Digital Catapult announces Jeremy Silver as new CEO

LONDON, UK. 9 May 2016 – Digital Catapult has announced Jeremy Silver as its new CEO, a role he will take on at the beginning of June 2016. Silver who is an author, investor and business mentor, has a wealth of experience including the role of CEO at Sibelius Software and Executive Chair of Semetric Ltd as well as having held senior positions at Virgin Records and EMI.

“I’m 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, startups and larger companies,” said Jeremy Silver, CEO at the Digital Catapult. “I’m excited to be able to help grow the Catapult’s 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. Neil Crockett has done a really impressive job in establishing the Digital Catapult; I’m very much looking forward to taking up the baton and working with the team, so that together we can drive these achievements forward and on to the next level.”

Since its launch in 2013, the Digital Catapult has made significant progress in helping grow the UK’s economy. It has opened five centres across the UK, worked with over 2,500 startups and scaleups to take their business to the next level, won over £3.5m in collaborative R&D bids and partnered with a number of major corporates to support their open innovation work including Visa, Cisco and PWC. Alongside this it has delivered 41 projects and helped generate additional contributions of £5m from across the technology landscape.

Of the appointment, Andy Green, Chairman of the Digital Catapult, said: “Jeremy brings a passion for the sector and a great blend of digital and creative experience to the role. He is a successful entrepreneur with a long term interest in the development of the UK’s tech and creative sectors. His strong government and innovation connections and collaborative leadership style will help the exciting UK digital innovation space continue to deliver jobs and growth into the UK economy.”

Silver takes over from outgoing Digital Catapult CEO, Neil Crockett, who announced his decision to stand down from the role in January 2016.