CUA is an alliance of three Institutes of Technology located on the Atlantic coast of Ireland: Galway-Mayo, Sligo and Letterkenny, that have amongst them 16,000+ students from apprentice to doctoral level across engineering, science, business, social and health professions and the creative arts and humanities. Dr Share is a widely-published sociologist with interests in the sociology of food and eating; language; and the social professions. His current focus is on the intersection of social robotics, social care and the work of social professionals. Dr Share has over 20 years experience of management within higher education, and is also the Chair of Ireland’s Social Work Registration Board.
Professor Amir Sharif
Amir M. Sharif joined Bradford in August 2017 and is currently Associate Dean (International & Accreditations) and Professor of Circular Economy. A previous Head of Brunel Business School (Brunel University London), he has held numerous leadership roles. Amir continues to research and teach in the areas of food security, circular economy, operations / supply chain management, leadership, decision-making and humanitarian logistics (and was also an AI researcher early in his academic career). Amir is regularly called upon by international research funding bodies including: UKRI (EPSRC and ESRC), EU, the national research foundations of China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Qatar and Switzerland as well as the British Council and British Academy. He is a Board member for the Network Universities / Higher Education advisory group for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, is a Member of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Programme, has previously served as Governor for Glyn School, in Epsom, Surrey and most recently has become a board member of the Stronger Communities Partnership Board for Bradford Municipal District Council. Amir is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Chartered Institute for Logistics and Transport, the Institute of Leadership and Management and is a Member of the Chartered Management Institute.
Professor Peter Scharff
Peter Scharff is the former president of TU Ilmenau, Germany since 2004 and is currently a Professor of Chemistry. Before he was the Director of Physical Institute and Head of the Department of Chemistry. Peter received his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the Technical University Clausthal, Germany and his Habilitation (venia legendi) in Inorganic Chemistry from the same institution. Before joining the TU Ilmenau in 1998, he served as a Visiting Professor at Nicolas Copernicus University, Torun, Poland. His research interests consist of preparative carbon chemistry and electrochemistry. He has published nearly 300 papers in international journals. He is member of head of German Exchange Service (DAAD) and fellow of the Academy of Useful Sciences in Erfurt. Peter was awarded several Dres h.c., as well as several Prof. h.c. He was awarded honorary member of senate of TU Ilmenau in 2021.
Prof Scharff is the former Chair of the World Technology Network (2020-2023).
Professor Geoff Rodgers
Professor Rodgers was appointed to Brunel University in 1989 as a lecturer in Physics, becoming a Reader in Mathematical Physics in 2001 and Professor of Theoretical Physics in 2003. In 2004 he joined the Brunel Graduate School and was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research in 2008. He was promoted to Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research in 2014. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and the Higher Education Academy. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Havana, Cuba. Between 2010 and 2014 he chaired the Research Excellence Group of London Higher, made up of the PVCs for Research of the universities in London. Professor Rodgers is currently leading the Science and Innovation Audit on Sustainable Airports on behalf of BEIS.
Mrs Caroline Pullich
Caroline heads up Barclays Business Banking, covering the Yorkshire region, looking after the SME market for businesses with debt up to £10million. She heads up a team that serves the diverse needs of circa 8,500 business customers, providing banking and support services delivered by over 50 business managers across the region. Caroline has over 25 years banking experience across Retail and Business Banking, including risk management, portfolio planning, operations management, sales management and strategy planning. Caroline has spent her time working across the UK in both national and regional roles and she is now back to her roots, working in Yorkshire. Caroline is passionate about making Barclays the bank for SMEs across the region and linking in with like minded companies to work together to achieve this goal. Caroline is a Y30 partner with Welcome to Yorkshire, an IOD Ambassador, sits on the leadership group for Chamber of Commerce, a board member of Producer City Innovation & Skills in Bradford, a Bradford Breakthrough member and heavily involved with Diversity & Inclusion for Barclays. Caroline lives in Oakworth with husband Sam where they have a freehold and keep hens, geese and guinea fowl. She also enjoys running, cooking and travel.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Issra Pramoolsook
Issra Pramoolsook received his PhD from the University of Warwick and is currently an associate professor of applied linguistics and English language teaching at Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), Thailand. He is also a senior fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy.
Apart from his academic works, he has been serving Professor Wichit Srisa-an, Chairman of SUT Council, since 2009 as his secretary assisting him with international affairs and cooperation of the university. This responsibility allows him opportunities to collaborate with a range of international higher education organisations, such as World Association for Cooperative and Work-Integrated Education (WACE), Association for Universities in Asia and the Pacific (AUAP), and International Association of Universities (IAU). He is also the international liaison officer of the Thai Association for Cooperative Education (TACE).
Rashik Parmar
Rashik Parmar MBE is the leader of IBM’s European technical community, an IBM Distinguished Engineer and previously President of IBM’s Academy of Technology.
He currently advising clients on their cloud innovation roadmap from a technology and business perspective drawing on thirty-three years of practical experience in IBM. He has worked for financial, retail and manufacturing clients on IT transformation projects of all sizes.
Rashik was appointed to the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board in 2013. He chairs the LEP’s Business Communications Group, supporting business growth across the City Region by coordinating effective and inspiring communications between the LEP and City Region businesses.
He was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) as part of HRH Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday honours for his contribution to business and innovation.