Sir Hossein Yassaie on the UK’s need for TechWorks
Sir Hossein, founder and former CEO of Imagination Technologies Group plc, has been serving as chairman of NMI since late in 2016 but he told eeNews Europe that agreed to take up the post on the basis that there would be a number of changes. The result has been the re-org and renaming that will be formally announced on May 10.
“It was my observation that NMI had passed its peak relevance. It has fantastic grass roots but they need more punch. So a key part of the re-organization is changing the board and strengthening the executive,” Sir Hossein said. “In the past there was a focus on traditional semiconductor business. The two communities of design and manufacturing will carry on, along with the IoT Security Foundation and the automotive initiative [AESIN], under TechWorks as an umbrella organization.”
This will allow it to be driven by the membership creating specific groups as they achieve critical mass, he added. “There’s a power initiative and artificial intelligence and machine learning are candidate areas,” he added. TechWorks will continue to have one leg in semiconductor business but add systems and software, to create a broad technology zone covering where the commercial future is, Sir Hossein said.
TechWorks has even coined a phase for it: Deep Tech. Deep Tech can include processing and computing architecture innovations, advances in semiconductors and electronic systems, power electronics, vision and speech algorithms and techniques, artificial intelligence and machine learning, haptics, sensors and actuators and more. Such technology is becoming highly pervasive and impacting many application segments including autonomous systems and automobiles, robotics, smart home/cities, medical devices, clean tech, energy efficiency and many more developing or emerging application areas.
Next: The board
Sir Hossein said it had been important to secure the services of the right people to provide TechWorks and the UK’s technology sector with the required clout and a set of voices that would be listened to in political circles.
The TechWorks board comprises:
Chair: Sir Hossein Yassaie
Chief Executive: Derek Boyd
Board Members:
Hermann Hauser – Amadeus Capital
Simon Segars – ARM
Tim Luke – Barclays Capital
Stan Boland – Five.AI
Mike Risman – Vitruvian Partners
Luke Ibbetson – Vodafone Group R&D
It is notable that a number of venture capitalists are on the board and Tim Luke of Barclays Capital was a previously a government policy advisor working for Number 10, Downing Street.
“It is important this is not to be policy talking shop but also not purely engineering tech talk. These are people that make a dffierence,” said Sir Hossein.
“The NMI had good grass roots but only a few ways to make a difference. This mix of people has punch,” Sir Hossein said. He added that he had been concerned that while the UK engages in excellent academic research and some disruptive engineering it struggles to commercialize that work and take it global, with one or two notable exceptions.
“We don’t achieve scale easily in the UK,” he said. “TechWorks will solve real technical problems but we want the UK to punch its weight in terms of creating companies.”
When asked if Brexit was a threat to the UK technology sector, Sir Hossein said: “Brexit makes TechWorks even more necessary. I am not in favour of Brexit; but the politicians accept that the nation has spoken. So let’s do what we have to do to make UK thrive.”
Next: Reach out
Sir Hossein continued: “In the UK we create disruptive technology but there’s not enough entrepreneurship. We need to reach out to young people, the future leaders of our sector. We’re just getting started with this process with things like UKESF.”
UKESF is the United Kingdom Electronics Skills Foundation; a collaboration between industry, universities and the public sector: that connects employers with students in schools and universities to raise awareness and provide scholarships.
One thing that may change under the TechWork’s banner is how membership fees are organized. Sir Hossein said it will be turned into a modular system so that people and companies can join a single community and pay a fee just for that collaboration or they can join multiple communities and pay each time. “The more communities you join the more you pay but also there will be a modest discount,” he said.
Sir Hossein concluded: “The industry needs to get its act together.” And in shadow of feisty Brexit negotiations set to continue for the next couple of years it would seem the need is even more pressing.
Related links and articles:
News articles:
Segars, Boland, Hauser recruited to reboot UK’s NMI
Sir Hossein Yassaie joins Ultrahaptics’ board
UK electronics must prep for post-Brexit era, says ESCO
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