Heather Lewtas is the Head of Innovation at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) whose mission is to lead the delivery of sustainable fusion energy and maximise scientific and economic impact. The Innovation department enables UKAEA to effectively develop commercial opportunities arising across all aspects of the fusion programme and help deliver that impact. Heather was previously the Strategic Operations Manager for STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) an ambitious programme to design and construct a prototype fusion energy plant, targeting operations around 2040 as well as the lead for multiple manufacturing programmes across UKAEA. Before joining UKAEA she worked in the defence and aerospace sector running technology programmes on materials and structures and in spacecraft instrument having received her PhD in Physics from the University of Oxford.