Thomas Blythe Email & Phone Number

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Technical Director with a focus on delivering core technology improvements and products that meet the technical, sustainability, and economic needs of the textile industry. Key achievements include:- Development and launch of Discovery, a new-to-world lab system that replicates the performance of our Endeavour digital dyeing process and allows for efficient digital lab dipping.- Highly successful launch of the Endeavour polyester process at our production and demonstration facility in Taiwan, in front of global outdoorwear, sportswear, and fashion brands, and some of the world’s largest tier 2 suppliers.- Securing a £0.75M Innovate UK funded R&D grant for the development of a sustainable and cost-effective digital alternative to lamination for the application of polyurethane to fabrics using Novara digital finishing.- Assisted a successful Series B raise to inject cash into the business and support the company’s strategic plan.- The generation of new IP, through patents and trade secrets.Key responsibilities include:- Management of a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers across both UK and Taiwan sites to deliver against the company’s objectives, including the introduction of new products, such as Discovery, and the development and support of existing products, including Endeavour.- Providing technical input and expertise to support activities within other business functions, such as creating media for Marketing purposes, communicating with leads to support Sales, and assisting Finance with budget control.- As an example of the above, using extensive technology and process knowledge to quantify the sustainability benefits and business case unit costings, including return on investment, payback, and cost of ownership calculations, for brands and T2 suppliers.Other responsibilities include management of the company’s 14-strong patent portfolio, communicating with internal and external stakeholders, project management, and recruitment.

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Multi-disciplinary, Director of Business Development role with the following key responsibilities:- Engage in technical discussions with potential customers to assist the Sales team, including in-depth knowledge of core technology and product USPs, e.g., sustainability benefits and business case unit costing, payback period, and total cost of ownership calculations.- Educate internally and externally; bring textile industry knowledge into Alchemie, ensuring that the broader team are aware of the "problem" we are actively working to address, and take Alchemie into the textile industry, such that the industry is aware of the "solution". This included working with some of the world's largest sportswear brands.- Providing technical knowhow to assist, and provide guidance to, the Engineering team, from capture of user requirement specifications and prototype development through to commercialisation.- Used extensive technology, process and cost analysis understanding to assist Marketing team in generation of new marketing materials, including product data sheets, presentation data, and explainer videos.Other responsibilities included liasing with potential investors as part of a Series B raise, application for new grant funding and successful management of existing grant funded projects, e.g., Innovate UK and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, and management of Alchemie's 13-strong patent portfolio.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Textile Technology Leader role with a focus on identifying and developing new-to-world textile dyeing and finishing processes and technologies to deliver new business opportunities. Secured Innovate UK funding and project managed several government-funded R&D projects totalling £2M+.Managed a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers, including the short-term remote management of a team based in Asia, and successfully completed a number of internally- and externally-funded R&D projects. Projects resulted in the invention of multiple, new-to-world textile dyeing processes, including a continuous cotton/cellulosic dyeing process (Endeavour cotton) that delivers an up to 60% energy reduction, 85% waste water reduction, and significant operational cost saving when benchmarked against current batch (exhaust) dyeing processes. Also developed a new-to-world textile finishing process (Novara) that has been independently shown to meet industry performance requirements for a range of functional finishes, including durable water repellents and anti-odours, the latter with an 84% energy reduction and 92% water reduction when benchmarked against current continuous (padding) finishing processes.Other key responsibilities and achievements include:- Supported the Engineering team to ensure successful commercialisation of our existing Endeavour polyester process.- Preparation and presentation of technical data, e.g., technical notes, internal and/or external presentations.- Generated new IP, including two patents that describe new inventions relating to the improvement of colourfastness.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Multi-disciplinary Senior Technologist role combining electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering with chemistry and physics to design and develop our range of unique and proprietary piezo-based liquid and powder application technologies and apply these technologies to real industrial applications. These applications spanned multiple industries, from medical and textiles to automotive and aerospace.In particular, applied extensive chemical and process engineering background and knowledge to invent and develop a new-to-world continuous polyester dyeing process (Endeavour) that delivers an up to 85% energy reduction, 95% waste water reduction, and 50% operational cost saving when benchmarked against current batch (exhaust) dyeing processes. Oversaw the scale-up and validation of this process from lab-scale to production scale in a period of only 6 months. This sustainable (and now patented) process was launched at China Interdye 2019 (Shanghai) and has potential to disruptively revolutionise textile dyeing.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Industrial collaboration with Schlumberger investigating the flow of suspensions using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to develop current understanding and improve industrial well-drilling procedures.Key responsibilities:- Participate in, and contribute ideas to, an industrial collaboration with Schlumberger.- Redesign existing NMR data acquisition strategies to reduce experimentation times by >99%.- Perform hands-on experimental work and provide experimental datasets to the project team to facilitate the improvement of current simulation techniques.- Document and report project progress and results, including presentations and journal publications (2).

Rotherham, United Kingdom

Sheffield, United Kingdom

Supervisor: Dr Stephen WilkinsonProject synopsis: EPSRC funded summer internship to investigate the transition of E. coli from sucrose to glucose as a food source. A comprehensive literature review was performed and numerous experiments devised, conducted, and hypotheses tested to better understand the associated lag phase.

Sheffield, United Kingdom

Supervisor: Dr Jon HowseProject synopsis: University of Sheffield funded summer internship to determine if LabVIEW could be integrated into undergraduate lectures. The capabilities of LabVIEW and its effectiveness as an undergraduate teaching tool was assessed and a recommendation made to faculty staff.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Chemical Engineering, Pass (Without Corrections)

Activities and Societies: Part IIB project advisorThesis title: “Taking Magnetic Resonance into Industrial Applications”. Supervisors.

Master Of Engineering (Meng), Chemical Engineering, Class One (With Honours)

Activities and Societies: Sheffield MentorsResearch project: “Hydrogen Compression”. Design project: “Design of a Vinyl Chloride Monomer.

Gce Advanced Level (General Certificate Of Education Advanced Level)

Activities and Societies: CSV (Community Service Volunteers) eMentoring ProgrammeApplied Mathematics (A), Biology (A), Chemistry (A).