From Laboratory to Boardroom with Dr Rachel Smith

It was an absolute delight to catch up with Dr Rachel Smith ahead of her talk at the next Barnsley StartUp MeetUp, she's going to be taking us through her journey from one of the founding scientist in the lab at ITM Power to their boardroom where at times they were valued in the £ billions. This journey gave Rachel the opportunity to experience so many different aspects of the business that she assumed the role of Director of Special Projects before stepping away from the boardroom in 2025 after 24 years in the business. It was a fascinating interview and I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed recording it. If Rachel's story has inspired you then why not come down to Spiral City in Barnsley on 9th April 2026 to hear more, and also enjoy networking with other startup business founders. Useful links from the video: https://enterprisehub.raeng.org.uk/lo...   / 274236.the_ages_of_gaia_   Free tickets to the StartUp MeetUp events: https://barnsleystartupmeetup.eventbr... 00:00 - Introduction 00:58 - About Rachel 03:35 - PhD days 05:46 - Founding scientist days 11:43 - Flotation and growth 16:51 - Scaling with the business 22:40 - Into the boardroom 33:31 - Ultimate sandwich 36:09 - Close