Neely is senior pro-vice-chancellor and professor of manufacturing at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Sidney Sussex College. His previous appointments include head of the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Engineering professor of complex services at the University of Cambridge, deputy director of the Advanced Institute of Management Research, a UK national research programme, and director of the Centre for Business Performance at Cranfield University. During his career, Neely has founded several major research centres and groups, including the Cambridge Service Alliance and the Centre for Digital Built Britain, both at the University of Cambridge, and the Centre for Business Performance at Cranfield University. He is co-founder of Anmut, the data valuation specialist, a non-executive director at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and a member of the board of trustees of the American University of Sharjah. Neely has written more than 100 books and articles, including Measuring Business Performance, published by The Economist, and The Performance Prism, published by the Financial Times. In 2020 he was awarded an OBE for services to research and university-industry collaboration.