News & views

12 October 2022

Leicestershire Business Voice (LBV), the voice for local businesses, has appointed Dr Jen Fensome as its new board member.

Jen is the Director of Research & Innovation at Loughborough University and joins the eight other members of the LBV board, representing the Leicester and Leicestershire business community.

Jen and the LBV board are responsible for offering an independent and collective voice to represent the local business community through engagements with other key local stakeholders, the public sector and regional bodies. It also provides members with a regular programme of stimulating business-themed webinars, events and debates.

Jen Fensome’s role at Loughborough University is to lead an integrated Research & Innovation (R&I) Office that effectively supports the University’s ambitions in maintaining and improving its R&I performance in a challenging and rapidly changing funding and Government policy environment. This includes Research Excellence Framework (REF) preparation and submission, partnership development, support for research and innovation funding, commercialisation and IP services and oversight of Loughborough Science and Technology Park development.

Prior to joining Loughborough University, Jen was Associate Director of Research and Head of Research Excellence at Cranfield University; Research Support Partner at the University of Birmingham; Research Development Manager at the University of Bedfordshire; Programme Manager and Knowledge Agent at Defence Science and Technology Laboratory; and Research Technician and Research Assistant at the University of Leicester.

Commenting on her new role, Jen Fensome said: “Our engagement with LBV is a way of understanding the local community in our role as a regional academic anchor. We’re always looking for ways in which we can make a meaningful imprint and demonstrate how we can make a real difference, such as the new Civic University agreement with the University of Leicester and De Montfort University.

“By joining the board of LBV, I’m looking to directly engage with the local business community to understand how effective our relationships are, as well as bringing my research and academic background to further enrich the expertise and experience of the LBV board as it continues to provide the voice of the city and county’s business community.”

Robin Pointon, Chair of LBV added: “We’re delighted to welcome Jen to the LBV board. We count SMEs, regional offices of multinationals and other academic institutions amongst our member organisations so we have a broad reach across the local community. Jen’s appointment will bring a new voice to help us to continue to amplify the collective voice of our members.”

Jen’s appointment follows the recent departure from the LBV board of Dafydd Prichard, Co-Founder and joint Managing Director of Leicester-based creative communications agency, Cite.