Innovate UK
Author, investor and business mentor Jeremy Silver is to be the new chief executive of the Digital Catapult.
Jeremy, whose roles have included chief executive at Sibelius Software, executive chair of Semetric Ltd and senior positions at Virgin records and EMI, takes up the post in June when existing chief executive Neil Crockett steps down.
He said:
Im delighted to be taking on the leadership of the Digital Catapult. The UK continues to be transformed in radical ways by the stream of digital innovation coming from academia, start-ups and larger companies,
Im excited to be able to help grow the Catapults contribution to accelerating that process through encouraging and increasing the responsible sharing of data.
Other new areas such as blockchain, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, offer further opportunities for digital innovation. They can capture the public imagination and offer great commercial prospects for the UK in global markets.
Digital Catapult has helped 2,500 SMEs
The Digital Catapult is one of 11 not-for-profit, independent technology and innovation centres set up by Innovate UK.
It launched in 2013 and has since opened 5 centres across the UK, helped more than 2,500 SMEs and won more than 3.5 million in collaborative research and development bids.
The Digital Catapult has partnered with major corporations such as Visa, Cisco and PWC on open innovation work and has delivered 41 projects.