Graham Hillier, Director of Strategy and Futures, CPI

Apr 6 2010 by Jez Davison, Evening Gazette

Graham Hillier's forte is making connections that nobody else has spotted. His next challenge is to bridge an innovation divide that could make millions for research-intensive Teesside firms. Jez Davison met him.

GRAHAM Hillier believes modern day organisations can learn a lot from chemical giant ICI, which employed him and 30,000 others on Teesside in its 1980s heyday.

Impressed by the iconic firm’s ability to unify disparate businesses into an efficient working model, he’s trying to replicate the formula in a high-tech industry emerging on the site ICI used to call home.

The racily titled director of strategy and futures at Wilton’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is gradually pulling together a heady cocktail of low carbon, industrial biotech and printable electronics operations to drive forward Teesside’s green energy revolution.

And his efforts seem to be paying off.

Since he joined the CPI shortly after its launch in 2003, the organisation has created seven hi-tech spin-offs and the National Industrial Biotechnology Facility (NIBF) designed to speed up commercialisation of breakthrough green products such as perfume and next-generation biofuels.

Meanwhile the CPI’s Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) is exploring the potential of exciting new products, from “bendable” sheet lighting to wafer-thin portable TV screens.

And last month the CPI, which also has a waste management and energy advice arm in Renew, was handed £1m from the Government to build an anaerobic digester development centre that will turn waste into fuel.

Finding ways to link this dizzying array of functions, Graham says, can help create the sustainable communities necessary for Britain to meet daunting environmental targets.

The country is tasked with reducing carbon emissions by at least 34% on 1990 levels by 2020, and 80% by 2050.

But many observers say these goals will not be met without a radical step-change in action and attitude.

“The only way to attack these targets is to do things differently,” says Graham.

“We have to think about how we use resources more efficiently. This requires us to experiment by making patterns work differently to the way they used to work.”

But he fears it will take a seismic event - perhaps even the lights going out - before people finally move in the right direction.

“Manufacturing change is one of the hardest things to achieve,” he says.

Change was a watchword of the recently published Hauser report, which identifies a critical innovation gap between UK research and commerce.

The report, by venture capitalist Dr Hermann Hauser, calls for the creation of world-class technology and innovation centres that would fast-track ideas from lab to market.

With Britain struggling to scale down its multi-billion pound debt mountain, questions remain over the Government’s ability to fund such a venture.

But Graham says a lack of investment will undermine Britain’s competitiveness.

“Basic blue-sky research is primarily funded by Government in most countries.

“They (UK government) do have money; they just have to direct it to the right areas.”

The CPI has benefited from more than £50m of public funds in the past year and Graham claims the investment will be repaid in spades - more so if the Hauser review leads to a coherent national strategy for bridging the innovation gap.

His thoughtful commentary betrays an analytical mind that’s comfortable creating strategies.

Raised in the agricultural market town of Ormskirk in West Lancashire, he excelled at science at school and was sponsored by Rolls Royce to study for a degree in metallurgy (materials science) at Sheffield.

A PhD exploring the mechanics of high-temperature turbine blades followed before he landed a job within ICI’s polyester recycling plant in Dumfries, working out how to convert 11,000 tonnes of waste material per year into reusable polymer.

In 1987 he joined ICI’s Victrex polymers division at Wilton, managing technical service teams in France and Scandinavia before climbing the ranks within the group’s plastics, petrochemicals and fertilisers operation.

In 1998 he moved into a sales role within Corus’ construction division, eventually becoming director and overseeing a £3bn-a-year business with 20,000 employees selling 4.6m tonnes of steel annually.

Out of available resources he created three sustainable construction businesses and helped restructure other operations as part of plans to boost sales by more than £150m a year.

In 2004 he moved to CPI and has been shooting for change ever since, encouraging local firms to adopt the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle, relate’ mantra designed to cut waste and boost resource efficiency.

The fruits of his labour will become more apparent in future years as Tees Valley bids to turn promising R&D into lucrative financial gain.

Working out the journey remains a stiff challenge but the man who specialises in making unique connections believes he can do so once again.