Speaker: Ray Piggott

About this event

Why does the USA repeatedly produce successful technology entrepreneurs, such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, whilst the UK does not? The talk suggests this is nothing to do with the comparative merits of US technologists versus their UK counterparts, more a cultural problem that UK engineers must overcome if they are to ‘earn their place in the sun’. History suggests that from a technological standpoint the UK engineers have nothing to fear from their counterparts overseas. The speaker will recount his own experiences with both US and UK employers to explore this ongoing conundrum and suggest a way forward.

About the Speaker

Ray Piggott is a Fellow of the IET and the current Chairman of the IET London Network. He began his 50-year career in power engineering but was transferred to electronics by RAF National Service. Subsequently he was a technical writer for both Decca Radar and Ferranti Digital Systems before transferring to design engineering with the latter. He went to Canada in 1968 where he first experienced North American business methods. On return to the UK he enjoyed a sales and marketing and general management career with a number of American high-tech companies in computers, computer peripherals as well as becoming, for a time, a Divisional Director with ICL, the British flagship computer company. He completed his career as Chairman and CEO of a British telecommunications company with a T/O of £165M and 2000 employees. In 2004 he graduated in Law from Birkbeck College, London.