As CEO of Tech Nation and former CEO of Tech City, Gerard Grech is one of the UK’s leading futurists. He advises the UK government on tech and digital policies and has done for the last 8 years, with more than 30% of all UK tech unicorns ever created have come through one of the growth programs his organization runs.
Having founded Tech Nation, one of the best-performing technology accelerators in Europe, in 2018, Gerard Grech works with many of the world’s most iconic tech companies. His work involves predicting and actualising the next wave of tech and digital trends. Monzo, Revolut and Deliveroo, are just some of the companies that Tech Nation’s growth programs have led to unicorn status. As well as nurturing 30% of all UK tech unicorns, Tech Nation has helped accelerate over 40% of the UK’s tech decacorns: companies worth over $10 billion.
Prior to Tech Nation, Gerard spent four years as CEO of Tech City, the government-backed organisation focused on accelerating the growth of London and the UK’s tech sector. During this time, he supported over 40,000 fast-growth digital tech companies around the country and worked both with number 10 and the UK’s top digital entrepreneurs to determine policies that would fuel growth and define digital life, addressing, for instance, issues such as privacy and roaming.
Since the birth of Tech City, the UK’s tech industry has grown to become the second-largest recipient in the world of global tech investment, with its ecosystem now being valued at just under $1 trillion. This is over seventeen times its value ten years ago.
Gerard has not only helped shape a multitude of revolutionary tech and digital products, but also the entire ecosystem they sit within. He is uniquely poised to discuss how this ecosystem will evolve and what the future of tech, entrepreneurship, and digital society will look like.
Beyond fuelling entrepreneurship and economic growth, Gerard has worked to solve many of society’s most pressing issues, including climate change, through tech innovation. Tech Nation’s Net Zero Programme, for example, nurtures companies whose products will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially pertient given that 40% of global emission reductions rely on technologies not yet commercially deployed.
In his talks, Gerard Grech reflects on how we can ensure that technology, AI, and digital resources are deployed for the greater good, and how to create policies and environments that fuel innovation and social and economic prosperity.
Before leading Tech City, Gerard had worked in several executive roles in the media, internet and telecoms industries in London, Paris, and New York. His roles have included the Global Director of App and Content Distribution at Nokia, Global Director of Blackberry World Marketing, Executive in residence at NGP Venture Capital Investments, and Head of Music and Video at Orange.
AI and Robotics are just the beginning.
New platforms and transformative technologies are dropping in costs and unleashing new business and consumer demands across sectors and geographies. This next decade will see exponential growth in the adoption of these technologies as they start to converge, creating multiple orders of value creation and sector transformation. Gerard explains what these technologies are and what impact they may have on our future.
What will fuel the future growth of the next Technology Unicorns ($1Bn valued businesses)?
Gerard explains what it takes to innovate and scale.
How companies and founders can prosper in the new entrepreneurial age.
Venture capital funding into European tech startups hit a record high of $115Bn in 2021. This inspirational presentation explores how the UK and Europe are primed to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurship and how companies can take advantage of this wave of tech-led innovation, post-pandemic.
Gerard dives into recent trends in policy towards fostering start-up culture and scale-up success. With over a decade of experience in the UK, the EU and the USA, he explains the fastest and smartest way policymakers and governments can interact with tech entrepreneurs to ensure economic and social growth.
The demands placed on existing and emerging leaders will continue to increase in the exponential 2020s. Being engaged with startups and scaleups every day, I get to see a lot: fundraising at speed, short runways, co-founder conflict, managing daily trade-offs, etc. Each issue has its own nuances. But how someone behaves as a leader in the face of and through all that is key. Being authentic and managing it all is a challenging and fulfilling practice. Challenging because it provokes one’s deepest fears and fulfilling because increasing one’s awareness of those fears creates freedom in how best to respond to them. How can one use the challenges inherent in startup and fast-scaling life to enhance your leadership and resiliency?
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