About Me

Ken's technology career spans over 30 years, commencing with IBM from whom he won a scholarship while at Fitzwilliam, College Cambridge. At IBM he held various posts in systems engineering, sales and marketing, before joining Wang Laboratories in 1981. Following a period as Marketing Director for Europe, Vice President of US Marketing and then of Worldwide Marketing, Ken became Senior Vice President and General Manager of Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EAME).

Here he was responsible for the sales, marketing, support, service and administration activities within 11 Wang subsidiaries and 92 distributors. In that role he led the team which restored the EAME operation to profitability; following which he launched an MBO, the failure of which led directly in 1992, to him founding Interregnum the technology merchant bank (www.interregnum.com).

Ken tested his entrepreneurial mettle at Interregnum where he led that company through the roller coaster 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 dot com boom.

At Interregnum, Ken worked at the forefront of the entrepreneur/technology growth cycle which commenced in the mid 1990s. As well as serving on the Boards of many of Interregnum’s investments and advisory clients, Ken notched up some interesting firsts, including chairing the UK’s first publicly listed Internet Service Provider (ISP) – Voss Net – on its admission to AIM and holding a similar position on the Board of the first Israeli technology company to be listed on the junior exchange – DMATEK. He was also a principal advisor to, and Director of, uDate.com which became one the UK’s few dot com successes when it was sold to Barry Diller’s USA Interactive in 2003.

Ken retired from Interregnum in 2006 and founded Restoration Partners.

His current public company appointments include Directorships at Reuters (where he is a member of the Audit Committee and a member of the Board of the Reuters Foundation) and Canadian software developer, Open Text Corporation (where he Chairs the Remuneration Committee). In addition he serves on the Board of, or is an adviser to, several privately held and innovative
companies including BioWisdom and Metapraxis.

Ken’s knowledge and experience of large and small enterprises, technology and marketing and his willingness to speak his mind makes him much demand as a 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; a Liveryman and Court Assistant of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists; Director of the Reuters Foundation; Chairman of Thames Reach Bondway (a charity working to shelter and resettle the homeless in London); a Governor of the
Peabody Trust. He was an inaugural Postal Services Commissioner from 2001 to 2004.

Ken has achieved recognition in both the technology and finance worlds:

In 2003 Ken won the 2003 BVCA/Real Deals Private Equity Personality of the Year Award; and
In 2006 he was invited to become a Fellow of the British Computer Society.
Ken is married to Julia and they have two daughters; Elinor and Auriol.