Ian Harvey was CEO of BTG plc from 1985 until his retirement in 2004. During that time he oversaw the privatisation of BTG in 1992, its public flotation in 1995, a demerger of part of its business and three Rights Issues totalling £250 million to raise business expansion capital from its shareholders. BTG was the world-leading technology commercialisation company which had been patenting and licensing globally since the early 1950’s. He was Chairman of the UK Intellectual Property Institute from 1999-2011.
Following a degree in Mechanical Sciences from Cambridge University, his early career was as an engineer with Vickers and Laporte Industries in the civil, aerospace and chemical industries. After an MBA from Harvard Business School, he was with the World Bank in a variety of roles, including agro-industrial projects in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and preparing a new industrial strategy for the Portuguese Government. Subsequently, he was responsible for the Burma Timber and Bangladesh Fertiliser Corporation projects. Later, he was responsible for the lending programme for Guinea as well as having responsibilities for other mining and industrial projects in French-speaking West Africa.
He is currently: Chairman, IP Center Advisory Board, Tsinghua University x-lab, Beijing; Adjunct Professor, Imperial College Business School, London and member of its IP Centre Advisory Board; Advisor to NTEM, Tianjin, China; and, a Fellow of the University of Nottingham. He was a Founding and Board Member of the International IP Strategists Association (INTIPSA). He is also a Member of: the Industry Advisory Board, Center for IP Studies (CIP), Chalmers University of Technology and Göteborg University, Sweden as well as the Norwegian Intellectual Property Institute, Trondheim; the Global Advisory Board, Innoveas AG, Germany; and, the Advisory Board – International Intellectual Property Institute, Washington DC. He has an honorary Doctorate from the University of Wolverhampton.
Other appointments have included: Chairman of the UK government’s Intellectual Property Advisory Committee (2001-5); UK Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Science & Technology (1989-93); Advisory Panel for Science & Technology Policy Research Unit (SPRU) of Sussex University (1989-2003); Board, Process Automation and Computer Systems (1985-92); Companion of the Chartered Management Institute (1987-2012); Air Products & Chemicals Inc. European Advisory Council (1999-2005); Policy Committee of Cancer Research UK (2004-6); Board, London Bioscience Innovation Centre (2006-14); Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (1997-2008); Board, Primaxis Technology Ventures Inc, Toronto (1999-2005); Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council Appointments Committee UK (1999-2008): Course Professor, Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Beijing (2009-13).
He has been a student for many years of the history and trends of global invention and technology development and the related role of IP. He has written many articles and book chapters and lectures widely on global intellectual property and technology issues, particularly as they relate to business. He is currently involved with the development of intellectual property in China and pressing for the teaching of intellectual property as part of strategy in business school programmes worldwide.