Leadership

Professor John Siddorn is the Chief Executive of the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), where he leads the organisation’s mission to gain a deeper knowledge of the ocean to address major challenges facing society and the natural world.   

Under his leadership, NOC is driving innovation in digital ocean technologies, autonomous systems, and data-driven science for the benefit of society and the planet, positioning the UK at the forefront of global marine research and environmental resilience.

John is an Honorary Professor at the University of Southampton, an Honorary Fellow at the Met Office and a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute.

He is Head of the UK Delegation to the International Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and has led the formation of Marine Science UK, the umbrella organisation, which he Chairs.  He has national and international representative roles and responsibilities including serving on the Governing Board for the National Partnership for Ocean Prediction, the UN Decade Digital Twins of the Ocean (DITTO) Advisory Board and the Ad Hoc Committee supporting the development of OceanObs ’29.

Before becoming Chief Executive, John served as NOC’s Chief Scientist, where he guided the organisation’s research. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at the Met Office, including Head of Ocean Forecasting R&D, and began his research journey at Plymouth Marine Laboratory as a biogeochemical modeller.

Julie Pringle Stewart is the Chief Operating Officer at the National Oceanography Centre. 

Julie studied for a BA in Commerce at Napier University in Edinburgh and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She began her career in the financial sector before moving into the research environment over 25 years ago, initially working with the British Geological Survey commercialising its portfolio.

One of her main areas of interest is the sustainability of publicly funded research establishments having worked with the original Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (then the Department of Science & Technology, DST) team on the reform of the dual support funding system, including the introduction of TRAC (TRansparent ACcounting) and then its implementation into the RCUK Research Institutes.

Julie went on to work at the NERC Research Ship Unit, heading the Finance and Operation team, and following a period as Deputy Director Finance at NERC Head Office, Julie then joined NOC in a Director role in 2013.

In addition to her Director role, she has worked as the NOC lead (chairing the board on behalf of NERC for a period) on the Governance, Responsibilities and Ownership Programme which looked at the future independence of the Research Centres.

Penny has over 30 years of experience in world-leading marine science, and in national and international science leadership. Prior to this appointment Penny was Associate Director of National Capability Science and Head of the Marine Physics and Ocean Climate. 

Penny’s research has specialized in using observations and models to understand the North Atlantic, the changing climate and how a changing ocean impacts society. Penny has participated in over twenty seagoing expeditions, several as Chief Scientist. Penny has been principal investigator for national and international programmes researching the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation strength, variability and mechanisms. She has held the role of Principal Investigator UK’s world-leading National Capability Science programmes supporting national and global strategic needs.

In September 2025 Penny was awarded the prestigious Challenger Medal from the Challenger Society for her distinguished contribution to marine science. In June 2019 Penny was awarded the title of Honorary Professorial Fellow (Research) by the University of Southampton, and was a recipient of the Society of Underwater Technology's Oceanography Award in December 2019. She received her PhD from Liverpool University in 2002.

Natalie Campbell is the NOC’s Director of Operations, responsible for overseeing the organisation’s infrastructure — from IT and buildings to marine facilities, ship operations, Health & Safety, and Legal & Governance.

Natalie has been part of NOC for more than 15 years, beginning her career in the Marine Facilities Programme and Science and Technology groups. Earlier, she undertook a one-year secondment with the Natural Environment Research Council, where she gained first-hand experience of how technical project support underpins successful funding applications and science expeditions. She went on to become Head of Science and Project Support in 2013, Associate Director in 2018, and has now stepped into the role of Director of Operations. Over that time, she has led multiple change and transformation programmes, including guiding CBS through NOC’s transition from Government ownership.

Throughout her career, Natalie has been passionate about enabling world-leading science and engineering by building strong professional support teams. She is also the lead advocate for CSR and NOC’s sustainability approaches, and a committed champion for wellbeing and supporting women in leadership.

Natalie holds a BSc in Ocean and Earth Science from the University of Liverpool and an MSc in Oceanography from the University of Southampton, and is a graduate of the Cranfield University Project Leadership Programme.

Len is the Director of Marine Science at the National Oceanography Centre. He sits on the Executive Committee and directly line manages the Group Heads for Marine Science.

Len was a Professor of Climate Science at University of Reading, where he was also the Head of NCAS@Reading, the Reading component of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. Len is the Principal Investigator of the NERC National Capability CANARI project, which brings together 80 scientists from across the NERC Research Centres to better understand climate change in the Arctic-North Atlantic region and its impacts on extreme weather in the UK and the surrounding shelf seas. His personal research focuses on understanding ocean-atmosphere coupled climate variability and change, with a particular focus on extreme weather hazards and the predictability of climate on seasonal to decadal timescales.

Len’s research interests also include understanding how society is addressing climate change, especially by financial institutions and policymakers. He founded the Climate and Finance Research Cluster at the University of Reading and co-led a flagship project at the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment on correlated wind-flood insurance and European property risk. In terms of policy, Len has contributed to the Fifth IPCC Assessment Report and the UK’s Second Climate Change Risk Assessment.

Huw is responsible to driving growth in NOCs income diversification activities through the application of our research and engineering expertise, intellectual property and wider infrastructure to commercial sectors and markets.

He is also Managing Director of NOC Innovations Ltd, the wholly owned trading subsidiary of NOC and holds a number of other advisory and trustee roles in industry.

Huw has a background in a range of commercial roles in multi-national technology businesses including Rolls-Royce Plc, Safran and Linde Plc.

Dr Maaten Furlong is the Director of Engineering Science. In 2022 he became the Associate Director of NOC’s National Marine Facilities division, where he oversees MARS, the wider National Marine Equipment Pool and the operations of the UK’s research vessels RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook.

Dr Maaten Furlong is a Systems Engineer with over 20 years of experience in Marine Autonomous Systems (MAS).  He has worked on most aspects of the R&D and operation of MAS and has led and participated in numerous science and engineering expeditions. 

From 2013 to 2022 he was head of the NOC’s Marine Autonomous and Robotics Systems (MARS) group and was instrumental in expanding the size of the team. In this role, he oversaw the operations and development of the MAS fleet and was actively involved in improving operational efficiency. He has won Innovate UK funding and was responsible for the technical development of the £16M Oceanids programme for which he acted as a technical advisor.  In 2021 he led the Future Marine Autonomous Systems work package of the Net Zero Oceanographic Capability project looking at decarbonising oceanographic observations.

Jon is the Associate Director for Digital Ocean, responsible for the strategic evolution of NOC’s digital capabilities in support of marine science. He joined NOC in 2022, moving into the Associate Director role in 2023.

Jon has over 20 years of experience in developing digital technologies to advance the environmental sciences and forge links with partners in government and industry. Before joining NOC, Jon worked at the University of Reading, most recently as CTO of the Institute for Environmental Analytics, where he managed an interdisciplinary team of software engineers, data scientists and environmental scientists to create new capabilities for data-driven decision-making, with a particular focus on the renewable energy sector. Prior to this, Jon worked for several years in the Department of Meteorology, working on a range of projects including MyOcean (which later transitioned into the Copernicus Marine Service), in which he led the development of the data visualisation services.

He holds a PhD in physical volcanology from the University of Bristol, and a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Joanna joined NOC in September 2025 as their first Director of People and Culture with responsibility for a team of around 20 colleagues based across Southampton and Liverpool.

Joanna is an experienced Chief Operating Officer and Director of People and Culture with a depth and breadth of experience in strategic planning, operational excellence and organistional development. Her leadership experience spans global financial services and social purpose organisations working with Boards and Executive teams to deliver transformational change.

Joanna is passionate about creating inclusive workplaces where colleagues can thrive; centering the employee experience and aligning People and Culture teams as key enablers of the strategy.