Our team

Ian Laing

Chairman

Ian Laing has had an entrepreneurial career in commercial property and early stage science and technology companies.

He worked for English Property Corporation plc for 13 years, initially as general manager of overseas operations in Australia, Brussels and Paris and subsequently as a main board director with responsibility for the Group's overseas properties, the UK industrial portfolio and trading subsidiaries.

In 1984 Ian Laing and his business partner, Nick Cross, completed a management buy-out of Lansdown Estates Group Ltd, which owned the Milton Park Estate in Oxfordshire. Mr Laing was managing director until 1993 and then chairman of Milton Park until 2006. During this period the site was transformed from a former ordnance depot into one of Europe's leading mixed-use business parks, with a growing concentration of science and technology-based businesses.

Together with Nick Cross, Ian Laing has been a founding shareholder and non-executive director of a series of new high-tech businesses, including Oxford Asymmetry International plc (chiral and combinatorial chemistry - resigned 2000), Oxford Semiconductor Ltd (semiconductor design - resigned 2005), Oxagen Ltd (genomics - resigned 2001) and Doctors.net.uk Ltd (internet provider for the medical profession). He has also supported other Oxfordshire science and technology-based businesses, and is a non-executive director of Sussex Place Ventures Ltd and Bamboo Investments plc, both of which specialise in seedcorn funding of early-stage companies.

Ian Laing is also a shareholder and non-executive director of Stanhope plc, which creates major commercial and mixed-use developments in London and the south east.

Ian Laing was a non-executive director of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust between 1993 and 1998 and a Governor and Deputy Chairman of London Business School between 1996 and 2005. He is currently a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company and an Honorary Fellow of Green College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

Sir Michael Lyons

Following a distinguished career in local government Sir Michael Lyons now acts as a strategic adviser to a range of organisations in the public and private sectors.

Sir Michael completed a four year term as chairman of the BBC in 2011 and is a former chief executive of Birmingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and Wolverhampton Borough Council.

He is chairman of the English Cities Fund, which aims to bring together the public and private sectors to promote sustainable urban regeneration, and of Participle Ltd and Tindal Street Press.

He is also a non-executive director of Mouchel Group plc and Wragge & Co solicitors, and a strategic adviser to CB Richard Ellis.

He was formerly acting chairman of the Audit Commission, professor of Public Policy at Birmingham University and chairman of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He completed a ten year term as a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2011.

Sir Michael Lyons led a major government sponsored enquiry on the Role and Funding of Local Government (pub spring 2007) and was responsible for the 2004 Lyons Review of Public Sector relocation for the Treasury.

Roger Quince

Roger Quince combines experience at board level in industry and property investment with consultancy in the field of public policy.

Roger Quince is a co-founder of SQW and a former managing director of the company. As well as leading the development of the firm to become one of the foremost in its field he directed many of SQW's flagship projects, principally in the science and technology field. His consultancy experience includes a strong international dimension, with assignments spanning the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Mediterranean, and several countries in Western and Eastern Europe.

Mr Quince is a former executive director of MEPC Ltd, one of the UK's leading property companies, and was responsible for three business parks including Granta Park near Cambridge which is focused on the biotechnology sector.

Roger Quince is chair of a medium sized NHS acute hospital in Suffolk and also chairs the Cambridge Music Festival, a triennial classical music festival which comprises over 70 separate events.

Sir William Wells

Sir William Wells' career encompasses senior positions in public health, commercial property, insurance and small business.

Sir William is currently chairman of ADL, an AIM-listed care home provider; CMG plc, a specialist in the care of adults and children with learning difficulties; Transform plc; the Cosmetic Surgery Co; Restore plc, an information storage management company, and Guy's & St Thomas' Charitable Foundation.

Sir William was managing partner and then chairman of Chesterton chartered surveyors for 34 years, where he oversaw their transition from a private partnership to a listed company. In the private sector, his other former experience includes non-executive director roles with AMP (UK) which acquired the Pearl Group, London Life, NPI and Henderson. He guided AMP (UK) through a disposal programme leading to the refloating of Henderson Group plc and of Exel plc, which was subsequently acquired by Deutsche Post.

In the public sector, he was chairman of the Department of Health's Commercial Advisory Board, which advised ministers on the effects of policy on the private sector, and chairman of the NHS Appointments Commission, which he established in 2001. Sir William was also a former governor of the Royal Free Hospital, London, and regional chairman of the South Thames Region.

Chris Green

Group Chief Executive Officer

Chris Green has been Chief Executive Officer of SQW Group since 2006, and was previously managing director of subsidiary company, SQW, for eight years. He led a management buy-out of SQW in 2004 and negotiated a merger with Oxford Innovation in 2006, which brought OI into the SQW Group.

Mr Green has 33 years experience of economic development and planning work in the public and private sectors, including 23 years consultancy experience with SQW. He has directed a range of projects throughout the UK and internationally on technology-based development, urban and regional regeneration, education/industry links, business growth, tourism and institutional development.

Mr Green has also led work on proposals for the re-use of major employment sites and on inward investment. His international work has included projects on small business and technology development, and organisational re-structuring, in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Hong Kong/China, Croatia, Denmark, Indonesia, Malawi, Mauritius and Pakistan.

Prior to joining SQW in 1987, Chris Green had approximately 10 years experience of work in local government and economic development, primarily in the UK.

Andrew Strivens

Group Chief Operating Officer

Andrew Strivens has overall responsibility for central support functions at SQW Group, with a particular focus on Finance and Human Resources.

Prior to joining SQW Group, he was Chief Operating Officer, Finance Director and Company Secretary at TMG, an IT-based professional services firm.

Andrew was also formerly Chief Operating Officer at the London office of Weil Gotshal & Manges, a New York based city law firm, ranked 12th globally, where he led a turnaround of the office’s financial performance and substantially improved the HR services.

Andrew trained as an accountant at Coopers & Lybrand and subsequently worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers as a management consultant.