Sean Fielding, Former Director of Innovation, Impact and Business at the University of Exeter
Sean Fielding is the former Director of Innovation, Impact and Business at the University of Exeter in the UK. He led the knowledge exchange team for over 25 years and took it from a team of one person with no income to a team of 180 with annual income of £100M. He led the development of an Innovation Centre and Science Park in Exeter and was a board member for several years. His team also drove the establishment of a new campus in an economically deprived part of the UK.
He also had director-level roles at the University in research management, marketing, communications, fundraising, student recruitment and international partnerships. In his final year at Exeter he led a major change management programme with the Vice-Chancellor/ President to reshape all the organisational structures of the University which included appointing the entire senior team of the University in less than 6 months.
He was chair of SETSquared, the world’s best University/ business incubator and chair of the UK national TTO Association (PraxisAuril). He represented the UK for the global Alliance of Technology Transfer Practitioners (ATTP) which manages the RTTP world-wide professional standard for TTOs. He is currently a member of the Professional Development Committee of the European Association of Science and Technology Professionals (ASTP).
He previously worked for national organisations where he set up and led joint-ventures for commercialising and marketing national and international HE services. He has been Managing Director and Director of several companies and has supported over 30 spinouts.
He is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP) and studied languages at University College London