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Phil Smith

Chairman, UK & Ireland
Chairman, Innovate UK and The Tech Partnership

Phil Smith BSc Hons, Hon LLD, DUniv, FIET, became Chairman of Cisco for the UK & Ireland in August 2016, after 8 and a half years as Chief Executive. Additionally, Phil is the Chairman of Innovate UK and Chairman of The Tech Partnership. He also sits on the board of the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB).

In December 2013, Computer Weekly hailed Phil as the 5th most influential person in UK IT in its UKTech50 awards and in 2012, Phil was voted Orange Business Leader of the Year in the National

Business Awards and ranked as number 29 in the Wired 100.

Phil has a thirty-year track record in the Technology industry in leading companies such as Philips Electronics and IBM. In Cisco, he leads around 5,500 people in the UK and Ireland. Phil and his team enable organisations in the private and public sector to innovate and drive transformation, productivity and sustainable growth.

Phil created Cisco’s British Innovation Gateway (BIG) programme, as a legacy of London 2012 to spark nationwide ingenuity, ambition and growth through technology entrepreneurship. Phil’s vision is to help build a brilliant future for the UK & Ireland. He is a distinguished thinker and speaker on the transformational nature of our connected world, sustainability, ambition, inclusion & diversity and the critical need for STEM skills in our future generations. He works closely with government ministers, industrial leaders and top thinkers in business, politics, academia and society to orchestrate life-changing innovation.

In September 2014, Phil was acclaimed as a ‘leader among leaders’ by Birmingham City University when they awarded him an Honorary Doctorate for his outstanding contribution to the IT industry. In March 2015 Phil was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Warwick.

Phil is the founder of ‘The Leaderboard’; a cross industry team of around 40 UK CEOs who have raised more than £800,000 for Comic Relief and Sport Relief by competing in triathlons. In August 2014, Phil represented Team GB in his age group at the Triathlon World Championships in Edmonton, Canada. Phil has four children and lives near Stratford-upon-Avon with his wife Steph.

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