A Fox is a PhD graduate in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. He co-founded a technology start-up, in Cambridge, which developed a circular economy innovation relating to batteries and extractive metallurgy. Athan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (London), and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (London). He sat on the Board of an innovative company that was successfully acquired by General Motors and has served as Chief Science Officer at an AIM-listed (London) company.