You are hereAbout Us
About Us
Foresight North was founded by Dr. Angel Salazar of Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Business School and Manoj Ranaweera of Northern StartUp 2.0 and edocr Ltd. Angel and Manoj take pride in ensuring that Foresight North only engages with projects, which are in alignment with our mandate.
Management Team
Dr Angel J Salazar - Head of Research
Besides his academic experience of over fifteen years at two prestigious Business Schools in the UK, Angel’s direct strategic involvement with an active community of start-ups, global FT500 corporations, and international and regional development agencies, have allowed him to appreciate how the ongoing reconfiguration of global forces, shifts in technological and production paradigms, and the failure to forecast and act upon these, can erode the competitive position of firms and industries as a whole.
As co-founder and head of research of Foresight North, Angel is not only committed to promoting strategic partnerships and collaboration between business and academia, but also vigorously contributes to fostering a culture of constructive, critical dialogue, in open forum, of pressing economic and innovation management issues affecting industrialized, emergent and developing nations, and the UK in particular.
Angel is editor-in-chief of the (forthcoming) “Innovation in the 21st Century” series, and co-editor of the “Handbook of Information Technology in Organizations and Electronic Markets”, World Scientific Publishing, as well as a recurrent blogger and commentator in online forums such as NorthernStartup 2.0 and Technorati.
He lives in a former cotton town in the North of England, with his wife Andrea Elizabeth, a novelist, and their two hounds: Daniel, a boy aged nine, and Toby, a Westie aged two.
Manoj Ranaweera - Head of Strategy
Manoj has undertaken roles in engineering, project management, business development and operational management with multinational engineering and consultancy firms such as Parsons Brinckerhoff and Parsons Corporation, both in the UK and the Middle East. Manoj’s foray into the high growth technology sector began in 2004 after completing an Executive MBA at the Manchester Business School. Having secured debt finance of £250,000 in 2006 for his first technology start-up, which developed an early stage electronic exchange for streamlining purchase-to-payment and supply-to-cash documents, Manoj acquired first hand knowledge of how difficult it is to raise capital in the UK and especially in the North West for a first-time entrepreneur. In 2006, Manoj founded Northern StartUp 2.0.
Advisory Team
David Booth - UK Trade & Investment
David is an experienced business professional with substantial knowledge and understanding of business through over twenty years of owning and managing successful businesses in the UK and the US. During his time in the US David maintained strong links with UK Government organisations such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, DTI and UK Trade & Investment via the Embassy and Consulate offices. He is now using his experience to assist companies in the North West region to develop international trade strategies especially in the innovation and hi-growth technology sectors. For the last four years David has been working for the North West International Trade Team which is part of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Business Support Solutions organisations delivering expert international trade mentoring and support to SME companies across the North West. This includes the delivery of UK Trade & Investment services on behalf of the government and the Regional Development Association. He is a fully qualified Business Adviser and a full member of the Institute of Export.
