British digital media executive Jeremy Silver has been appointed CEO of data mining accelerator and platform the Digital Catapult, effective at the beginning of June 2016. Silver takes over from outgoing Digital Catapult CEO, Neil Crockett, who announced his decision to stand down from the role in January 2016.
Since its launch in 2013, the Digital Catapult — which works with the government’s Innovate UK initiative — has opened five centres across the UK and worked with over 2,500 SMEs. It has delivered 41 projects and helped generate additional contributions of £5m from across the technology landscape.
Silver (pictured) is well known in the industry as a digital media strategist through his company Mediaclarity. He was most recently Executive Chair of analytics company Semetric until it was acquired in 2014, and sat on the board of various digital companies such as Music Glue or Supapass. He was previously CEO at Sibelius Software and held senior positions at Virgin Records and EMI. Silver recently released the book 'Digital Medieval: The First Twenty Years of Music on the Web ...And the next Twenty’ (Xstorical Publications).
“I’m delighted to be taking on the leadership of the Digital Catapult. The UK continues to be transformed in radical ways by the stream of digital innovation coming from academia, startups and larger companies,” said Silver. “I’m excited to be able to help grow the Catapult’s contribution to accelerating that process through encouraging and increasing the responsible sharing of data. Other new areas such as blockchain, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, offer further opportunities for digital innovation. They can capture the public imagination and offer great commercial prospects for the UK in global markets.”
Andy Green, Chairman of the Digital Catapult, added: “Jeremy brings a passion for the sector and a great blend of digital and creative experience to the role. He is a successful entrepreneur with a long term interest in the development of the UK’s tech and creative sectors. His strong government and innovation connections and collaborative leadership style will help the exciting UK digital innovation space continue to deliver jobs and growth into the UK economy.”
