Lord Paul Drayson
The Rt. Hon. Lord Drayson of Kensington PC BSc PhD FREng FIET FRSA
Born in 1960, Paul Rudd Drayson was educated at St. Dunstan’s College, London and Aston University where he took a BSc (Hons) degree in Production Engineering followed by a PhD in Robotics. His degree was sponsored by BL Carswhere he developed his passion for motorsport which had been sparked by growing up near the Brands Hatch race circuit in Kent. He was awarded an Honorary DSc by Aston University in 2007 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011.
In 1986 he founded Lambourn Food Company, a business based on novel manufacturing technology that he developed successfully with venture capital backing. Following Lambourn’s acquisition, in 1993 he co-founded the Oxford University spin-out company PowderJect Pharmaceuticals Plc. He floated PowderJect on the London Stock Exchange in 1997 and over ten years as Chairman & Chief Executive he built PowderJect into one of the world’s leading vaccine companies with operations in the UK, USA and Scandinavia.
He was made a working Peer in the UK Parliament’s House of Lords in May 2004 and was appointed as Minister for Defence Procurement and as Government Spokesman for Defence in the House of Lords in May 2005. In October 2008 he was appointed Minister of State for Science and Innovation and Minister of State for Defence Acquisition Reform with responsibility for the UK’s science research budget, defence science & technology budget, innovation policy and space programme.
Paul is an experienced racing driver having competed in the Le Mans 24 hours in 2009 and 2010. He has contested the American, European and Asian Le Mans Championships, and driven at Le Mans, Sebring and in the Petit Le Mans endurance races. Last year, he won outright at Road America, and came third overall in the inaugural Intercontinental Le Mans Championship, campaigning a unique 225 mph Flex-Fuel Lola-Judd V10 LMP1 racing car. He became a Member of the British Racing Drivers Club in 2008.
Following the change of government in May 2010, Paul returned to his previous career as a science entrepreneur and became President of the Motorsport Industries Association. Paul is Managing Partner of Drayson Racing Technologies, a motorsport R&D business he formed to develop novel technologies such as high performance electric drives. Paul is married to Elspeth, they have five children and live in Gloucestershire and London, UK.
The abstract for the keynote at I2MTC 2012 can be found here.
Further information on Lord Paul Drayson is available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Drayson,_Baron_Drayson
