
Bill Wicksteed was part of the first intake to the University of York in 1963 and has a degree in economics with statistics.
Career to date
He has recently retired from the consultancy SQW Ltd having helped guide the firm's development since 1984. Prior to that he worked first in the City, then for a firm of architects and planners and the Welsh Development Agency. Through this work he has gained varied experience in strategy formulation, plan preparation, project appraisal and the evaluation of policy programmes.
Work focus
In recent years he has focused on three topics: research commercialisation (including university spin-outs); regional innovation policy (covering regions in the UK and overseas); and the development of places as nodes of excellence in the global knowledge economy. His experience of work outside the UK, covers countries in Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia. He was a member of the Advisory Panel for Singapore's one north development for its first 8 years.
Until reaching retirement age he held a part time post with IfM as an SRA. He is currently a visiting research fellow and in 2023/4 focussed on the supply and demand for technicians in Cambridge’s high tech cluster.
His final contribution to SQW’s work, in 2024, was as an adviser for the evaluative review of the English Government’s Office for Technology Transfer.

- Institute for Manufacturing
- 17 Charles Babbage Road
- Cambridge CB3 0FS
Research
- Artificial Intelligence
- Asset Management
- Business Model Innovation
- Computer Aided Manufacturing
- Decision-Making for Emerging Technologies
- Design Management
- Digital Manufacturing
- Distributed Information & Automation Laboratory
- Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing
- Healthcare
- Industrial Photonics
- Industrial Resilience
- Industrial Sustainability
- Inkjet Research
- Innovation and Intellectual Property
- International Manufacturing
- Manufacturing Industry Education Research
- NanoManufacturing
- Science, Technology & Innovation Policy
- Strategy and Performance
- Technology Enterprise
- Technology Management
- Service Alliance
- University Commercialisation and Innovation Policy Evidence Unit