Entrepreneurs in Residence
Dr Colin Adams
Commercialisation Director, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
+44 1316504432
colin [dot] adams [at] ed [dot] ac [dot] uk
Click here to see Dr Colin Adams's Bio
John Colin Adams was in the first graduating BSc’s from the Department of Computer Science at Edinburgh University in 1971, subsequently joining the department doing his doctorate and post doctoral research in the area of Operating Systems.
In 1979 he joined Digital Equipment Corporation in the US, where he became the Software Engineering Manager responsible for a major part of the VAX/VMS Operating System development. He returned to the UK with DEC to lead the Office Automation Software Engineering Business Group and the ALL-in-1 product line.
He helped found the quick-turn, low-volume ASIC provider, European Silicon Structures (ES2) in 1985, followed by the EDA start-up EuCAD which he merged into Cadence Design Systems. At Cadence he was VP/GM of various elements of the R&D business in Europe and the US, finally moving to Cadence’s Electronic Design Services arm which was being prepared in 2000 to spinout as TALITY. He held General Manager positions for several of the divisions within that business, becoming the VP/GM for the global business and eventually merging that back into Cadence. He was also involved in the Scottish Enterprise Project Alba in the late 1990’s
He returned to the School of Informatics in 2006 as Director of Commercialisation.
Crawford Beveridge CBE
Sun Microsystems
Click here to see Crawford Beveridge's Bio
Crawford W Beveridge is a technology industry veteran with more than 40 years of international experience. His role as Executive Vice President and Chairman, EMEA, APAC and the Americas, is to take a long term view and represent Sun's interests in geographies outside of the US, particularly in high growth geographies or where Sun has significant investment, such as the EU, Brazil, Russia, India and China. Specifically he works with governments on public policy issues in an effort to ensure that there is a level playing field in areas of emerging technology policy. Of particular focus are all areas of open - open standards, open source, open media formats, privacy and identity management, interoperability, eco responsibility and education. Before joining Sun in 1985 as vice-president corporate resources, he held HR management positions in the United States and Europe with Hewlett Packard Company, Digital Equipment Corp and Analog Devices Inc. In 1991 Beveridge left Sun to become the chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, the lead economic development organization for Scotland with more than 1,700 employees and an annual operating budget in excess of $800 million. In this role he oversaw business development, venture capital, skills development, exports, infrastructure and inward investment. After nine successful years Beveridge returned to Sun in April 2000 as executive vice president of People and Places and Chief Human Resources Officer. Beveridge is a non-executive board member of Autodesk Inc., eSilicon, and Scottish Equity Partners Ltd. Beveridge holds a B.Sc. in Social Sciences from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and an M.Sc. in Industrial Administration from the University of Bradford, England. He also holds honorary Doctoral degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Napier University in Edinburgh and Robert Gordons University, Aberdeen. He was awarded a C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's New Years Honours list in 1995.
Gerry Docherty
Click here to see Gerry Docherty's Bio
Gerry Docherty’s early career in IT development was spent with YARD Ltd, CAP Scientific, and latterly Sema Group. He was Technical Director of CAP Scientific in the UK, and was Director of YARD USA in Washington DC, before leaving to become the founding Managing Director of Real Time Engineering in 1988. Over the following 18 years, he helped to develop the company to become one of Scotland's largest and most successful indigenous ICT organisations. The company was acquired by Sword Group in late 2006, and Gerry left the organisation in March 2007.
Gerry is currently Chair of the Advisory Board at ICS, Scotland's most successful incubator organisation. He is also non-executive Chairman of New Media Partners, a strategic consultancy in the creative industries arena, and non-executive Chairman of Conscia Enterprise Systems in Glasgow. Gerry is also Chair of the Advisory Group for Common Purpose, a social leadership development programme, in Glasgow and is a member of the Par Advisers Limited Advisory Panel.
Derek Gray
Member of Advisory Group of Pentech Ventures
Click here to see Derek Gray's Bio
Derek Gray is an active supporter and investor in early stage technology companies.
Derek was formerly a Senior VP with Adobe Systems Inc, a NASDAQ company with sales in excess of $1bn, and was responsible for worldwide sales and marketing. He also played an integral part in overall business development, strategy, and mergers and acquisitions activity.
Derek serves on the boards of OmniPerception and Maxymiser.
David Milne OBE, FREng, FRSE
Board director, founder and former CEO Wolfson Microelectronics plc
Click here to see David Milne's Bio
David Milne founded Wolfson Microelectronics Ltd in 1984 as a design and development company specialising in integrated circuit design for third parties. The company transformed into a product company in 1995, employing the fabless semiconductor business model, addressing the emerging market for digital consumer applications. It listed on the main market in London in 2003 and now supplies many of the leading consumer electronic companies worldwide. In addition to leading Wolfson, has been actively involved in technology transfer, heading the Commercialisation Project with RSE and SE and creating a strong interaction between Edinburgh University and the electronics industry for which he was awarded an OBE in 1984. He is an honorary Professor at the University, was a member of the University Court from 1998 to 2007 and received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 2008. Since retiring from Wolfson in 2007 he has become Chairman of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, Chairman of Elonics, a start-up fabless semiconductor company and remains a Non-executive Director of Wolfson Microelectronics. He is Chairman of the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation and Founder Director of Reform Scotland, and independent think tank.
Ian Ritchie CBE, FREng, FRSE, FBCS, BSc, CEng
Coppertop
Click here to see Ian Ritchie's Bio
Ian Ritchie is Chairman of iomart plc., Computer Application Services Ltd., the Interactive Design Institute, and Caspian Learning Ltd. He is Co-Chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Council and a board member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
He is a trustee of the National Museums Scotland, and a member of the board of Our Dynamic Earth, the Edinburgh science-based centre. He is a board member of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. He was a founding director, and Chairman (1988-1990), of the Scottish Software Federation (now ScotlandIS). He is a board member of the GO Group, a trustee of the David Hume Institute, a trustee of the Saltire Foundation, and a trustee of the Nominet Trust.
Ritchie has also been active in venture capital as a director of Northern Venture Trust plc from 1997-2001 and as a member of the advisory board of Pentech Ventures from 2001. He is a member of the ‘Access to Finance’ expert group at the UK’s Department for Business Innovation and Skills.
Ritchie was awarded a CBE in the 2003 New Years Honours list for services to enterprise and education; he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and a Fellow and a past-President of the British Computer Society (1998-99). He was a member of Scotland's Cultural Commission in 2005/2006.
He has a BSc Hons in Computer Science from Heriot-Watt University (1973), and was awarded Honorary Doctorates by Heriot-Watt University in July 2000, the Robert Gordon University in July 2001, the University of Abertay Dundee in June 2002, and the University of Edinburgh in December 2003.
He has served as Chairman of Judges for the Young Software Engineer awards since inception, the Winners on the Web awards, and as Chairman of the Scottish Financial Director of the Year awards. He has also been a judge on the joint UK Research Councils Business Plan awards, the Economist Innovation awards, and the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRoberts’ Awards (the UK’s premier award for engineering innovation).
He has been the Founding Chairman of Voxar Ltd, VIS Entertainment plc, Orbital Software Group plc, Digital Bridges Ltd. and Sonaptic Ltd. He was a board member of Scottish Enterprise (1999-2005), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC 1999-2003), the Scottish Higher and Further Education Funding Council (SFC, 2002-2007), Channel 4 Television Corporation (2000-2005), and EPIC Group plc. (1999-2005), the bespoke e-learning development company.
Ritchie founded and managed Office Workstations Limited (OWL) in Edinburgh in 1984 and its subsidiary OWL International Inc in Seattle from 1985. OWL became the first and largest supplier of Hypertext/Hypermedia authoring tools (a forerunner to the World Wide Web) for personal computers based on its Guide product. OWL's customers used its systems to implement large interactive multimedia documentation systems in industry sectors such as automobile, defence, publishing, finance, and education. OWL was sold to Matsushita Electrical Industrial (Panasonic) of Japan in December 1989.
He is the author of 'New Media Publishing - Opportunities from the digital revolution' published by Financial Times Telecoms and Media Publishing (1996).
Martin Ritchie
MR Ventures
Click here to see Martin Ritchie's Bio
Martin, former Founder and Managing Director of Spider Systems, is a "business angel" and supporter of high technology business. He Chairs Pentland Systems and Stortext FM and is a director of Scapa Technologies, Falkirk Community Stadium and MAAD Operations. He is a Chairman of Chameleon Trust plc.
Martin was the Founding Chairman of Connect and served on the boards of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise and Systems Level Integration Ltd. He remains active supporting academic and other initiatives supporting high tech businesses.
David Simpson CBE, DSc, FRSE, FIEE, DBA, Dr Tech, C.Eng
Entrepreneur and investor
Click here to see David Simpson's Bio
Professor Simpson’s long career has been involved in management and engineering roles in a wide range of industries spanning foods, plastics, radar, communications, semiconductors and nanotechnology. David studied Physics and Engineering in Dundee (now Abertay University) and London, business management at London and Stanford. He was awarded the CBE by the Queen for his services to the Electronic Industry and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. High points of his career include founding the British subsidiary of Hewlett Packard, founding the Semiconductor subsidiary of the Hughes Company in Scotland, serving as President of the Gould Corporation in Chicago, serving as Chairman of Bookham Technology prior to its IPO and helping over 100 new companies to get their start. David co-founded the Elvingston Science Centre (with his wife, Janice Simpson) in East Lothian. It has been most successful in helping incubate start up companies.
