Professor Sam Turner is the CEO of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC), a £98m industry led innovation centre funded through the Belfast Regional City Deal at Queens University Belfast. Turner brings over 15 years leadership experience in industry-led manufacturing innovation centres from his time at High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVM Catapult) and the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). On secondment from HVM Catapult, he retains one day a week as the HVM Catapult Net Zero Champion, working across UK stakeholders to develop the HVMC strategy for net zero and to support UK industry sectors in their transition to net zero.

Prior to starting his AMIC role in November 2022, Turner spent six years as Chief Technology Officer of HVM Catapult. He worked across the HVM Catapult centres and industry and government stakeholders to develop manufacturing capability strategy for the UK. Turner has also worked on the Made Smarter strategy implementation group, chaired the cross Catapult Research and Technology Group, chaired the D4I digital industry group, the Through Life Engineering Services (TES) Council and the IMechE Manufacturing Industries Division and The TRIB Infrastructure working group. Turner led the cross HVM Catapult Digital and Net Zero teams and strategy development. He joined the HVM Catapult team in 2017 from his role as CTO of AMRC with Boeing, where he had been part of the original start up team and led the formation and growth of the AMRC machining group. He has more than 25 years’ experience in manufacturing innovation working across the aerospace, steel, defence, and automotive sectors.