Professor David Auckland
Professor Auckland is an electrical engineer by trade. He started his professional career in the power industry and moved to Manchester University, where he established a research laboratory devoted to power systems technology. He set up a company to exploit the results of his research. He eventually became Head of the Electrical Engineering Department and Graduate Dean in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. While in this latter role, and following from his own experience of enterprise and knowledge transfer, he became interested in the training of graduates in the art of innovation and enterprise. He established enterprise as part of the university's mainstream curriculum, setting up a specialist teaching centre - the Manchester Science Enterprise Centre and a university-based business incubator.
Most recently, Professor Auckland worked in the field of economic regeneration. He initiated a 200 hectare regeneration programme in East Manchester. At the centre of this was 'One Central Park', which involved the conversion of knowledge through enterprise into new products and services, and training local people to populate the emerging and expanding enterprises. One Central Park draws together the expertise and resources of the universities of Greater Manchester, the local FE college and Manchester Science Park.
Beyond serving as CEO of One Central Park, Professor Auckland is chairman of a number of small high-tech companies. He also runs his own company, Innovation Lab.