Manchester’s £1.7bn innovation district Sister has appointed a new head of innovation to join its leadership team.

Dr Karim Bahou will spearhead the global development of Sister’s ecosystem, focusing initially on growing the early-stage ecosystem at the Renold Building and helping accelerate the growth of ambitious startups.

The new hire coincides with the one-year anniversary since Sister’s official launch and the opening of the Reynold Building – its flagship building.

Bahou earned his PhD in the field of organic chemistry from Imperial College and has held academic research positions at Imperial College, CSIRO (Australia), and the University of Liverpool. He has also held senior consulting roles at Plexal and FIS360 Ltd., where he facilitated cross-sector collaboration between government, academia, industry leaders and SMEs to drive technological innovation.

Bradley Topps, Project Director at Sister and Chief Commercial Officer for Bruntwood SciTech, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Karim to the team as Head of Innovation. He joins us at an exciting time, as we celebrate the one-year anniversary of Sister and look to build on the strong foundations we’ve laid to grow and strengthen our ecosystem.

“Karim will be at the forefront of shaping this next phase of the project, identifying gaps and driving forward collaboration between key groups in our network to ensure we provide innovative entrepreneurs with the support they need to succeed.”