Meet the Team

With over 20 years’ experience in economic development through regeneration and innovation in the North East of England, and working across the UK and Europe, Estelle has a thorough understanding of the national and local innovation and access to finance ecosystems.

Elaine is a qualified ACCA chartered accountant with over 25 years financial experience in a variety of public and private sector businesses, including SME, medium and large corporate.  At the SuperNetwork she is responsible for company financial accounting, strategy, planning and reporting and leads in the financial delivery of company projects and compliance.

Laura works across both the Innovation SuperNetwork and the region’s tech cluster, Dynamo North East. Laura leads the Service Delivery Centre and Future of Entertainment clusters, she explores challenges in these areas and works with North East businesses to create and develop solutions.

For over 25 years Peter has been implementing commercial strategies for start-ups and larger multinational organisations across Europe building strong commercial pipelines for long term growth and investment. He has now re-established his base in the North East and is focused on helping develop businesses enabling inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

Joy has a depth of experience from her varied career in finance roles and now assists the ISN Head of Finance, CEO and Directors and wider team with behind-the-scenes administration, finance processing and all round internal support of people and projects.

Kevin’s expertise lies within data integrity & accuracy, performance reporting and impact of funded projects. Kevin also holds experience in partner liaison and creation of new digital systems to improve business efficiency & efficacy.

Gill has significant experience working in compliance, audit, evidence preparation, reporting, and evaluation. She is responsible for managing the highly regulated compliance processes associated with public funding, procurement and overseeing the collection of evidence for reporting and audit purposes across a range of projects.

Shelley takes a strategic and holistic approach to engaging audiences, changing perceptions and building communities. She has a track-record of delivering often complex communications projects in the non-profit sector working with high-level stakeholders.

Jen leads in the strategic delivery of all events across Innovation SuperNetwork’s different programmes. With a background in marketing, communications and delivering large scale business events, Jen takes a holistic approach to engaging audiences.

Natalie is a knowledgeable digital marketing specialist and works across the SuperNetwork’s full programme of activity to ensure our digital campaigns land with our audiences in an engaging and informative way.

Using her previous experience with delivering successful business marketing campaigns and content, Hannah supports the delivery of PR, events and digital communications activity across Innovation SuperNetwork.

With a background in Art & Design, more than a decade’s experience in print and pre-press, and an art studio where he produces his own original work, Neil brings creative flair to the impactful and clear digital and printed visuals, which supports Innovation SuperNetwork’s many diverse projects and communications.

With over 20 years’ experience delivering and leading teams to deliver intensive business growth support, he has worked across all five regional universities, the public and private sectors and a role with the North East Satellite Application Centre. Graeme has significant strength of knowledge across the regional innovation landscape and leads our Innovation Support team working across the region’s key clusters.

Christine works across the Innovation SuperNetwork and the Academic Health Science Network and is responsible for developing and expanding the Health Network North initiative – a programme of activity designed to connect businesses with innovation opportunities in the NHS.

Michelle has a wealth of experience in business support, delivering publicly funded projects and helping hundreds of startup and scaleup companies to launch products and services over the last 15 years.  

Andrew is an award-winning Product Designer specialising in sustainable, ethical and human-centred products. As Founder and CEO of iF.Vehicles, Andrew brings his experience as an entrepreneur to support other fledging companies through the Innovation SuperNetwork support portfolio, including in the energy sector and with Access to Finance.  

Parveer works on our Digital Cluster Development project, providing specialist support to North of Tyne-based businesses seeking investment and funding for digital and tech innovation projects.

With experience supporting some of the region’s most innovative companies and running their own tech startups, Karl works in the Access to Finance team, helping entrepreneurs with investor readiness and bridging the gap between companies and investment.

Sarah is a passionate Open Innovation specialist with  a breadth of knowledge in the development of successful innovation programmes and interventions across a range of sectors. She leads the delivery of Challenge North Tyne and her work combines best practice from design-led innovation, agile project management, lean start-up and systems thinking.

Lysa has worked as a coach, facilitator, trainer or management consultant within every industry imaginable. She understands that business is people, so she combines her knowledge and experience of business with psychology to help bring out the best in people and organisations. She supports the delivery of the Challenge North Tyne project.

With specialisms in innovation, intellectual property & technology transfer, Wayne works with North of Tyne-based businesses to support their adoption of, and work to develop, innovative tech solutions. He delivers across both the Digital Cluster Development project and the North of Tyne Innovation Recovery Grant.

As a business strategist who specialises in sustainability, Katrina works with leaders and senior teams to integrate environmental and social impact goals into their overall business strategy. At the SuperNetwork, Katrina spends time with growing and emerging digital businesses to help them embed good environmental and sustainable practice into their business models.  

An expert in design-thinking, Angela supports innovating businesses to connect, collaborate and tap into new market opportunities as part of the Digital Cluster Development project. 

Lynda has a background in the creative industries and brings with her expertise in brand and marketing to support innovating businesses as part of the Digital Cluster Development Project.