Art of Innovation

About Ian BlatchfordTilly Blyth

Sir Ian Blatchford is Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group and Director of the Science Museum in London. Previously Ian was Deputy Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He started his career in the City, working at the Bank of England and the merchant bankers Barclays de Zoete Wedd, before joining the Arts Council, where he was Deputy Finance Director. He then joined the marketing and design agency Cricket Communications as Financial Controller before becoming Director of Finance at the Royal Academy of Arts. Ian read law at Mansfield College, Oxford and holds an MA in Renaissance studies from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Currently Ian is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Member of the Athenaeum. He was awarded the Pushkin Medal in 2015. In April 2017 Ian became Chairman of the National Museum Directors’ Council.
Dr Tilly Blyth is the Head of Collections and Principal Curator at the Science Museum in London, where she is responsible for the museum's Curatorial, Research, Library and Archives departments. The team have delivered award winning galleries exhibitions in subjects as diverse as Mathematics, Robots, Cosmonauts: the Russian Space story and Illuminating India: 500 years of science and technology. Tilly was Lead Curator of the Information Age gallery, which explored 200 years of information and communication networks and how they have transformed the world. Tilly studied Physics at the University of Manchester before migrating towards the social sciences, with a MSc in Science Policy and a PhD in the History and Sociology of Technology. Her particular research interest is in the history of computing, and women’s roles in the development of the computing industry. Tilly is a member of BAFTA and a trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which aims to put the power of digital making into the hands of people all over the world.