ChampionScott Partners announces the appointment of Ken Olisa as President of the 2011 European Tech Tour, Web & Mobility Summit Conference. Ken is currently the Chairman of Restoration Partners, a boutique technology merchant bank.
Ken’s technology career spans over 30 years, commencing with IBM. At IBM, he held various posts in systems engineering and sales and marketing, before joining Wang Laboratories in 1981. At Wang, he held roles in marketing, sales, R&D and general management. His last posts were VP Worldwide Marketing and SVP & General Manager of Europe, Africa & the Middle East.
Ken left Wang to found Interregnum, a UK-based technology merchant bank. He led Interregnum through the rollercoaster ride of its early growth; its entry into and exit from a joint venture with BDO Stoy Hayward; the IPO on London’s AIM exchange in 2000 and the tricky years that followed the collapse of the dotcom boom.
At Interregnum, Ken worked at the forefront of the entrepreneur/technology growth cycle and served on the Boards of many of Interregnum’s investments and advisory clients. He had some interesting firsts including Chairing Voss Net – UK’s first publicly listed ISP at its IPO and DMATEK – the first Israeli technology company to be listed on AIM. Ken was also a principal advisor and Director of uDate.com, which became one of the UK’s few dotcom successes when it was sold to Barry Diller’s USA Interactive in 2003. Ken retired from Interregnum in 2006.
Ken is currently a Director of Thomson Reuters and FTSE 50 ENRC (Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation) where he serves on the Audit, and Remuneration Committees. He was a Director (and Chair of the Remuneration Committee) of Canada’s largest software developer, Open Text Corporation, for a decade until December 2008. In addition, he serves on the Board of, or is an advisor to, several innovative privately-held companies.
Ken’s knowledge and experience of large and small enterprises, technology and marketing, and his willingness to speak his mind, makes him an in-demand public speaker. A believer in the Victorian ethos that successful commerce is the fuel of public service, Ken is a Freeman of the City of London; Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists; a Director of the Thomson Reuters Foundation; Chairman of Thames Reach (a charity working to shelter and resettle the homeless in London); Vice President of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT; a past member of the Government’s Women’s Enterprise Taskforce and was an inaugural Postal Services Commissioner from 2001 to 2004. In 2009, he was appointed to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the body charged with managing MPs’ expenses, pay and pensions.
Ken was named 2009 Sunday Times UK Not for Profit Non Executive Director of the year and he is a past winner of the BVCA/Real Deals Private Equity Personality of the Year. In 2010, he was awarded an OBE for his services to the homeless of London.
Ken has a Masters from Cambridge University (Fitzwilliam College), where he read Natural, Social, Political and Management Sciences.
About ChampionScott Partners
ChampionScott Partners is the world’s premier retained executive search firm. Our specialty is senior leadership appointments in technology and technology-enabled companies, including related growth industries. Our client base encompasses both start-ups and global 500 companies. From our offices in Asia, Europe and the US, our partners recruit board directors, CEOs and senior executive leadership. We have successfully recruited senior management for leading companies in the U.S., China, Japan, EU, and India. Our partners proven global operating and executive search expertise is applied to every search and integral to the success of the business strategies that shape our clients’ companies. For more information, visit www.championscott.com.
About Restoration Partners
With Partners based in London and California, Restoration is a boutique technology merchant bank, offering advisory services to technology companies. The partners possess operational and corporate finance experience, gained on both sides of the Atlantic, in public and private companies and over most of the lifetime of the IT industry. That expertise is applied, in combination with our creative skills, powerful network and access to capital to work with like-minded leaders to take advantage of the wealth creating power of the next big wave.
About the European Tech Tour Web & Mobility Summit
The European Tech Tour Association (ETT) was founded in Geneva in 1998 in response to the growing interest in emerging technology companies in various European regions. ETT is an independent, not-for-profit organisation composed of key contributors to the high technology industry. The Association recognises that continued prosperity in Europe lies in its ability to transform today’s innovative projects into tomorrow’s global technology leaders.
The European Tech Tour Association will present its third Web & Mobility Summit in the Fall of 2011 with 120 delegates and 25 presenting CEOs with the objective of identifying the upcoming and leading top 25+ high-growth privately held web and mobility companies in Europe and to introduce them to key European, US and Asian investors and professionals who can assist in their global expansion.