Dr John Conti-Ramsden gained a first degree in Natural Sciences and PhD in macrocycle chemistry at Cambridge, UK, followed by a two-year NATO fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.

He joined ICI in 1982, working in the Corporate Laboratory, and transferred to the speciality polymer manufacturing unit of ICI Resins in Boston, USA in 1987.

John returned to the UK in 1989 to a technology management role in ICI Acrylics, followed by a short commercial assignment and then a wider technology management role in ICI Resins - which later became Zeneca Resins post the ICI demerger in 1993.

From 1996, John led the Central Research Group of Zeneca Specialties at Blackley, which later became Avecia as a result of a financial buyout of the Company in 1999. This included responsibility for research groups working on polymer development, analytical science and knowledge management. These activities underpinned new developments in pharmaceutical and biotechnology products, ‘environmentally friendly’ technologies such as waterborne resins, and several emerging technologies in electronic materials.

In 2004 Intertek acquired the Analytical Sciences Group of Avecia, and John led the transition of the laboratory to a commercial operation. John subsequently became Vice President of Global Pharmaceutical and Speciality Chemical Laboratories for Intertek.

John started his new role as Director of the Knowledge Centre for Materials Chemistry in April 2009.

John is 52 and lives in Manchester. He is married with 3 children, speaks Spanish and enjoys cooking, classical music and the outdoors.