JRC was born in Mombasa, Kenya on 23rd April 1924. His early education was completed in India (Goa, Belgaum and Pune), whilst his BSc in Physics and MSc in Electronics were awarded by the University of Bombay.
JRC’s first professional role in 1948-52 was as a navigational engineer with the Indian Directorate of Civil Aviation in Santa Cruz and then at the Holkar of Indore’s private airport in Gwalior for 4 years. He emigrated to Kenya in 1952 where he worked for the East African Directorate of Civil Aviation (1952-59) and later as an expatriate officer in the role of Chief Engineer at Nairobi Airport (1960-69).
In 1969, JRC migrated with his young family to the UK. His invaluable aeronautic experience was further applied as a Senior Engineer for International Aeradio Limited in London from 1969-79. His projects included the design of international airports in Brunei, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Dubai as well as reports for Indonesia and Mauritius.
During the years 1974-1976, JRC invented a novel meteorological measurement system (Digimet) for the quantification of remote digital wind speed and direction which was granted two patents in the UK in 1983. At a time when financial support for the development and commercialisation of innovative technologies was difficult to find, he was able to manufacture and sell three Digimet units to customers.
In 1979, JRC set out as an independent consultant, when until his retirement in 1989, he completed a variety of projects for a number of well-known international aeronautics firms such as Rohde & Schwartz, Munich; Preece Cardew & Rider, Brighton and Standard Elektronik Lorentz, Stuttgart. He was responsible for the commissioning of the new international airport in Malawi and the air traffic control systems for Basra and Tehran international airports.
He founded the JRC Foundation in December 2020 together with his daughter, Mary Anne.
MAC was born in Nairobi, Kenya on 14th August 1961. Her early education was completed first in Nairobi and then in the UK, where the family had migrated via Goa in 1969. She was awarded an open scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford University to read Chemistry and graduated with an MA Honours (Oxon) degree in Chemistry, completing a dissertation in Quantum Pharmacology in 1983.
After Oxford, MAC had a fifteen-year career in the City (1983-1998) with Goldman Sachs, Bankers Trust and Paribas which gives her access to a broad network of professional investors. Since 1998, MAC has been working on the commercialisation of innovation and has helped develop strategies to bring new products and services to market. She was elected by BioBeat 2014 as one of 50 female experienced leaders in UK Life Sciences who are challenging the status quo through inspirational work in research, clinical, financial and advisory roles. MAC has been Non-Executive Director of Albion Technology & General VCT PLC, one of the most active VCs in UK healthcare, since 2004.
MAC continues to be an active advisor and merchant banker to innovative companies in the healthcare sector. She is leading a 3-year NIHR-funded project to develop and undertake clinical studies of a novel emergency transfer device and bring the final product to market. MAC has been appointed as Life Sciences Expert by National Institute of Health Research and by InnovateUK to assess applications for grant funding. She hopes to bring new medical technologies to India to resolve many outstanding issues.
MAC has a number of voluntary and philanthropic endeavours. She has been a member of the Development Board of the University of Oxford’s Department of Chemistry since 2013 where she has successfully lead fundraising for the Dorothy Hodgkin Career Development Fellowship, an annual award that funds research at Oxford for anyone who has taken a career break from academia. MAC has been a Trustee of BalletBoyz, the acclaimed contemporary dance company which is an associate of Sadler’s Wells since 2001, having been Chair of the Board for 6 years.
MAC founded the JRC Foundation together with her father in December 2020 and is Chair of the Board.