Ceri Jones, born and bred in a former mining village in South Wales, studied for a Business Enterprise degree in the Business School, and said the degree “absolutely changed my life.”
He has a wealth of research and enterprise experience gained in further and higher education with growth and commercialisation key to the multiple projects he has delivered throughout his 30-year career.
Ceri graduated in 1994 and became a graduate entrepreneur, setting up his own recruitment company before moving into various roles in further education including Head of Business Development in formerly Aberdare College, now part of Coleg Y Cymoedd, one of the largest further education colleges in South Wales where his remit was to start a commercial entity focused on training and apprenticeships which further fuelled his passion for enterprise.
Following that appointment, he joined Swansea University in 2001 as an Entrepreneurship Champion, tasked with incorporating enterprise into the curriculum and was eventually promoted to Director of Research and Innovation. During his 23 years’ career at Swansea he took the lead on technology transfer and innovation, created the university’s first ever research office and focused on building an eco-system and infrastructure around research and innovation support. Working for a research-intensive university, Ceri was also a Programme Director running his own external programmes and securing significant funding for his research, innovation and engagement projects.
He said: “I left a small village and came to study in what I thought was quite a cosmopolitan town. My learning experience here was incredible. The lecturers brought industry skills and practical experience to their teaching and the course really honed my entrepreneurial skills, encouraging us to create something out of nothing.
“The experience took me out of my narrow world and opened up the wider universe for me and I don’t think I would have achieved what I have without my degree.
“After working for so long at Swansea, I reached a point where I wanted a change, I had a fantastic career but there comes a time when your life becomes more flexible with grown up children and this opportunity popped up, and it feels like it’s meant to be. It’s a really exciting time to join the University, we’re building and rebuilding and there is ambition which is quite exciting and it feels like I’m coming home. I had some of the best days of my life here and it feels like I’ve come full circle.
“I’m really excited about exploring and building external partnerships with regional and UK funders and looking at our assets around research and enterprise and how we sweat those assets for the advantage of the University and for the communities around us – because we are an institution that is very connected to our communities.”
Ceri heads up the Research Policy Unit and reports directly to Professor Prashant Pillai, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange.
Professor Pillai said: “We are really excited to welcome Ceri to the University. He brings with him a wealth of experience and a strong desire to make an impact. He will be looking at setting up our new Directorate for Research and Enterprise to help us deliver new initiatives, to provide the enabling support to our excellent researcher community and to facilitate the ambitious plans of growing our research and knowledge exchange activities.”