David Gill, Managing Director
David Gill was appointed Managing Director of St John’s Innovation Centre in November 2008. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director of ETCapital Limited, following his tenure as a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in California. He is also an official Visitor at the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge.
Having read English at the University of Cambridge, David qualified as a barrister before working in corporate finance for both US and UK banks, including Chase Investment Bank, Greenwell Montagu and Midland Bank plc (later HSBC). As Head of Technology and Innovation, he set up and ran the Innovation & Technology Unit at HSBC Bank in London.
David is part of a research team which has looked at the funding of technology based growth businesses overseas, and is currently working on a report examining the situation in India. The team’s first report, published in March 2000, looked at the US experience. Subsequently, the team has published reports on Israel (2002), Germany (2003) and Britain (2007).
Janette Pallas, Enterprise Manager
Janette Pallas is the Enterprise Manager at St John’s Innovation Centre with a proven track record in business development and delivery of education, marketing, business support, consultancy and training services.
Janette has wide ranging experience of working with universities and the business community, advising on knowledge transfer and tackling skills/development issues. She has advised pre-start, young and growing companies and received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2008. In 2005, she was awarded ‘Specialist Advisor of the Year’ by the Institute of Business Advisers for her work supporting SMEs in their usage of Information and Communication Technologies.
Janette has hands-on experience in business having started, grown and subsequently sold an IT and marketing consultancy and training business. She has also advised many companies – including social enterprises – on accessing grant finance to support business development.
David Moir, Projects Manager
David Moir is Projects Manager at St John’s Innovation Centre with a long and successful record in manufacturing industry, entrepreneurship and enterprise development. He graduated in Business Administration in 1974 and spent over 20 years in industry, first in international sales in the machine tool industry involved with global automotive companies and latterly in construction where he founded and built a substantial development business.
More recently David has been involved in business consultancy, particularly in the entrepreneurship and SME fields and in assisting start-up businesses across a range of tech and non-tech disciplines. In 2008 he joined St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge as Projects Manager, co-ordinating, amongst others, a European project focused on leading edge business incubation with particular emphasis on new ways of accessing finance for knowledge-intensive services businesses. In the Understanding Finance programme, David is involved in chairing the initial workshops (Finance for Business). He also provides hands on advice and support to the entrepreneurs/companies participating in the programme. David is familiar with the Enterprise Tuesday programme having been awarded the “best candidate” prize in the 2005/6 inaugural Certificate in Enterprise.
