Professor Keith Jackson is to be chairman of UK technology transfer organisation Digital Catapult, taking over from Juergen Maier CBE from May 2025.
“A successful entrepreneur and engineering leader, Jackson brings wide ranging experience from industry and academia to Digital Catapult,” according to the Catapult. “He co-founded the successful start-up business Pi Technology, which grew to provide engine control systems used in millions of vehicles around the world and designed a £10 million industry 4.0 digital manufacturing project for Meggitt, working with IBM and the Innovate UK Catapult Network’s AMRC in Sheffield and MTC in Ansty.”
“It’s an exciting time to join Digital Catapult and I’m looking forward to working with the board and management team,” Jackson. “My range of experiences has given me a distinctive perspective about how best Digital Catapult can support businesses, academia and the UK’s innovation community to drive economic growth and deploy deep tech into the fabric of critical UK industries.”
Jackson is a former Fellow of: Society of Automotive Engineers, Rolls-Royce Engineering, British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing and the Royal Aeronautical Society.
The UK’s Catapult network, of which Digital Catapult is one, is tasked with gathering the resources of government, industry and academia to support businesses in transforming fledgling intellectual property into commercial products and services.
The Catapult network was established by UK government agency Innovate UK. It is similar in concept to the earlier German Fraunhofer Institute network.
