New CEO takes up post at PML
5th September 2008
PML is pleased to
announce that its new Chief Executive, Dr Stephen de Mora took up
his post this week. Dr de Mora comes with an impressive track
record across the marine sciences, having worked in the UK as well
as New Zealand, Monaco and most recently Canada where he headed up
the Department of Oceanography at the University of Quebec before
becoming President of his own environmental consultancy, which
carried out prestigious contracts for government and international
agencies, such as the UN, across the globe. Dr de Mora relishes the
challenge of leading one of the world’s most highly regarded marine
science institutes and is keen to maintain and grow its position
both in the UK and more widely.
The Rt. Hon. the Lord Kingland, PML's Chairman and Former Shadow
Lord Chancellor, commented: "I am absolutely delighted that Stephen
de Mora has joined PML as Chief Executive. I and my fellow
Trustees are confident that both his scientific expertise and
management experience will bring huge benefits to our
organisation".
Dr de Mora was interviewed following his first week at
PML:
Q. Let's start with a little about you.
Married?
A. Yes, with two sons who are both in this country carrying our PhD
studies one in Edinburgh and the other in Lancaster. Both children
were born in Lancaster. My wife, Barbara joins me in Plymouth where
she has relatives, so she’s delighted to be here; she’s an artist,
painter mostly, but she’s also a spiritualist, astrologer and Reiki
Master.
Q. And despite the accent you were born in
England?
A. Yes in London but I left when very young
so don’t remember it at all, I spent most of my school years in a
Canadian school in Germany – my father was in the airforce, but we
moved around a lot.
Q. But academically you started your career in the
UK?
A. Yes, I went to University of Wales, Swansea,
where I did a joint honours in Oceanography and Chemistry; I then
went to the University of British Columbia where I completed a PhD
in Oceanography. After that I returned to the UK where I was a Post
Doc with Roy Harrison at the University of Lancaster. But this was
not a good time to be looking for University posts as it was during
an economic slump, there weren’t many opportunities but I was
lucky, and worked with Roy on the Tapwater Project because I had
the analytical skills needed – it was a great time learning and
refining how I did research.
Q. What brings you back to the UK?
A. The
opportunity to come back to Europe was a strong draw, I like the
cultural context of Europe, for example on our first weekend we
went up to Bodmin to visit a stone circle. It was partly to come
back to Europe but it was also for the position; I’d considered a
number of posts but only the most challenging and this post is both
challenging and exciting. It’s in marine science, which is where my
heart is, although I’ve done lots of other things. To come back and
to lead one of the world class establishments in marine science is
just an opportunity to good to pass up really.
Q. A challenge, but what was the real attraction of
PML?
A. I think the diversity of the work that the laboratory does in
terms of the disciplines, in terms of the research – Blue Skies to
commissioned research – but also in terms of the funding regime. My
background has been in Universities, international government
organisations and I set up my own business, so I’ve always had to
tap into funding sources in different ways so that’s one of the
things that PML is doing. The diversity of the funding is going to
be good for viability and positions the lab very well when funding
regimes are going to change. There are some pretty exciting
business opportunities here as well, when those are successful
that’s a real boom to the laboratory as a whole, some commissioned
research is bread and butter – these business opportunities are the
cake and jam.
Q. So PML appears to be a natural progression from what
you’ve been doing before and especially in the last few years, but
why leave the freedom and independence of running your own life to
return to the establishment world of public sector science – or is
it the best of both world’s?
A. It does offer the
best of both but it’s the leadership role that’s most appealing,
it’s the thing that I missed, especially the interactions with
people. I’ve given up some great opportunities to be here – working
in the Okavango Delta, for example – and a lot of people ask if I
will be a scientist at PML. The background is there and I’m going
to use it but I won’t have time to do science at the level it
should be done and manage people at the level at which that should
be done. The role for me now is to be aware of what science is
being done, I’m here to facilitate good science and it’s exciting.
I’m still on a learning curve I’ve just come out of a fascinating
lecture on Carbon Capture and Storage and there is a diversity of
science which has been beyond my experience, my comfort zone. You
have to be able to judge the quality of the science
overall.
Q. You’ve had a wide and varied career so you bring
contacts that have to be good for PML?
A. I would hope so. I do have a global network of contacts and
friends and some of them, because we’re all ‘greyhairs’ are now in
nice positions to help.
Q. Coming back to PML. A large part of what attracted
you here was the reputation, coming from an international base, how
is PML viewed from outside the country?
A. It’s regarded quite highly. Some of the comments that came back
to me when I told people I was coming here, people were superlative
in their congratulations, clearly it’s very well regarded in the
scientific world, with a high reputation.
Q. You’ve only been here a few days but you will have
met a cross-section of the staff, is it meeting your
expectations?
A. Oh! I think so, I still have a lot of learning to do but one of
the things I’ve found already this week is how friendly and open
everybody is, and talking to other people that is a trademark of
PML, so I’m really pleased to see that it is the case. It’s too
soon to judge in terms of science but there’s clearly a lot of
enthusiasm here, all in all it looks like everyone is working
together with a pretty clear idea of where they are going. It’s my
job to sharpen that even more and scan horizons.
Q. Have you yet been able to formulate an idea of what
does make PML unique?
A. I have trouble with this word unique, but what makes PML special
is the ability to look at a problem from many scales. You can have
remote sensing, field work, laboratory work, real technical and
analytical backup with the economics and in the field work a wide
range of organisms so you can go right down to the molecular and
contaminant level, all put together in the modelling – and there’s
not many places can do that, that can take that whole line and wrap
it up together. I describe the remote sensing and modelling as
future proofing for the lab. With those kinds of things available a
lot of stuff can feed in and make us noticeable, and those groups
can work widely across the lab.
Q. Looking broader where does the UK fit in marine
science?
A. I think pretty high, it all comes down to money. The leaders are
almost always the US because of the amount of money they can throw
in but in European terms the UK is pretty high and again there’s a
level creativity, armchair specialist and leadership abilities; and
it doesn’t hurt that the language of science has become English
which attracts good people from outside, for recognition in the
English speaking world. The UK has taken a very strong role and
this lab itself is a leader in many areas.
Q. A recent report suggest that in the UK there was a
need for more cash for research and better coordination – are they
the only challenges you see for UK marine science?
A. Well those two are really stating the obvious. There’s always a
request for more money, but collaboration and cross discipline
working is essential for good science. With expensive equipment and
maintenance of that equipment you have to maximise the scientific
productivity. Other issues for the UK? The issues are not just for
the UK they are global. The key issues are food security, climate
change and sharing the resources of the coastal zone particularly
when they are likely to be under threat or subject to change. I
don’t want to sound like a scaremonger here, in terms of sea level
rise but there’s clearly planning issues with respect to climate
change, population pressures, changes that relate to demographic
trends which lead to increases in coastal populations through
moving to the coast or tourism. So there’s a lot of pressures and
some of those are global. So the lessons we learn here as a result
of European levels of funding and expertise, we have to take on the
responsibility of transferring those to developing states as well.
I have very much an international perspective.
Q. So passing on experiences as a country and expertise
as a research lab in the form of PML. Are these opportunities for
PML in the future?
A. Well I’d go beyond that and say it’s our responsibility, we’re
one of the handful of top marine establishments in the world – with
that accolade, that kudos comes responsibility. We have to act
accordingly and that means that we have to find the right funding
channels in order to do that. It’s a case we have to make to
national and international funding bodies and to charitable
foundations. We’ve got things here that we can do and that we know
are of value to other people that can’t afford them and need
financial assistance channelled through us. That’s not to say we
are doing it for the money but the reality is that we need money to
help others they’re deserving of the money and help.
Q. Does responsibility then become a key plan of and
strategy for the future?
A. Well I guess subconsciously it does, we live in a rich country
where there are resources and it’s relatively easy for us to do
things. We can do good things and we can do them before anybody
else. But it’s not enough to do excellent work and to do excellent
papers, to me there has to be a downstream knock-on effect. One
example is the anti-fouling work that’s been done here. If you look
at the literature, the anti-fouling has been done most has been
done in N. America and N.Europe. Almost none has been done in
the Mediterranean even, and when you get away from that, the work
done in small island states is almost non-existent. PML has started
to work in Bermuda where the science has shown that some of the
alternatives to TBT are phyto-toxic and so put coral reefs under
yet another threat. We need to transplant that kind of expertise to
the countries at greatest risk who don’t have the resources – and
that’s a global responsibility. A lot of island states rely on
water borne tourism as a source of revenue, but it’s also a source
of contamination and if they don’t have the information on the
affects they could be in real trouble. That’s one clear
example.
Q. Is the area of responsibility and transfer of
expertise an area you would like to see expanding?
A. I think so, because we should be justifiably proud of the
expertise we have here, and other people should benefit from it –
it’s part of what PML has to offer. The other thing that’s
important – PML concentrates on the coastal as opposed to ‘blue
water’ and the importance of that is that is where most things
happen, most things including people live there. It’s really
important that we are seen as the flagship in the UK and Europe,
working worldwide.
Q. The UK Marine Bill is very much about coastal waters
with spatial planning and other management issues.
A.
The other thing that draws me to Europe is the social
responsibility that Europeans have and it’s highlighted in the UK.
You can tell just be hearing people talking about carbon footprints
and the effort people put into recycling, and the concerns that
people have about food security, GM foods all of those things are
so much more highlighted in the UK.
Q. Do you see PML as an organisation, working from a
building, practicing what it preaches as a green
organisation.
A. From the few things I’ve seen already, double-sided printing,
recycling of ink cartridges etc, I think that while the lab hasn’t
tried to fly a green flag, an awful lot of people are making big
efforts – and that’s good.
Q. You mentioned, earlier, collaborations. Do you see
PMSP as important to the future of PML and the City?
A. The partnership will really come together eventually, and I
would want to help that happen. We have to collaborate and we have
to be seen to be collaborating; it should be more easily attained
by proximity. The partnership would certainly increase the profile
of marine science in Plymouth as a whole, if the entities were to
collocate and work with even more synergy. We also need to
interact with the local tax payers to ensure a City wide pride in
marine science. Part of my role is going to be working within
Plymouth to help the city’s profile.
Q. Do you see yourself, in a strong position to
influence national strategies?
A. I’m in a very privileged position. PML’s position is already
very strong and I want to continue that. Whatever the future of
funding and policy we are in a great position – because of our
scale and diversity.
Q. Existing funding sources may or may not continue into
the future, but one thing that makes PML different is the
commercial side of its operations – do you see it as a key part of
the future, is it an area that should expand to support the
science?
A. Yes I would like to see it expand because ultimately it will
support the science, it’s really hand in glove, the ideal situation
would be to have, as we do, excellent people doing blue skies
research developing, unfolding new fields, that we can be the first
to exploit. And that exploitation is the business arm of things and
that is profit generating to feed back into PML, especially in
terms of people – our most important resource – and also in terms
of equipment. It’s part of the diversity of PML that really appeals
to me. Some of these ideas can hit the jackpot and everybody
benefits. That’s why it’s important that everybody understands that
all aspects of the scientific spectrum are important and play a
role. Not everybody can win a Nobel Prize, not everyone can put
together the instrument packages to gather the data. There are a
lot of skills that are harnessed together. The most important thing
is that people are happy knowing that they are making a
contribution – it comes down to individuals as well as groups and
that’s the only way to build teams.
Q. Are there gaps in the science that you have
identified, that you would like to fill?
A. There are a couple of little gaps that I see. Photochemistry
would help join things up even more, and things like environmental
impact assessment could benefit from that. There’s nothing
that’s wrong here, but a new pair of eyes can often spot
opportunities and potential growth areas to improve an already
great product.
Q. In general terms, you’re a new broom, you’ll have
aspirations for the future, how do you want PML to be viewed in the
years ahead?
A. The problem for me is that the bar is already high, what I want
to do make sure we stay there, if we can get higher that’s even
better. In the UK we should be seen as the prime, most special
place to go, if you have coastal questions. I want to see Plymouth
marked as the main centre for marine coastal science in the UK –
the first place that people turn to. And that will have global
implications as well. Another exciting prospect is the footprint
that we have in the Far East, in particular because of our coastal
expertise a lot of the things are being considered and will have to
be done in say China. Because of the involvement of PML staff and
being placed and having the foresight to join PEMSEA, we’re there
flying the flag, just as we are in the Far East and that is going
to pay dividends in ten, twenty, forty years time. That’s another
example of future proofing. I’ve already met up with a range of
overseas colleagues at a PEMSEA meeting where I made a presentation
“PML’s collaboration with PEMSEA" – my inaugural duty – and that
went down really well.
Q: Any final words?
A: I’ve been very impressed with the friendliness and helpfulness
of everybody. I’m really excited to be here and I’m really pleased
to be here, and every now and again I’m a bit surprised to be here
– I’m just totally delighted