Professor Kauffman is the Director of the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) and the Centre Director for the Research Centre for Manufacturing and Materials at Coventry University. He has a background in innovation and business model transformation complemented by direct industrial experience and the track-record of successfully leading and delivering a successful large research intensive centre. He joined the AME in 2016 as Innovation and Digitalisation Director. In this role he led and delivered successful cross-disciplinary R&D projects in a mixed industrial and academic setting, bringing together researchers from different disciplines and sectors to derive viable solutions to complex business problems and conceptualise new collaborative methods that explore optimality in engineering-business contexts.

Prior to joining the Coventry University, Professor Kauffman worked for over 10 years in senior roles across the UK manufacturing industry, leading cross-disciplinary industrial R&D projects ranging from operational improvement projects, to IT/OT projects designed to integrate engineering teams and generate value.

Professor Kauffman originally studied Agro-Business in South America and later has studied LLB Honours, Law degree at the University of Buckingham in England. He has completed his PhD at the Centre for Business in Society (Faculty of Business and Law) at Coventry University. The main focus of his research was to critically evaluate the impact of the fourth industrial revolution on manufacturing business models and intellectual property strategies in the automotive manufacturing industry. The project was particularly concerned with the implementation of horizontally integrated value networks exchanging vast amount of information containing Intellectual Property.

Professor Kauffman has a mix of practical and research experience in the areas of Intellectual Property Strategies, Innovation Strategies, Digital Manufacturing, Digital Strategy, Intellectual Property Law, Contract Law and Commercial Law.