Ben was awarded his undergraduate degree in Environmental Chemistry from Lancaster University in 2001. Following the award of his PhD in 2005 he undertook a number of business development and consultancy roles which focused on commercialising activity across the chemicals and environmental technologies sectors.

Ben joined Stopford in 2008 and successfully developed a new innovation and environmental consultancy division within the business. As Director of Technology & Innovation, Ben’s role centres on the development and commercialisation of novel process technologies to serve the requirements of the low-carbon energy and circular economy sectors globally. Over recent years Ben has attracted in excess of £12M of research funding into the group to support the development of a number of low-carbon technologies spanning microwave plasma gasification through to land conditioners derived from the by-products of bio-energy generation. Ben is also an Honorary Research Fellow at Lancaster University, an active member of energy and environment advisory groups and co-supervises a number of industry led postgraduate research projects.