Scotland’s Internet of Things (IoT) accelerator has marked its first anniversary by making a series of senior appointments.
Former Scottish Enterprise managing director and interim chief executive Linda Hanna has become head of partnerships at the Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC), while Meta vice president for supply chain Sean Murphy joins its advisory board.
STAC chief executive Paul Wilson said: “We want to be in tune with the Scottish Government’s economic and social priorities, through fulfilling the technology requirements via Scottish innovation and entrepreneurship.
“There are very clear challenges around energy, climate, sustainability, health and social care - with IoT playing well into these sectors.
“Linda’s experience and network will help us to better engage with the Scottish Government, enterprise agencies, higher education, and big business, supporting our push to match Scottish innovation with the greatest societal issues we face.”
He added: “With people like Sean and Jim [Volvo Cars chief executive Jim Rowan] in place on our advisory board, we can count on combined experience gained from leadership roles at global brands like Blackberry, Facebook and Meta.”
Murphy said: “I am fortunate to enjoy an international career, and it’s clear that Scotland is producing talent working at senior executive level in many top tier tech original equipment manufacturers.
“Through STAC, we will develop talent into brands and see them compete internationally - in my view the mission is bold, but also very realistic.”
STAC recently secured a partnership with the University of Glasgow, Vrije University Amsterdam and the Corvinus University of Budapest, aimed at driving entrepreneurial and innovation activity.
It is also working with corporate sponsors Jordan Talent Solutions to deliver Scotland’s first ever IoT jobs platform.
Headquartered at Skypark in Glasgow, STAC now has a company cohort of 24, and in July announced a strategic partnership with Scottish Enterprise for financial support.
STAC is an industry-government partnership aimed at producing Scottish IoT companies capable of scaling and competing on a global level, with a three-year target to create more than 25 IoT companies supporting around 750 jobs, reporting revenue in the region of £750m - plus cohort companies raising investment in excess of £100m.
STAC is supported by Scottish Enterprise, CENSIS and Glasgow-headquartered product design firm Filament. Local partners in Scotland include AAB, Burness Paull, Scintilla, Arceptive, Soben, Integrated Graphene and Pivot International.
Its international partners include San Francisco-based customer engagement platform Twilio; design, manufacturing, supply chain and aftermarket services business Plexus Corp; chip manufacturer Intel Corporation; IoT device testing business Keysight; and electronics group Arrow Electronics.
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