Dr Athanasios Dimitriou

Founder | Consultant | Principal Scientist

20 years in timber & materials innovation — helping businesses and universities deliver high-impact, real-world R&D. From hands-on timber manufacturing to academic research, and from Agile leadership to innovation strategy, I’ve spent two decades helping teams turn complex science into results that matter...

My Journey:

I began my career in 2005 with a BSc in Wood Science and Furniture Design and Technology at the Technical Educational Institute of Larissa in Greece— a degree that uniquely merged material science with product development. From day one, I was trained to look at the full system: how design decisions depend on the physical behavior of materials, and how innovation happens when we stop thinking in silos. I became a materials scientist with a designer’s mindset — and that way of thinking has guided every step since.

In Greece, I worked part-time as a quality control technician at the University while supporting small timber manufacturing companies. I was hands-on with testing, production, and technical problem-solving — learning how timber behaves, how to improve its performance, and what matters to industry on the shop floor.

Driven by a desire to go deeper into research, I moved to the UK to complete a PhD in Wood Science at Bangor University. There, I specialized in wood polymer composites, surface modification, and adhesion optimization — building a strong foundation in biomaterials and lab-scale innovation.

After completing my doctorate, I took on a series of research roles at Bangor’s BioComposites Centre, where I led and contributed to EU- and UK-funded projects focused on sustainable materials, bio-based innovation, and circular construction. These roles deepened my technical knowledge, but also expanded my ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, secure funding, and guide early-stage ideas toward application.

Over time, I became increasingly aware of a major gap: while academic research often achieved technical excellence, it rarely reached the market. Projects hit deadlines, papers were published — but the value to end users was often lost along the way.

That’s when I discovered Agile and lean innovation thinking.

It transformed how I saw research: not as a rigid process for generating knowledge, but as a flexible, iterative journey toward real-world outcomes. I started applying these principles in my own projects — building psychologically safe, high-performance teams focused not on ticking boxes, but on delivering value.

That experience, combined with years of cross-sector work, is what inspired me to found Thinktivate: a consultancy that doesn’t just facilitate collaboration between universities and industry — it transforms how research is done, so it works better for everyone involved.