The successful team advising growth companies at St John’s Innovation Centre has been strengthened by the appointment of David Richards as Programmes Manager. David brings a wealth of experience to delivering services such as GrowthAccelerator, which provides coaching and advice to firms aiming to double in size over three years.
David Richards is a life-long technology entrepreneur with over 30-years experience, most notably in high-profile start-ups. He started his career in R&D at Marconi, then moved to Racal, before taking on Executive commercial roles at Daisy Systems, Sun Microsystems (where he was part of the team that launched Java), and Paul Allen’s Asymetrix.
In recent years David has used his Silicon Valley experience to help accelerate and finance SMEs. He was previously a mentor to the DTI’s Software Business Network (SBN) and then an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Mentor to the SETsquared business incubation partnership where he latterly focused on university spin-outs.
Commenting on the appointment, St John’s Innovation Centre Managing Director David Gill said: “We are delighted that David Richards is joining the St John’s team. He brings years of experience of running and advising growth firms – as a mentor, non-executive director and successful business angel, especially in technology sectors. He has excellent links to the VC community in the UK and the US, and he has recently run a start-up in Limoges.”
David Richards said: “I’m excited to start working with the vibrant Cambridge innovation community at an incubator on the scale of St John’s. The opportunities to help ambitious entrepreneurs are exceptional. My international experience will be particularly useful in a cluster where so many new firms look to export at an early-stage.”
