Iain Gray stays on as search for Innovate UK chief continues

Iain Gray has agreed to stay in his job as chief executive of Innovate UK until 2015, as his successor has yet to be named.

Gray was due to leave the former Technology Strategy Board on 31 October at the end of his seven-year term at the helm. Speaking to Research Fortnight at the Innovate UK 2014 conference on 5 November, Gray said he had wanted the agency to have a new chief in place by now. “I personally would have liked [that],” he said. “But I’m not worried that there isn’t.”

Gray said the recruitment process was ongoing but he wouldn’t say what stage it was at. It wasn’t “unreasonable” to have expected an announcement by now, he said, adding that he was confident of a good outcome.