Gerard Grech is one of the UK and Europe’s leading tech futurists. A long-standing adviser to the UK government on tech and digital policies, he works at the forefront of the digital revolution; as the founding Chief Executivesof Tech Nation, more than 30% of all UK tech unicorns ever created in the country’s history have already passed through one of its growth accelerator programs.
Having worked with many of the world’s most iconic tech companies, Gerard is uniquely poised to predict the next wave of tech and digital trends. Tech Nation is one of Europe’s best-performing technology growth accelerators. It has helped stars such as Monzo, Revolut, Depop and Deliveroo, to achieve unicorn status. The organisation has also accelerated some 40% of the UK’s tech decacorns (companies worth over $10 billion).
Prior to Tech Nation, Gerard was CEO of Tech City UK, the government-backed organisation, tasked with growing London and the UK’s tech sector. He supported over 5,000 fast-growth digital tech companies around the UK, working with policy-makers and top entrepreneurs on policies to fuel digital growth and addressing issues such as privacy and roaming.
Since the founding of Tech City and Tech Nation, the UK’s tech industry has grown to become the second-largest recipient of global tech investment in 2022, with an ecosystem now valued at just under $1 trillion (more than 17 seventeen times its value 10 years ago).
Having helped shape both a multitude of revolutionary tech and digital products, and the entire ecosystem they sit within, Gerard has in-depth knowledge of what the future of tech, entrepreneurship, and digital society will look like.
Beyond fuelling entrepreneurship and economic growth, Gerard also works to solve big pressing issues through tech innovation. He created Tech Nation’s Net Zero Programme, which nurtures companies developing products to greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially pertinent given that 40% of global emission reductions rely on technologies not yet commercially deployed. He also created Libra, a programme to grow a more representative leadership among founders from all backgrounds, especially from black and ethic minorities.
In his talks, Gerard Grech reflects on how technology, AI and digital resources can be deployed for the greater good, and how best to create strategies and environments to fuel innovation and prosperity.
In addition to his role at Tech Nation Gerard is also a member of the UK Government’s Digital Economy Council, a board member of Europe’s largest arts centre, the Barbican and the World Economic Forum’s Digital Board and a regular judge on multiple UK and European Entrepreneur Prizes and Awards.
Before leading Tech City UK and Tech Nation, Gerard held senior executive and leadership roles in New York, Paris and London, working across the digital media and telecoms industries. Highlights include a period as Nokia’s Global Director of App and Content Distribution, Global Director of Blackberry World Marketing, both in New York, Executive-In-Residence at Nokia Growth Capital, Nokia’s Venture Capital Investments, and Strategy and New Business Development Direcor at France Telecom’s Content Division in Pais and Head of Music and Video at Orange in London. Before that he was a music journalist and had his own business managing music promotion and artists.
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)?
· The secret sauce that fosters and develops tech unicorns – $1Bn valued businesses – around a geographical cluster?
· The key ingredients that help success?
· How ecosystems are created, and what they offer companies?
Gerard explains what it takes to innovate and scale.
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.
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.
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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