About Us
O’Herlihy & Co. Ltd was formed in 1998 and has specialised in technology and innovation consultancy since its creation.
We are recognised for our expertise in commercially relevant innovation and knowledge exchange assignments. We provide strategy development, research, business planning, commercial due diligence and evaluation consultancy services. Our clients include investors, firms, universities and colleges, and public sector organisations of all sizes.
We are especially interested in maximising the commercial value of technology based start-ups, university spin-outs and firms wishing to maximise the value of their Intellectual Property (IP) or Intellectual Asset (IA) portfolios. We have specific experience of designing and evaluating business development, business engagement and knowledge exchange activities for universities, collegse and public sector organisations.
Most of our Associates have been working with us since our formation. We have links to collaborators in the USA, Australasia, Scandinavia and Central and Eastern Europe.
Working in the UK and Europe, our firm has delivered over 300 assignments.
The Team
Donal O'Herlihy
Donal established O’Herlihy & Co. Ltd in 1998. He specialises in strategy, innovation and technology commercialisation consultancy services and has worked at management level with the UK’s leading universities, firms and public bodies. He is a recognised Knowledge Exchange specialist and has reviewed approaches throughout the UK in addition to Europe and USA.
He has advised universities on best practice business engagement, enterprise development and entrepreneurship activity. Donal’s work with universities builds on his broader commercial consultancy experience that has been acquired over 20 years through delivering high quality strategy, activity review and organisational development assignments. He has managed over 200 consultancy assignments. He excels in assisting technology based start-ups and maximising the value of IP and IA to its owners. He is a CEDR trained mediator.
Dr. Dorothy Heffernan
Dorothy has worked with O'Herlihy & Co. Ltd. since 2001. Her background and training is psychology and she is a Chartered Psychologist accredited by the British Psychological Society. She has worked on a wide range of assignments over the last 12 years, including leadership development programmes, skills development, and behavioural change. Research design and statistical analysis are also among her areas of expertise.
Ian McCoull
Ian is an internationally recognised expert on Innovation and Innovation Policy with 35 years of experience in Business Innovation. He started as an electronic designer in the military and financial sectors, he moved on to assessing the commercial viability of investments in innovation projects for multinational corporations. He has set up and exited from his own software firm. As Technical Director of Scottish Design he worked with numerous businesses both large and small advising on new product introduction and achieving real values from good design, during his time at Scottish Design he worked for the Scottish Electronic Forum on developing Commercialisation and Knowledge transfer mechanisms with academia. Over the last 18 years he has brought a practical and hands on approach to developing Business Innovation support in Scotland, he has created and deployed the mechanisms that are used by the main economic development agency to support over 1500 innovation projects in businesses per year.
Jesse Belgrave
Jesse is based in London and has a background in consulting, design, innovation and new technology. He has worked internationally with Booz Allen, supporting SME clients in the Food, IT and Manufacturing sectors to innovate and grow. After Booz Allen, Jesse joined the Design Council where as Head of Innovation Services he worked with 11 Russell Group universities and a portfolio of 30 technology projects (spanning Energy, Electronics, Engineering, Manufacturing, Medical sectors) to define value propositions, reduce risk, develop market roadmaps, raise investment and achieve license deals and spin-out companies. Navetas, a spinout from The University of Oxford, went on to successfully raise over £4m.
Jesse’s recent projects include the commercialisation of a digital camera system developed for the London Olympics, securing seed finance from NESTA for a technology startup and advising an NHS spinout on how to adopt a design-led approach to the development of a new digital health service. Jesse is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has also recently been appointed as a Design Mentor for Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) and his 'Design in Technology Transfer' project for the Intellectual Property Office won first prize of £100,000 in 2011.
Dr. Tim Blaxter
Tim has extensive experience of company startups, technology transfer, academic collaboration with industry and commercialising technology. His experience covers strategy development and implementation, new product development, organisation development, investment appraisal and operational management covering finance, sales and marketing. He has founded three companies, acted as an angel investor in many more and has grown SMEs and corporate business units in media, the internet, quality management and process improvement. Tim was a senior consultant in PA Consulting Group and helped develop its Business Transformation and Total Quality practices.
Alister Wilson
Alister consults in strategy and policy development with clients in the public, private and higher education sectors. He specialises in using futures thinking processes to support strategic decision making and leadership behaviours and has worked with senior decision makers in many government departments, public agencies and universities over the last 15 years. Alister uses a range of stakeholder processes to support strategic analysis and to build the consensus for change. He also provides coaching and decision support to senior teams that are driving strategy forwards.
Jennifer Russell
Jennifer is an experienced economic development professional who has worked in the sector in both consultancy and public agency roles since 1996. Her industry experience includes higher education, renewable energy, fisheries, transport, tourism, agriculture, childcare and the social economy.
She is experienced in the design and development of strategic projects, options appraisal and evaluation. Jennifer was also a panel member of a two year Scottish Government Inquiry into the Future of Fisheries Management in Scotland. The purpose of the Inquiry was to provide a Scottish perspective in support of reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
Interesting Links
Colin Smith
Established in 2007 by Colin Smith, The Glamis Consultancy offers services in tourism and economic development. Colin's experience ranges from "top line" tourism strategy development, evaluation and destination management, to "hands on" feasibility studies, business planning, development of visitor attractions, event bid preparation, event evaluation, project management assistance and marketing strategy development
Eddy Adams
Eddy Adams is a Fellow of the RSA and also a Member of SIX, the Global Social Innovation network. He works as a consultant, facilitator and process designer and is particularly experienced in transnational assignments. He also works as an Expert Adviser on Social Innovation and Human Capital to URBACT, the Paris-based EU cities exchange and learning programme. There, his role includes supporting the city networks, leading on the design and delivery of city capacity building assignments and capitalising the programme's results. In addition, he conducts assignments for the OECD, INTERREG and Eurocities. In the UK he has worked extensively for the Scottish Government and advises the City of York's award winning open innovation platform, Genius York.