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Judges - Net Zero

Alister Brown

Senior Innovation Manager, Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Alister Brown hails from Orkney and graduated from Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University (RGU). After graduation Alister worked in Research and Commercialisation, first at RGU and then with Interface. In these roles, Alister promoted and supported KTPs. Upon returning home, Alister spent 14 years at Orkney Islands Council working on community and economic development. This involved supporting the artistic and creative sector within the islands. Since 2022, Alister has worked in the Innovation team at Highlands and Islands Enterprise. This has enabled him to continue to support the artistic and creative sector within the HIE region, and also re-connect with the KTP North centre and support their activities.

Mark McCluskie

Creative Director, Bold St Media

Mark McCluskie is Bold St Media’s Creative Director. With over 20,000 hours working on a Channel 4 television production set and subsequently having gained over 10 years of offshore engineering R&D experience, Mark leads a team of Graphic Designers to deliver cutting edge video, animation and graphic content. Prior to joining Bold St Media, Mark was a company supervisor for the KTP between AISUS and Robert Gordon University, where he championed innovation through collaboration. With a passion for art and design, Mark’s work bridges the gap between creativity and technology, making him a key figure in fostering innovation within the creative and digital sectors.

Fraser Bruce

Senior Lecturer, Design & Making, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee

Fraser Bruce is a senior design academic at the University of Dundee. His teaching spans product design and business management programmes, with a particular focus on design for social innovation and service design. His interdisciplinary approach fosters design-led innovation through user centred design and systems thinking. Fraser is currently working with a strategic design and innovation consultancy on developing and testing a change management service aimed at helping Scottish SMEs grow. He is also a Co-Investigator (CI) on the Design HOPES research project which explores the potential of design-led thinking and making to innovate and tackle multifaceted health delivery challenges to meet urgent Net Zero goals for a sustainable health and social care system.

Dr Barbara Leeon

Lecturer in Film & Visual Culture, Spanish and Latin American Studies, University of Aberdeen

Dr. Barbara Barreiro León is an expert in media and visual culture, dedicated to bridging the gap between academia and the wider community. Her research explores how visual media and artistic practices shape cultural identities, memory, and heritage. Through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), she collaborates with industry and community partners to apply academic insights to real-world challenges. Dr. Barreiro León’s commitment to knowledge transfer enriches public understanding, fosters innovation, and enhances the cultural sector. She is passionate about making research in visual culture and art accessible and relevant, empowering diverse audiences beyond the university.

Dr Lisa Macintyre

Associate Professor of Textiles (Technology), School of Textiles and Design, Heriot-Watt University

Lisa Macintyre is a textile technologist, Associate Professor of textiles and School Director of PGR studies. She completed her prize-winning PhD, on optimising pressure garments for hypertrophic burn scars, as a part-time PhD student in 2004. Her subsequent work with students, NHS therapists and international pressure garment companies has improved the fit, quality, aftercare regimes and longevity of compression products globally. Lisa is passionately committed to teaching students at all levels about the use, properties, production and relative sustainability of textile materials. She is currently supervising PhD students working on fibre-to-fibre recycling, test methods for fibre fragmentation, interventions to help sustainably motivated consumers reduce the intention-behaviour gap in fashion consumption and flax processing. Her KTP combines her compression expertise with her desire to reduce wastage by working to improve DM Orthotics design and production systems to deliver known pressures to patients.