- Annette Wilson, Eric Collins, Hussein Kanji and Trecilla Lobo join Tech Nation’s Board of Directors to power UK tech scaleups for the Digital Age
- New members bring extensive experience and knowledge to the Board as Tech Nation ramps up its work to bolster the UK’s tech sector to aid economic recovery in the wake of Covid-19
- The NEDs bring experience across business, academia, and government, with roles as founders, investors and leaders
Tech Nation, the growth platform for tech companies, today announces four new Directors joining the Board, including the Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee Chairs.
This announcement comes as Tech Nation works to deliver ambitious plans to unlock the growth potential of 1,000 scaling tech leadership teams across the UK, generating an additional $1Bn to the UK economy by March 2022, and ensuring that the UK remains the best place in the world to start, and scale a tech business. In the economic fall-out of Covid-19, the UK tech sector is more critical than ever to economic recovery.
Tech Nation has supported the leadership teams of 2,000 tech companies and 30% of all the 82 UK tech unicorns, including Monzo, Checkout.com, Skyscanner, Darktrace and Swoon.
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UK tech is worth £186bn to the UK economy (2019) and was growing 6 times faster than the rest of the economy before Covid-19. UK tech is generating highly paid and skilled jobs amid rising unemployment. Advertised roles in the sector have grown 36% since June, with over 90,000 jobs advertised a week in August.
New members to the board will have the opportunity to help shape and guide the next stage of development in accomplishing Tech Nation’s mission for the UK tech sector. New members bring knowledge of business, academia, and government, with considerable experience as founders, investors and leaders within the tech and wider ecosystems. New appointments also bring extensive links and ties to tech hubs within the UK and globally, including Silicon Valley and Asia.
Tech Nation received applications from just under 300 candidates for the non-Executive Director roles, showcasing unprecedented demand, the strength of the field, and the maturity of the UK tech sector. Tech Nation appointments are based on merit and with full regard to the benefits of diversity.
Annette Wilson
Annette has extensive operational and strategic management experience having spent the last twenty years in leadership roles in growth and venture capital firms, which were focused on scaling founder-led businesses. She was founding CFO of Palamon Capital, a European growth investor, and most recently she was Partner and COO of Finch Capital, a fintech firm investing in Europe and South East Asia. She served on the investment and valuations committees and was also actively involved in portfolio management, fundraising and investor relations.
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Prior to joining the VC industry, Annette held management roles with LSE listed companies in the insurance industry, having started her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Today she is also Chair of Europe and Adviser to Antler, an early-stage global VC and is an Adviser to Finch Capital. She is a former member of the VC Council of Invest Europe and is a former Board member of the British Venture Capital Association.
Eric Collins
Eric is a technology executive who has spent a career building digital companies through innovative strategies. He has done this at public and private companies including AOL, TimeWarner, Tegic/Nuance Communications, MobilePosse, SwiftKey/Microsoft and most recently, Touch Surgery, where he was COO.
In 2018, Eric was part of a prominent group of black European and US serial entrepreneurs, institutional investors, investment bankers, corporate leaders and entertainers to found Impact X Capital Partners. The company is a double bottom-line venture capital firm that invests in under-represented innovators in Europe, focusing on growth stage companies in three distinct sectors: digital and technology, health, education and lifestyle; and media and entertainment.
Eric sits on the board of companies in San Francisco and London and acts as an advisor to companies in the US, India and the UK. He supports civic activities. In London, he serves on the board of Autograph ABP and Southwark Cathedral’s Council and, in the US, he has been a board member of Washington Performing Arts.
Hussein Kanji
Hussein is a partner at Hoxton Ventures. He currently represents Hoxton on the boards of Biotx, Giraffe360, Kbox Global, Skin Analytics, SOC.OS, TourRadar, XYZ Reality and Yieldify, and serves as a board observer on Behavox, Darktrace, Fy!, Karakuri, Loveshark and Panakeia. He previously served on the boards of Babylon Health, bd4travel (acquired by Dnata), Campanja (acquired by 24/7 Media) and Deliveroo. Prior to forming Hoxton, Hussein was an associate with Accel Partners in London. He joined Accel from Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA. Earlier in his career, Hussein worked with startups, Safe-View (acquired by L-3), Radiance Technologies (acquired by Comcast) and Studio Verso (acquired by KPMG), all in the Bay Area.
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Hussein has also helped the UK government with policy initiatives to develop the local tech industry.
Trecilla Lobo
Trecilla is the SVP, People at BenevolentAI. She is responsible for all things people, including Talent acquisition, people experience and culture, people analytics, as well as office and facilities. Trecilla has over 20 years experience in senior HR roles in digital media, pharmaceutical and technology companies, including Trader Media Group (which was part of the Guardian Media Group), Johnson & Johnson and Receipt Bank, with experience of scaling fast growth companies to create an engaging culture. Trecilla was also the Chief People Officer at Swiftkey, which was acquired by Microsoft (in 2016) and took on the role of HR Lead for Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft (UK) post acquisition.
