CENSIS – Scotland’s centre of excellence for sensing, imaging systems, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies – has appointed international executive Sophie van Dijk to its board.
Based in Amsterdam, Sophie is the co-founder of GumCare companion – a tech start-up focussed on the dental care market. She previously held roles in the oil and gas industry in Dubai with DNO ASA – the Norwegian operator – and in Iraq, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and Japan with Royal Dutch Shell.
Sophie’s skills and experience were recently recognised by her peers when she was included in the NextWomen to Watch 2020, which highlights the 50 most promising female company founders. She will bring a broad set of experience and skills to the CENSIS board, including in business development and innovation.
The latest appointment marks the fifth addition to the CENSIS board this year. Earlier in 2020, Anne McLister, head of digital economy at Glasgow City Council; Stuart Mitchell, global client partner and former head of IoT sales at Vodafone; Howard Perkins, tech entrepreneur and founder of Firestalk; and Andy Ward, chief technology officer and founder of Ubisense helped bolster the innovation centre’s steering group.
Jacqueline Redmond, chair of CENSIS, said: “Sophie is a great appointment for the CENSIS board, with her experience in de-risking and deploying innovation, appreciation of customer needs, and a sharp eye for the bottom line. On top of all this, she is a driven, dynamic, high-energy individual and has great connections with European innovation hubs, helping us to forge even stronger links with our peers on the continent.
“The addition of Sophie rounds off a year of change for the CENSIS board, following a handful of appointments earlier in the year. After a challenging 2020 for the vast majority of companies, our board will play an important role in helping the businesses we work with to embrace technologies; develop new products, services, and ways of working; and collaborate to help their respective sectors recover and return to growth.”
Sophie van Dijk added: “I am passionate about supporting the commercialisation of technology and innovation, and look forward to pushing this forward at CENSIS. With the support of our diverse group of stakeholders, I hope to drive the instigation and development of projects that will end up as successful innovations – or even start-up companies – with significant potential not only in Scotland and the UK, but across Europe as well.”