Kirsty Hewitson
Chief Executive Officer, IUK KTN
Kirsty is currently interim Chief Executive Officer at Innovate UK KTN and also Exec Director Capability where she is responsible for leading teams across a wide range of sectors including materials, manufacturing, robotics, space, and security. Innovate UK KTN’s mission is to connect ideas, people, and communities to respond to challenges and drive positive change through innovation. Innovate UK KTN’s diverse connections span business, government, funders, research and the third sector.
Kirsty is also currently a Director and Executive Committee member of Women in Nuclear which is driving gender equality across the nuclear sector.
Kirsty previously held the position of VP Strategy and Innovation at the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) where she was responsible for identifying, translating, and commercialising early-stage technology opportunities together with embedding a culture of innovation across the organisation. In addition, Kirsty led the development of NNL’s strategy across diverse target areas from clean energy to nuclear medicine.
Before NNL, Kirsty was VP Life Sciences at Ploughshare Innovations, converting defence and security innovations, from across the Ministry of Defence, into civilian applications. Before Ploughshare, Kirsty was Director of Life Sciences at Helsinki Innovation Services and held responsibility for all innovation matters, across the life sciences, at the University of Helsinki. Previously, Kirsty worked within the field of pre-clinical drug discovery including a spin-out company from the University of Oxford. Kirsty holds an MChem and a PhD in bio-organic chemistry, both from the University of Oxford.