Matthew Bennett completed a BSc and PhD at the Mechanical Engineering Faculty at Lanchester Polytechnic, now Coventry University, in the late 1980s, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at a Japanese university. Matthew has spent over 25 years in the automotive industry working for a wide range of well-known automotive brands including BMW, Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin, and he gained an MBA at Warwick University Business School in the 1990s.

His focus has progressed from primary research and engineering, through operations strategy, product planning, with a final focus on marketing for VIP clients in the luxury market. He has been part of several new business ventures, including greenfield ‘start-ups’ for large production facilities and small-scale sales outlets in emerging markets. His primary focus latterly has been on the entrepreneurial opportunity of customer-driven ‘personalisation’.