Key IQ Ltd was founded in March 2010 to provide business and technology consultancy services to companies seeking to start or expand their operations. As part of this process, we began organising some local events to improve networking and to promote collaboration between entrepreneurs and small medium enterprises.

During 2011, Key IQ founded the Malvern Cyber Security Cluster and this rapidly grew to become a major industry network in the cyber security sector in the UK. In January 2012, Key IQ created the Wyche Innovation Centre which now provides a focal point for many activities in the cyber security, tourism and business-assist areas. The Centre rapidly filled up with new enterprises and this multiplier effect has helped Key IQ to continue to expand and grow its own portfolio of projects. In November 2012 Key IQ organised the inaugural Malvern Festival of Innovation which was later cited in The Sunday Times by Luke Johnson as his best start-up initiative for 2012. In mid 2014, Key IQ founded the UK Cyber Security Forum to coordinate the growth of multiple cyber security clusters around the UK building on the successful model of the Malvern cluster.

Dr Emma Philpott MBE - Managing Director

Emma is the founding director of Key IQ, and has an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Ceramic Matrix Composites from Keele University. After her first degree, she worked in the Ministry of Defence on the Science and Engineering Fast Stream gaining experience in technical R&D, the armed forces, procurement, and business group management. She later became Assistant Director at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency's Structural Materials Centre in Farnborough UK, and then Business Group Manager of Aerospace Facilities at QinetiQ, which included managing the 5-meter wind tunnel at Farnborough.

Emma moved to Singapore in 2002 and became the manager of the SERC Nanofabrication and Characterisation facility at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE). She was also the head of the Singapore delegation on the international ISO Technical Committee for the standarisation of nanotechnology. Later she became the General Manager of Cientifica Singapore Pte Ltd.

Emma is currently CEO of The IASME Consortium Ltd, a Chartered Engineer, and a Professional Member of IOM3. Emma was awarded an MBE for services to cyber security in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, June 2019.

Dr Adrian Burden - Technical Director

Adrian joined Key IQ Ltd as Technical Director in 2012. He has an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a DPhil in Materials Science from the University of Oxford, for which he won the International Pergamon Carbon Journal Prize for the best thesis in the field of Carbon Science in 1995-96. He went on to work as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Surrey during which time he specialised in thin films for electronic device applications. He then joined a venture-capital funded start-up company developing field emission displays and eventually managed their materials R&D programme.

Adrian later moved to Singapore and held joint roles as a Senior Development Engineer and Business Development Manager at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE). There he founded the OLED Network of Singapore, was the Institute's lead facilitator for operational and technology roadmapping, and worked on novel materials for anti-counterfeiting and physical security applications.

In 2005 Adrian became the founding CEO of Singular ID, the first high technology spin-off from IMRE. This start-up won numerous awards including Nanochallenge 2005, Red Herring 100 Asia 2006, ZDNet Asia Breakthrough Award 2006, and Frost & Sullivan Tech Innovation Award 2007. Additionally, Adrian was winner of Entrepreneur of the Year at the British Business Awards Singapore 2005, A-STAR Scientist-Entrepreneur Award 2008, and the JEMI UK Prize for high technology entrepreneurship 2010. Singular ID was sold to Bilcare, a multinational company headquartered in India, and Adrian continued working for the company in both Italy and the UK as President of Bilcare Technologies in Europe.

Adrian is a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of IOM3, and a Fellow of The IET. His business book Start To Exit was publsihed in 2017 and is available from Amazon.