Officers

Ian has more than 30 years of board-level experience in the industrial technology industry and has served as chief executive officer of companies operating in the United States and Europe. Ian was formerly the president of Uniphase Inc, Chairman of Oplink Communications Inc which he took public on the NASDAQ and spent seven years as a partner of Crescendo Ventures llp. Ian founded and since August 2010 has acted as the CEO of Ian Jenks Limited, a consulting company providing consulting services to companies in the industrial technology industry. Ian has been a director of Techstep ASA, a provider of managed mobile services in the Nordics, Paysafe plc., an international provider of payment processing services, and Brady plc, a provider of commodity trading software. He also has served and continues to serve as a director of a number of private companies. Ian received a B.Sc. in Aeronautical Engineering from Bristol University.

Prior to joining Smartkem, Beverley held a number of research and development positions in the technology field of advanced materials at Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. (“ICI”), Zeneca Group PLC and at the Avecia Group PLC. She formed BAB Consultants Ltd in 2006 and for approximately eight years provided consulting services to a number of chemical companies, as well as to the UK government and to the UK’s Centre for Process Innovation, CPI. Beverley has worked in the field of organic semiconductor technology and in printable electronics for almost 20 years. Beverley holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Glasgow.

Barbra Keck was formerly the Chief Financial Officer of Deverra Therapeutics, Inc., a developer of cell therapies. Prior to that, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Delcath Systems, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed interventional oncology company, starting as Controller in 2009 and ultimately becoming chief financial officer in February 2017, a position which she held until 2020. 

Simon joined Smartkem as CTO in 2019 and is an internationally recognized expert in the field of organic thin-film transistors. Since 2001 he has worked to develop high performance organic semiconductors for transistor applications within companies such as Avecia, Merck, CPI and more recently with NeuDrive Limited. From 2007 whilst at CPI Simon had a major role in establishing the UK’s National Printable Electronics Centre (PETEC), housing a range of state-of-the-art fabrication equipment for pilot scale production of plastic electronic devices. The facility includes £35m of capital equipment capable of processing substrates up to 370 x 470mm in size. He currently manages a team of 19 engineers and scientists using the equipment for Smartkem’s process development and prototype fabrication. Simon has co-authored 30 journal articles and has been co-inventor on 16 patent families. He serves as the project leader for the standard IEC62899-203 “Semiconductor ink” within IEC TC119 WG2 (Printed Electronics – Materials) and has previously participated in IEEE standards for the organic transistor measurement.

Jonathan Watkins has over 30 years' experience commercialising and scaling novel material technologies and working across large multinational companies. He has played pivotal roles in managing complex technical product portfolios and developing global supply chains.

From July 2024 until his appointment as the Company's Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan served as a consultant to the Company. Since September 2024, Jonathan has served as the Executive Chairman of HFQ Technology Associates, a materials technology company. He also has served as the founder and chairman of DITEVEN Limited, a technology consulting services company since November 2015. From August 2016 through June 2024, Jonathan served as the chief executive officer of Impression Technologies Limited ("ITL"), where he led the development, licensing and scaling of a novel aluminum light-weighting technology for automotive, aerospace and consumer electronics markets, as well as securing manufacturing partners in Europe, China and North America. ITL entered voluntary liquidation in June 2024. Prior thereto, he served as an advisor to government agencies on cleantech business models, including commercializing novel technologies. From 2008 to 2015, Jonathan held roles as chief operating officer and commercial director of Ceres Power plc, a leading developer of fuel cell technology having responsibilities for manufacturing, supply chain management and business development.

Jonathan has a Postgraduate Certificate in Design Manufacture, and Management from University of Cambridge and a BEng degree in Materials Science & Technology from University of Birmingham. He is also a Chartered Engineer and holds a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance.