cambridge phenomenon book sampler
DESCRIPTION
Pages from the forthcoming book, The Cambridge PhenomenonTRANSCRIPT
Edited by Kate Kirk
The Cambridge
Phenomenon5 0 Y E A R S O F I N N O V A T I O N A N D E N T E R P R I S E
book specifi cations
270 x 230 mmhardback208ppretail price £50
“The Cambridge cluster qualifi es as the most innovative and entrepreneurial silicon landscape outside of the US.
– rob Koepp, clusters of creativity, p. 5.
Recognised as ‘a phenomenon of considerable signifi cance to British industry’ by the Financial
Times back in 1980, Cambridge is home to an experienced, resourceful and successful community of
entrepreneurs and known around the world for its innovative companies.
The Cambridge Phenomenon: 50 years of innovation and enterprise will cover the remarkable history of the
Phenomenon since 1960, from the challenges of starting businesses in a hostile environment to the boom years
in the late 1980s and 1990s, the dotcom bust in 2000 and the new reality of starting and growing businesses
when money is tight. It will also explore the different factors behind Cambridge’s success, investigating the ways
investors, government policies, networks, consultancies and even pubs have contributed to growing what has been
described as the single most important region in the UK in terms of GDP generated from innovation and technology.
Contributions from people inside and outside the cluster will look at the Cambridge Phenomenon from different
perspectives, including where it stands in global terms, strengths and weakness, and the opportunities and threats
that will emerge in the coming decades. The book will be a must-have read for the people and companies who
have contributed to building the Cambridge technology cluster, and also for those who want to discover the secrets
of Cambridge’s success.
Please look through this brochure to fi nd sample text, images and layouts refl ecting the the book as a whole.
Cover: DNA Double Helix sculpture (Charles Jencks 2005)
at Clare College, Cambridge. Photo © Julian Andrews
ForewordIntroduction
LIFe sToryEarly days: 1960-1969Growing pains: 1970-1979Putting the Phenomenon on the map: 1980-1989Momentum: 1990-1999Into the 21st century: 2000-2010
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLoudsConsulting and support servicesElectronicsEngineeringHealthcare and BioscienceSoftwareTelecommunications
no cLusTer Is An IsLAndEntrepreneursGovernmentIncubatorsMoneyNetworking and meeting placesResearch labsScience parksService organisationsSkills and trainingUniversities
The FuTure Is...Challenges
LAsT WordWhat are the secrets of Cambridge’s success?
Bibliography
booK conTenTsAbouT The booK
Alamy
book specifi cations
270 x 230 mmhardback208ppretail price £50
“The Cambridge cluster qualifi es as the most innovative and entrepreneurial silicon landscape outside of the US.
– rob Koepp, clusters of creativity, p. 5.
Recognised as ‘a phenomenon of considerable signifi cance to British industry’ by the Financial
Times back in 1980, Cambridge is home to an experienced, resourceful and successful community of
entrepreneurs and known around the world for its innovative companies.
The Cambridge Phenomenon: 50 years of innovation and enterprise will cover the remarkable history of the
Phenomenon since 1960, from the challenges of starting businesses in a hostile environment to the boom years
in the late 1980s and 1990s, the dotcom bust in 2000 and the new reality of starting and growing businesses
when money is tight. It will also explore the different factors behind Cambridge’s success, investigating the ways
investors, government policies, networks, consultancies and even pubs have contributed to growing what has been
described as the single most important region in the UK in terms of GDP generated from innovation and technology.
Contributions from people inside and outside the cluster will look at the Cambridge Phenomenon from different
perspectives, including where it stands in global terms, strengths and weakness, and the opportunities and threats
that will emerge in the coming decades. The book will be a must-have read for the people and companies who
have contributed to building the Cambridge technology cluster, and also for those who want to discover the secrets
of Cambridge’s success.
Please look through this brochure to fi nd sample text, images and layouts refl ecting the the book as a whole.
Cover: DNA Double Helix sculpture (Charles Jencks 2005)
at Clare College, Cambridge. Photo © Julian Andrews
ForewordIntroduction
LIFe sToryEarly days: 1960-1969Growing pains: 1970-1979Putting the Phenomenon on the map: 1980-1989Momentum: 1990-1999Into the 21st century: 2000-2010
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLoudsConsulting and support servicesElectronicsEngineeringHealthcare and BioscienceSoftwareTelecommunications
no cLusTer Is An IsLAndEntrepreneursGovernmentIncubatorsMoneyNetworking and meeting placesResearch labsScience parksService organisationsSkills and trainingUniversities
The FuTure Is...Challenges
LAsT WordWhat are the secrets of Cambridge’s success?
Bibliography
booK conTenTsAbouT The booK
Alamy
T he first section of this book describes the Cambridge Phenomenon from a chronological, historical
perspective. But it is also helpful to look at what has happened around Cambridge in the last 50 years
from a thematic point of view. The drivers of growth and their impacts on the Cambridge cluster have
clearly changed over time, so the second section of the book takes a sector-led approach to the Phenomenon.
However, while we can clearly see that instrumentation
was an early driver, and that the development of computing
played a crucial role in the boom of the early 1980s, it
becomes increasingly difficult to pigeonhole Phenomenon
companies into one sector or another as we approach the
present day. Instead, we find convergence and overlap as
innovators discover that a combination of technologies is
the best way to solve the problems they are addressing.
For instance inkjet printing, which may have been classified
as industrial in its original incarnation, today encompasses
electronics, software and materials, and the relatively new
field of biological computing is a far cry from the 3,000
valves and 32 5-foot-long delay lines that made up the
room-sized EDSAC 1.
Speaking at the Cambridge Phenomenon 50th
anniversary conference in October 2010, Professor Chris
Lowe, Director of the Institute of Biotechnology in the
University of Cambridge, highlighted one very practical
example where technologies are converging, in healthcare.
Lowe described the potential for a contact lens that
transmits information about blood sugar levels in the
tear fluid, to help doctors monitor and manage conditions
such as Type 2 diabetes. These devices will combine
expertise not only in bioscience, but also in materials and
ICT, bringing together what might have been considered
completely separate sectors 20 or 30 years ago.
There are clearly exciting times ahead as technologies
converge and head off in totally new directions, but
for the purposes of this book, it is not necessary to get
bogged down in definitions and delineations. So we take
a broad-brush approach, using themes such as consulting,
electronics, engineering, software, biosciences and
healthcare, which help us to highlight particular sectors
and activities that have stood out as the Cambridge
Phenomenon has evolved. Some companies will fall under
more than one category, but where repetition is inevitable,
this simply serves to demonstrate how interconnected the
Phenomenon companies have become.
97
Left: Aerial view of Cambridge Science Park. Below: EDSAC I, nearly complete, W.Renwick.
InTroducTIon
By permission of Cam
bridge Science Park
T he first section of this book describes the Cambridge Phenomenon from a chronological, historical
perspective. But it is also helpful to look at what has happened around Cambridge in the last 50 years
from a thematic point of view. The drivers of growth and their impacts on the Cambridge cluster have
clearly changed over time, so the second section of the book takes a sector-led approach to the Phenomenon.
However, while we can clearly see that instrumentation
was an early driver, and that the development of computing
played a crucial role in the boom of the early 1980s, it
becomes increasingly difficult to pigeonhole Phenomenon
companies into one sector or another as we approach the
present day. Instead, we find convergence and overlap as
innovators discover that a combination of technologies is
the best way to solve the problems they are addressing.
For instance inkjet printing, which may have been classified
as industrial in its original incarnation, today encompasses
electronics, software and materials, and the relatively new
field of biological computing is a far cry from the 3,000
valves and 32 5-foot-long delay lines that made up the
room-sized EDSAC 1.
Speaking at the Cambridge Phenomenon 50th
anniversary conference in October 2010, Professor Chris
Lowe, Director of the Institute of Biotechnology in the
University of Cambridge, highlighted one very practical
example where technologies are converging, in healthcare.
Lowe described the potential for a contact lens that
transmits information about blood sugar levels in the
tear fluid, to help doctors monitor and manage conditions
such as Type 2 diabetes. These devices will combine
expertise not only in bioscience, but also in materials and
ICT, bringing together what might have been considered
completely separate sectors 20 or 30 years ago.
There are clearly exciting times ahead as technologies
converge and head off in totally new directions, but
for the purposes of this book, it is not necessary to get
bogged down in definitions and delineations. So we take
a broad-brush approach, using themes such as consulting,
electronics, engineering, software, biosciences and
healthcare, which help us to highlight particular sectors
and activities that have stood out as the Cambridge
Phenomenon has evolved. Some companies will fall under
more than one category, but where repetition is inevitable,
this simply serves to demonstrate how interconnected the
Phenomenon companies have become.
97
Left: Aerial view of Cambridge Science Park. Below: EDSAC I, nearly complete, W.Renwick.
InTroducTIon
By permission of Cam
bridge Science Park
comPuTIng
On 11th January 1982, the BBC aired the fi rst episode of a
new series, The Computer Programme. Aimed at teaching
the public about computers as part of the BBC’s Computer
Literacy Project, the series focused on the BBC Micro, a
computer that had been commissioned specifi cally for the
programmes. The Micro was designed and produced by
Acorn Computers. Founded by Chris Curry and Hermann
Hauser in 1978, Acorn was one of two Cambridge
companies – the other was Sinclair Research – competing
for the UK’s home computer market in the early 1980s. It
was commonly assumed that the launch of the BBC Micro
meant that Acorn had cornered the market, but Sinclair’s
ZX81, launched nearly a year earlier, was already selling
well; by the end of 1982, over 300,000 ZX81s had been sold,
including 15,000 a month in the US.
The BBC contracted Acorn to supply 12,000 Micros, but
demand quickly exceeded expectations, and the company
had to expand rapidly to cope, eventually selling almost 1.5
million machines. Meanwhile, Sinclair Research launched
the rival ZX Spectrum on 23rd April 1982, which would go
on to sell over fi ve million units worldwide.
Cambridge in the early 1980s was thus home to two
world-leading computer companies, perhaps not surprising
given that the University had already chalked up several
fi rsts in computing. The ‘difference’ and ‘analytical’
machines designed by Peterhouse alumnus Charles
Babbage in the 19th century are recognised as the world’s
fi rst computers. In 1949, Maurice Wilkes, Director of the
Cambridge University Mathematical Laboratory (renamed
the Computer Laboratory in 1970), fi red up the fi rst digital
stored program computer, the Electronic Delay Storage
Automatic Calculator (EDSAC I). EDSAC II, the fi rst full-scale
microprogrammed machine, began operating in 1958, and
was in turn succeeded by the TITAN in 1964, which had
remote access and the fi rst operating system.
The Mathematical Laboratory was originally set
up to provide services to University departments that
required large amounts of number-crunching, such as
radio-astronomy, meteorology and genetics, but Wilkes
and his team also continued to develop the possibilities
of the computer itself. Among these were graphical user
interfaces and computer-aided design (CAD), which would
sow the seeds of the computing cluster around Cambridge.
The small size of the computer department and the
University’s policy of short-term contracts meant that
researchers who could not get permanent positions had
to fi nd some other way of making a living in their chosen
fi eld. So while Acorn and Sinclair Research may have
been the fi rst Cambridge companies to design and market
computers, hardware and software fi rms were not new.
Some 11 companies were represented at the fi rst meeting
of the Cambridge Computer Group, held in the Eagle pub in
1979. At the second meeting later that same year, around
35 companies gave short introductions to what they were
doing. By the time Sinclair and Acorn launched the era of
the personal computer in the UK, Cambridge was already
home to some of the leading players in the industry and
beginning to see itself as a centre for computing excellence.
Shape Data was one of the fi rst to emerge, founded in
1974 by members of the University’s CAD group, Charles
Lang, Alan Grayer, Ian Braid and Peter Veenman. In 1978,
Charles’ brother Jack founded software consultancy
Topexpress with John Ffowcs-Williams, the company
numbering the Ministry of Defence among its clients.
Topexpress was sold to Vickers Ship Building and then on to
Computer Science Corporation, and its current incarnation
has around 2000 employees in the UK. The CAD Centre
itself would become a private company in 1983, and a
publicly quoted company in 1996. It is now known as Aveva,
with offi ces in 39 countries, a market capitalisation of more
than £1bn and revenues of over £148 million in 2010.
But the early promise heralded by Acorn’s and Sinclair
Research’s booming sales, along with the accompanying
glamour of Acorn-sponsored F3 racing cars, private planes,
and a knighthood for Clive Sinclair in 1983, was overcome
by production problems and unfortunate business decisions,
and neither company survived. In 1985, Acorn relinquished
79% ownership to Olivetti; a year later, the Sinclair
computer brand was sold to Alan Sugar’s Amstrad.
Despite this, the two companies have had a lasting, and
decidedly positive, effect on the Cambridge Phenomenon.
Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper of Acorn co-founded the
Olivetti Research Lab in 1986. Sixteen years later, when
the lab was closed by its then owners, AT&T, a number of
new companies were born out of the Lab’s existing projects,
including Real VNC and Ubisense. Hauser went on to found
Amadeus Capital Partners in 1997 and has been a driving
force in the funding of technology companies ever since.
Ex-employees of Sinclair Research have been involved
in a number of Cambridge success stories, including
world-leading DSL company Virata, (the fi rst spin-out from
the Olivetti Research Lab in 1993), which hit a market
capitalisation of over $5 billion in March 2000; and a dozen
Acorn employees set up a spin-out in 1990 to exploit a new
microprocessor architecture they were developing, founding
the company known today as ARM.
98
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds Electronics
Above: ZX81 - the ZX81 was a home computer produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Scotlandby Timex Corporation. www.computinghistory.org.uk
Left: BBC Micro (or BBC Microcomputer System). www.computinghistory.org.uk
Far right: CAD Group 1968.Members of the CAD Group outside the Mathematical Laboratory (it was renamed Computer Laboratory in 1970).
l to r Robin Forrest, Richard Pankhurst, Peter Woodsford, Andrew Armit, Phil Cross, Malcolm Wood, Peter Payne.
Courtesy Rick Dickinson
Courtesy Allen Boothroyd
comPuTIng
On 11th January 1982, the BBC aired the fi rst episode of a
new series, The Computer Programme. Aimed at teaching
the public about computers as part of the BBC’s Computer
Literacy Project, the series focused on the BBC Micro, a
computer that had been commissioned specifi cally for the
programmes. The Micro was designed and produced by
Acorn Computers. Founded by Chris Curry and Hermann
Hauser in 1978, Acorn was one of two Cambridge
companies – the other was Sinclair Research – competing
for the UK’s home computer market in the early 1980s. It
was commonly assumed that the launch of the BBC Micro
meant that Acorn had cornered the market, but Sinclair’s
ZX81, launched nearly a year earlier, was already selling
well; by the end of 1982, over 300,000 ZX81s had been sold,
including 15,000 a month in the US.
The BBC contracted Acorn to supply 12,000 Micros, but
demand quickly exceeded expectations, and the company
had to expand rapidly to cope, eventually selling almost 1.5
million machines. Meanwhile, Sinclair Research launched
the rival ZX Spectrum on 23rd April 1982, which would go
on to sell over fi ve million units worldwide.
Cambridge in the early 1980s was thus home to two
world-leading computer companies, perhaps not surprising
given that the University had already chalked up several
fi rsts in computing. The ‘difference’ and ‘analytical’
machines designed by Peterhouse alumnus Charles
Babbage in the 19th century are recognised as the world’s
fi rst computers. In 1949, Maurice Wilkes, Director of the
Cambridge University Mathematical Laboratory (renamed
the Computer Laboratory in 1970), fi red up the fi rst digital
stored program computer, the Electronic Delay Storage
Automatic Calculator (EDSAC I). EDSAC II, the fi rst full-scale
microprogrammed machine, began operating in 1958, and
was in turn succeeded by the TITAN in 1964, which had
remote access and the fi rst operating system.
The Mathematical Laboratory was originally set
up to provide services to University departments that
required large amounts of number-crunching, such as
radio-astronomy, meteorology and genetics, but Wilkes
and his team also continued to develop the possibilities
of the computer itself. Among these were graphical user
interfaces and computer-aided design (CAD), which would
sow the seeds of the computing cluster around Cambridge.
The small size of the computer department and the
University’s policy of short-term contracts meant that
researchers who could not get permanent positions had
to fi nd some other way of making a living in their chosen
fi eld. So while Acorn and Sinclair Research may have
been the fi rst Cambridge companies to design and market
computers, hardware and software fi rms were not new.
Some 11 companies were represented at the fi rst meeting
of the Cambridge Computer Group, held in the Eagle pub in
1979. At the second meeting later that same year, around
35 companies gave short introductions to what they were
doing. By the time Sinclair and Acorn launched the era of
the personal computer in the UK, Cambridge was already
home to some of the leading players in the industry and
beginning to see itself as a centre for computing excellence.
Shape Data was one of the fi rst to emerge, founded in
1974 by members of the University’s CAD group, Charles
Lang, Alan Grayer, Ian Braid and Peter Veenman. In 1978,
Charles’ brother Jack founded software consultancy
Topexpress with John Ffowcs-Williams, the company
numbering the Ministry of Defence among its clients.
Topexpress was sold to Vickers Ship Building and then on to
Computer Science Corporation, and its current incarnation
has around 2000 employees in the UK. The CAD Centre
itself would become a private company in 1983, and a
publicly quoted company in 1996. It is now known as Aveva,
with offi ces in 39 countries, a market capitalisation of more
than £1bn and revenues of over £148 million in 2010.
But the early promise heralded by Acorn’s and Sinclair
Research’s booming sales, along with the accompanying
glamour of Acorn-sponsored F3 racing cars, private planes,
and a knighthood for Clive Sinclair in 1983, was overcome
by production problems and unfortunate business decisions,
and neither company survived. In 1985, Acorn relinquished
79% ownership to Olivetti; a year later, the Sinclair
computer brand was sold to Alan Sugar’s Amstrad.
Despite this, the two companies have had a lasting, and
decidedly positive, effect on the Cambridge Phenomenon.
Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper of Acorn co-founded the
Olivetti Research Lab in 1986. Sixteen years later, when
the lab was closed by its then owners, AT&T, a number of
new companies were born out of the Lab’s existing projects,
including Real VNC and Ubisense. Hauser went on to found
Amadeus Capital Partners in 1997 and has been a driving
force in the funding of technology companies ever since.
Ex-employees of Sinclair Research have been involved
in a number of Cambridge success stories, including
world-leading DSL company Virata, (the fi rst spin-out from
the Olivetti Research Lab in 1993), which hit a market
capitalisation of over $5 billion in March 2000; and a dozen
Acorn employees set up a spin-out in 1990 to exploit a new
microprocessor architecture they were developing, founding
the company known today as ARM.
98
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds Electronics
Above: ZX81 - the ZX81 was a home computer produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Scotlandby Timex Corporation. www.computinghistory.org.uk
Left: BBC Micro (or BBC Microcomputer System). www.computinghistory.org.uk
Far right: CAD Group 1968.Members of the CAD Group outside the Mathematical Laboratory (it was renamed Computer Laboratory in 1970).
l to r Robin Forrest, Richard Pankhurst, Peter Woodsford, Andrew Armit, Phil Cross, Malcolm Wood, Peter Payne.
Courtesy Rick Dickinson
Courtesy Allen Boothroyd
ARM-based chips lie at the heart of many of the devices we
use or rely on every day. The original SWOT analysis for the
company, dated 18th December 1990, lists the strengths of
the underlying technology as low power, low cost, simple
and small. It is these qualities that have led to ARM’s
ubiquity, with ARM designs being found in everything from
smartphones to household appliances, and from computers
to cars. By the end of 2010, over 20 billion chips based
on ARM designs had been manufactured. At the 2011
Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the biggest technology
trade fair in the world, CEO Warren East pointed out to a
Daily Telegraph journalist that “over 70% of all the stands
have a product built on our technology.” Not bad for a
company that started with 12 engineers in a barn.
ARM grew from a project to design a faster and more
efficient microprocessor for Acorn computers in the early
1980s. The project was backed with what Acorn co-founder
Hermann Hauser described as “the only two things we had:
no money and no people”. By 1985, Acorn’s engineers had
designed the world’s first RISC processor. It was 20 times
faster than the 6502 chip found in Acorn’s BBC Micro, but
by this time the UK home computer market had collapsed
and Acorn had to be rescued by Olivetti. By the end of the
year, the RISC project was in danger of being closed down.
Luckily, Apple was going to need a fast, low-powered chip
for its Newton Notepad, and a deal between Apple and
Olivetti/Acorn, with support from chip manufacturer VSLI,
resulted in a new company, Advanced RISC Machines.
The first employees were 12 Acorn engineers, including
Tudor Brown (President since 2008), Jamie Urquhart and
Mike Muller (now Chief Technology Officer). Robin Saxby
(knighted in 2002) joined full-time as CEO in 1991. The team
moved into a converted barn in Swaffham Bulbeck, saving
money by putting in the telephone system themselves—
“Andy Smith crawled through some very tiny spaces”
according to the Acorn Newsletter that Spring.
A ‘chipless chip company’Saxby decided that ARM would licence its designs to
semiconductor companies. These companies could then
develop chips based on the ARM designs for their own
customers. ARM would receive a fee for each licence,
and then a royalty for every ARM-based chip the licensee
company sold. This tied ARM’s success to the success of its
semiconductor partners, but avoided the problems associated
with manufacturing, or partnering with just one company.
100 101
“one of the most successful spin-offs in the history of European technology-based industry.Garnsey, E, Lorenzoni, G, and Ferriani, S. 2008.
Speciation through entrepreneurial spin-off: The Acorn-ARM story.
Research Policy 37 (2008) 210–224.
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds Electronics
Warren East – Chief Executive Officer.
Arm
Above: The chip which powered the very first Apple Newton and is arguably the reason why ARM Ltd was founded in the first place. Above right: ARM’s first office Below right: The 12 founders from Acorn were all engineers. They were joined by Robin Saxby as CEO to add some commercial experience. At the end of 2010, ARM employed nearly 1,900 people; the majority of them are engineers. (ARM Annual Report 2010)
ARM-based chips lie at the heart of many of the devices we
use or rely on every day. The original SWOT analysis for the
company, dated 18th December 1990, lists the strengths of
the underlying technology as low power, low cost, simple
and small. It is these qualities that have led to ARM’s
ubiquity, with ARM designs being found in everything from
smartphones to household appliances, and from computers
to cars. By the end of 2010, over 20 billion chips based
on ARM designs had been manufactured. At the 2011
Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the biggest technology
trade fair in the world, CEO Warren East pointed out to a
Daily Telegraph journalist that “over 70% of all the stands
have a product built on our technology.” Not bad for a
company that started with 12 engineers in a barn.
ARM grew from a project to design a faster and more
efficient microprocessor for Acorn computers in the early
1980s. The project was backed with what Acorn co-founder
Hermann Hauser described as “the only two things we had:
no money and no people”. By 1985, Acorn’s engineers had
designed the world’s first RISC processor. It was 20 times
faster than the 6502 chip found in Acorn’s BBC Micro, but
by this time the UK home computer market had collapsed
and Acorn had to be rescued by Olivetti. By the end of the
year, the RISC project was in danger of being closed down.
Luckily, Apple was going to need a fast, low-powered chip
for its Newton Notepad, and a deal between Apple and
Olivetti/Acorn, with support from chip manufacturer VSLI,
resulted in a new company, Advanced RISC Machines.
The first employees were 12 Acorn engineers, including
Tudor Brown (President since 2008), Jamie Urquhart and
Mike Muller (now Chief Technology Officer). Robin Saxby
(knighted in 2002) joined full-time as CEO in 1991. The team
moved into a converted barn in Swaffham Bulbeck, saving
money by putting in the telephone system themselves—
“Andy Smith crawled through some very tiny spaces”
according to the Acorn Newsletter that Spring.
A ‘chipless chip company’Saxby decided that ARM would licence its designs to
semiconductor companies. These companies could then
develop chips based on the ARM designs for their own
customers. ARM would receive a fee for each licence,
and then a royalty for every ARM-based chip the licensee
company sold. This tied ARM’s success to the success of its
semiconductor partners, but avoided the problems associated
with manufacturing, or partnering with just one company.
100 101
“one of the most successful spin-offs in the history of European technology-based industry.Garnsey, E, Lorenzoni, G, and Ferriani, S. 2008.
Speciation through entrepreneurial spin-off: The Acorn-ARM story.
Research Policy 37 (2008) 210–224.
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds Electronics
Warren East – Chief Executive Officer.
Arm
Above: The chip which powered the very first Apple Newton and is arguably the reason why ARM Ltd was founded in the first place. Above right: ARM’s first office Below right: The 12 founders from Acorn were all engineers. They were joined by Robin Saxby as CEO to add some commercial experience. At the end of 2010, ARM employed nearly 1,900 people; the majority of them are engineers. (ARM Annual Report 2010)
Saxby knew the company would have to survive by
selling licences until the royalties started coming in,
and it was far from certain that the risk would pay off.
Warren East joined the company in 1994 to set up a
consulting offering so that ARM could work directly with
semiconductor companies and their design teams. The
turning point came when Texas Instruments licensed an
ARM design in 1994, as part of its strategy to “win the
mobile phone business of a relatively unknown Finnish
company, Nokia” (Garnsey et al 2008). “It was an industry
secret,” President of ARM Holdings Tudor Brown told
Cambridge Business Editor Jenny Chapman, “but others
started to take licences from us on the back of that.”
By the time the new generation of Nokia phones was
launched in 1997, consulting was a profit centre and ARM’s
licence-royalty model started to bear fruit. Revenues more
than doubled between 1998 and 2000.
Warren East took over from Saxby as CEO in 2001.
“The Nokia deal was key to making ARM central to
the markets,” he points out. Today, more than 200
semiconductor companies have purchased over 700
licences, and royalties now account for some 50% of total
revenue. The launch of the iPhone in 2007 gave ARM
another boost, as it and competing smartphones rely on
several, more complex processors, multiplying the royalties
ARM gets for every phone sold.
But the company has always sought to extend its
market beyond the mobile technology arena, and other
products that rely on ARM include bar code readers,
anti-lock braking systems, ATMs and hard disk drives. The
company has also extended its business model, so that
it not only designs the underlying architecture for chips,
but also provides data engines, 3D processors, digital
libraries, embedded memories, peripherals, software and
development tools, analogue functions and high-speed
connectivity products.
ARM’s low-power mantra fits perfectly with efforts
to reduce energy consumption. Each generation of ARM
designs have been more efficient and used less power,
going, as Warren East puts it, from needing the energy
equivalent of seven custard creams to run the first chips
to needing only a crumb in the latest generation. There is
enormous potential for ARM designs to help reduce power
consumption across a range of applications, including the
big server farms that sustain the internet, and the 10 billion
electric motors produced annually.
ARM listed on the London Stock Exchange and
NASDAQ in 1998. In 2010, market cap hit $6bn and ARM
knocked Cadbury out of the FTSE100. In January 2011,
Microsoft announced that ARM chips will power the next
version of the Windows operating system, Windows 8,
getting ARM into yet more devices around the world.
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds ElectronicsThe cAmbrIdge Phenomenon 50 years of innovation and enterprise
102 103
“Most people will use at least one ARM microprocessor – often several – each day, without knowing it.Financial Times 30 July 2007
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
ARM TOTAL REVENUES AND ROYALTIES 1995–2010
£ m
illio
n
revenues £mroyalties £m
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Above: an example of an ARM Powered® product.
Right: ARM1 building at Fulbourn Road Cambridge. Below: ARM9 processors play an important part in the IceCube project — a neutrino-detecting ‘telescope’ buried deep under the ice in the Antarctic.
Saxby knew the company would have to survive by
selling licences until the royalties started coming in,
and it was far from certain that the risk would pay off.
Warren East joined the company in 1994 to set up a
consulting offering so that ARM could work directly with
semiconductor companies and their design teams. The
turning point came when Texas Instruments licensed an
ARM design in 1994, as part of its strategy to “win the
mobile phone business of a relatively unknown Finnish
company, Nokia” (Garnsey et al 2008). “It was an industry
secret,” President of ARM Holdings Tudor Brown told
Cambridge Business Editor Jenny Chapman, “but others
started to take licences from us on the back of that.”
By the time the new generation of Nokia phones was
launched in 1997, consulting was a profit centre and ARM’s
licence-royalty model started to bear fruit. Revenues more
than doubled between 1998 and 2000.
Warren East took over from Saxby as CEO in 2001.
“The Nokia deal was key to making ARM central to
the markets,” he points out. Today, more than 200
semiconductor companies have purchased over 700
licences, and royalties now account for some 50% of total
revenue. The launch of the iPhone in 2007 gave ARM
another boost, as it and competing smartphones rely on
several, more complex processors, multiplying the royalties
ARM gets for every phone sold.
But the company has always sought to extend its
market beyond the mobile technology arena, and other
products that rely on ARM include bar code readers,
anti-lock braking systems, ATMs and hard disk drives. The
company has also extended its business model, so that
it not only designs the underlying architecture for chips,
but also provides data engines, 3D processors, digital
libraries, embedded memories, peripherals, software and
development tools, analogue functions and high-speed
connectivity products.
ARM’s low-power mantra fits perfectly with efforts
to reduce energy consumption. Each generation of ARM
designs have been more efficient and used less power,
going, as Warren East puts it, from needing the energy
equivalent of seven custard creams to run the first chips
to needing only a crumb in the latest generation. There is
enormous potential for ARM designs to help reduce power
consumption across a range of applications, including the
big server farms that sustain the internet, and the 10 billion
electric motors produced annually.
ARM listed on the London Stock Exchange and
NASDAQ in 1998. In 2010, market cap hit $6bn and ARM
knocked Cadbury out of the FTSE100. In January 2011,
Microsoft announced that ARM chips will power the next
version of the Windows operating system, Windows 8,
getting ARM into yet more devices around the world.
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds ElectronicsThe cAmbrIdge Phenomenon 50 years of innovation and enterprise
102 103
“Most people will use at least one ARM microprocessor – often several – each day, without knowing it.Financial Times 30 July 2007
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
ARM TOTAL REVENUES AND ROYALTIES 1995–2010
£ m
illio
n
revenues £mroyalties £m
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Above: an example of an ARM Powered® product.
Right: ARM1 building at Fulbourn Road Cambridge. Below: ARM9 processors play an important part in the IceCube project — a neutrino-detecting ‘telescope’ buried deep under the ice in the Antarctic.
F or a time in the 1950s, it looked as though Cambridge might remain a small market town with a couple
of sizeable companies, Marshall’s and the Pye Group, and not much else. The University had endorsed
the 1950 Holford Wright report, which recommended “a resolute effort...to reduce the high rate of
growth”, and the town planners concurred. However, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, PhD students from
the Cavendish and the Engineering Department could be found moonlighting for new technology companies
such as Metals Research and Cambridge Consultants that were quietly operating out of old bakeries and
garden sheds.
Attitudes began to change in the 1960s, fostered
by the newly elected Labour government’s focus on
technology as a way to drive the national economy, and
promoted in Cambridge by individuals such as Cavendish
Professor of Experimental Physics and Nobel Prize winner
Sir Nevill Mott. Mott chaired a sub-committee of the
Senate set up to explore the relationship between the
University and industry. His committee’s report, published
in 1969, recommended that the University “strengthen
the interaction between teaching and scientific research
on the one hand and its application in industry, medicine
and agriculture on the other”. A key recommendation was
that Cambridge develop a science park, modelled on that
established at Stanford in California in the 1950s.
The Mott Committee report was pivotal, acknowledging
that Cambridge – both the town and the University –
needed to engage with industry, and identifying a concrete
way to start building that relationship. The County
Development Plan was reviewed, and “bona fide science-
based industry” was, if not exactly welcomed with open
25
cAmbrIdge unIversITy And The Phenomenon
Left: Cambridge from the University Library Tower. Right: Science Park orientation display board.
Michael Derringer
F or a time in the 1950s, it looked as though Cambridge might remain a small market town with a couple
of sizeable companies, Marshall’s and the Pye Group, and not much else. The University had endorsed
the 1950 Holford Wright report, which recommended “a resolute effort...to reduce the high rate of
growth”, and the town planners concurred. However, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, PhD students from
the Cavendish and the Engineering Department could be found moonlighting for new technology companies
such as Metals Research and Cambridge Consultants that were quietly operating out of old bakeries and
garden sheds.
Attitudes began to change in the 1960s, fostered
by the newly elected Labour government’s focus on
technology as a way to drive the national economy, and
promoted in Cambridge by individuals such as Cavendish
Professor of Experimental Physics and Nobel Prize winner
Sir Nevill Mott. Mott chaired a sub-committee of the
Senate set up to explore the relationship between the
University and industry. His committee’s report, published
in 1969, recommended that the University “strengthen
the interaction between teaching and scientific research
on the one hand and its application in industry, medicine
and agriculture on the other”. A key recommendation was
that Cambridge develop a science park, modelled on that
established at Stanford in California in the 1950s.
The Mott Committee report was pivotal, acknowledging
that Cambridge – both the town and the University –
needed to engage with industry, and identifying a concrete
way to start building that relationship. The County
Development Plan was reviewed, and “bona fide science-
based industry” was, if not exactly welcomed with open
25
cAmbrIdge unIversITy And The Phenomenon
Left: Cambridge from the University Library Tower. Right: Science Park orientation display board.
Michael Derringer
arms, to be given encouragement and facilities. The Science
Park was built on Trinity land on the outskirts of Cambridge,
and accepted its first tenant, Laser-Scan (founded by a
group from the Cavendish Laboratory), in 1973.
Since the 1970s, the University has played numerous
roles in supporting technology entrepreneurship. Colleges
have provided additional space and facilities, such as the
St John’s Innovation Centre and the Peterhouse Technology
Park, and departments have done everything from
originating the technology to providing the entrepreneurs
and the manpower to see ideas to fruition. The Institute
for Manufacturing, established in the Department of
Engineering in 1998 to “form more effective lines of
communication with the leaders of British industry”,
provides another way in which members of the University
can bring technology to industry, and its research into many
aspects of creating and sustaining businesses applies
across the spectrum from start-ups to global companies.
More recently, clarification of the University’s policy
on intellectual property in 2005 and the establishment of
Cambridge Enterprise in 2006, a wholly owned subsidiary of
the University tasked with assisting the commercialisation
of University technologies, have formalised what used to
be a fairly ad hoc process of spinning companies out of
the University. The intellectual property arrangements are
claimed to be “one of the most generous revenue-sharing
arrangements in the world” for academics, and Cambridge
Enterprise provides not only expertise in issues such as
patents, consultancy and technology transfer, but seed
funding through its Discovery, Challenge and Venture funds.
In 2010, Cambridge Enterprise reported that its first
three years of operation had seen income of over £27
million from licensing, consultancy and equity transactions,
of which more than £22 million had been returned to the
University and researchers. There are now around 1,000
researchers throughout the University engaged with
Cambridge Enterprise on some aspect of commercialisation
and some £3.9 million in funding has been awarded to
67 projects since 2006. Many departments now have
designated Enterprise Champions helping promote
commercialisation of research, and 2010 saw 124 patent
applications filed and 59 new business ideas disclosed.
Among the companies that have emerged with
University support are Sphere Fluidics, which came
out of the Chemistry Department, and Enval, out of the
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.
Founders of Sphere Fluidics Professors Chris Abel and
Wilhelm Huck secured investment from the Discovery Fund
to pursue commercialisation of their latest advances in
picolitre droplet technology. Enval, which has developed
a way to recycle laminated packaging such as tetrapaks
and toothpaste tubes, started out with investment from
the Challenge Fund and also won the Cambridge University
Entrepreneurs business creation competition in 2005.
no cLusTer Is An IsLAnd Cambridge University and the Phenomenon
26 27
cavendish and Laboratory of molecular biology nobel prize winnersTwo labs that have produced more entrepreneurs than most are the Computer Lab
and Mott’s own lab, the Cavendish, perhaps not surprising given that the two labs
have over 30 Nobel prizes between them.
Lord Rayleigh (Physics, 1904)
Sir J J Thomson (Physics, 1906)
Lord Ernest Rutherford
(Chemistry, 1908)
Sir Lawrence Bragg (Physics, 1915)
Charles Barkla (Physics, 1917)
Francis Aston (Chemistry, 1922)
Charles Wilson (Physics, 1927)
Arthur Compton (Physics, 1927)
Sir Owen Richardson (Physics, 1928)
Sir James Chadwick (Physics, 1928)
Sir George Thomson (Physics, 1937)
Sir Edward Appleton (Physics, 1947)
Lord Patrick Blackett (Physic, 1948)
Sir John Cockcroft (Physics, 1948)
Ernest Walton (Physics, 1951)
Fred Sanger (Chemistry, 1958)
Francis Crick (Physiology or
Medicine, 1962)
James Watson (Physiology or
Medicine, 1962)
Max Perutz (Chemistry, 1962)
Sir John Kendrew (Chemistry, 1962)
Dorothy Hodgkin (Chemistry, 1964)
Brian Josephson (Physics, 1973)
Sir Martin Ryle (Physics, 1974)
Anthony Hewish (Physics, 1974)
Sir Nevil Mott (Physics, 1977)
Philip Anderson (Physics, 1977)
Pjotr Kapitsa (Physics, 1978)
Allan Cormack (Physiology or
Medicine 1979)
Fred Sanger (Chemistry, 1980)
Sir Aaron Klug (Chemistry, 1982)
César Milstein (Physiology or
Medicine, 1984)
Georges Köhler (Physiology or
Medicine, 1984)
Norman Ramsey (Physics, 1989)
John Walker (Chemistry, 1997)
Sydney Brenner (Physiology or
Medicine, 2002)
Bob Horvitz (Physiology or
Medicine, 2002)
John Sulston (Physiology or
Medicine, 2002)
Venki Ramakrishnan (Chemistry, 2009)“The Mott report is widely and justifiably regarded in Cambridge today as constituting a watershed in the evolution of the University’s official attitude to industrial development and to collaboration with the local authorities. It was almost certainly without precedent in Britain at the time that a university should take the lead so explicitly and forcefully in such planning matters – it is still highly unusual even today.The Cambridge Phenomenon: The Growth of High Technology Industry in a University Town
Segal Quince Wicksteed, 1985.
The cAmbrIdge Phenomenon 50 years of innovation and enterprise
View of the Science Park, built on Trinity College land.
Michael Derringer
Courtesy of Bidwell’s, Cam
bridge
arms, to be given encouragement and facilities. The Science
Park was built on Trinity land on the outskirts of Cambridge,
and accepted its first tenant, Laser-Scan (founded by a
group from the Cavendish Laboratory), in 1973.
Since the 1970s, the University has played numerous
roles in supporting technology entrepreneurship. Colleges
have provided additional space and facilities, such as the
St John’s Innovation Centre and the Peterhouse Technology
Park, and departments have done everything from
originating the technology to providing the entrepreneurs
and the manpower to see ideas to fruition. The Institute
for Manufacturing, established in the Department of
Engineering in 1998 to “form more effective lines of
communication with the leaders of British industry”,
provides another way in which members of the University
can bring technology to industry, and its research into many
aspects of creating and sustaining businesses applies
across the spectrum from start-ups to global companies.
More recently, clarification of the University’s policy
on intellectual property in 2005 and the establishment of
Cambridge Enterprise in 2006, a wholly owned subsidiary of
the University tasked with assisting the commercialisation
of University technologies, have formalised what used to
be a fairly ad hoc process of spinning companies out of
the University. The intellectual property arrangements are
claimed to be “one of the most generous revenue-sharing
arrangements in the world” for academics, and Cambridge
Enterprise provides not only expertise in issues such as
patents, consultancy and technology transfer, but seed
funding through its Discovery, Challenge and Venture funds.
In 2010, Cambridge Enterprise reported that its first
three years of operation had seen income of over £27
million from licensing, consultancy and equity transactions,
of which more than £22 million had been returned to the
University and researchers. There are now around 1,000
researchers throughout the University engaged with
Cambridge Enterprise on some aspect of commercialisation
and some £3.9 million in funding has been awarded to
67 projects since 2006. Many departments now have
designated Enterprise Champions helping promote
commercialisation of research, and 2010 saw 124 patent
applications filed and 59 new business ideas disclosed.
Among the companies that have emerged with
University support are Sphere Fluidics, which came
out of the Chemistry Department, and Enval, out of the
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.
Founders of Sphere Fluidics Professors Chris Abel and
Wilhelm Huck secured investment from the Discovery Fund
to pursue commercialisation of their latest advances in
picolitre droplet technology. Enval, which has developed
a way to recycle laminated packaging such as tetrapaks
and toothpaste tubes, started out with investment from
the Challenge Fund and also won the Cambridge University
Entrepreneurs business creation competition in 2005.
no cLusTer Is An IsLAnd Cambridge University and the Phenomenon
26 27
cavendish and Laboratory of molecular biology nobel prize winnersTwo labs that have produced more entrepreneurs than most are the Computer Lab
and Mott’s own lab, the Cavendish, perhaps not surprising given that the two labs
have over 30 Nobel prizes between them.
Lord Rayleigh (Physics, 1904)
Sir J J Thomson (Physics, 1906)
Lord Ernest Rutherford
(Chemistry, 1908)
Sir Lawrence Bragg (Physics, 1915)
Charles Barkla (Physics, 1917)
Francis Aston (Chemistry, 1922)
Charles Wilson (Physics, 1927)
Arthur Compton (Physics, 1927)
Sir Owen Richardson (Physics, 1928)
Sir James Chadwick (Physics, 1928)
Sir George Thomson (Physics, 1937)
Sir Edward Appleton (Physics, 1947)
Lord Patrick Blackett (Physic, 1948)
Sir John Cockcroft (Physics, 1948)
Ernest Walton (Physics, 1951)
Fred Sanger (Chemistry, 1958)
Francis Crick (Physiology or
Medicine, 1962)
James Watson (Physiology or
Medicine, 1962)
Max Perutz (Chemistry, 1962)
Sir John Kendrew (Chemistry, 1962)
Dorothy Hodgkin (Chemistry, 1964)
Brian Josephson (Physics, 1973)
Sir Martin Ryle (Physics, 1974)
Anthony Hewish (Physics, 1974)
Sir Nevil Mott (Physics, 1977)
Philip Anderson (Physics, 1977)
Pjotr Kapitsa (Physics, 1978)
Allan Cormack (Physiology or
Medicine 1979)
Fred Sanger (Chemistry, 1980)
Sir Aaron Klug (Chemistry, 1982)
César Milstein (Physiology or
Medicine, 1984)
Georges Köhler (Physiology or
Medicine, 1984)
Norman Ramsey (Physics, 1989)
John Walker (Chemistry, 1997)
Sydney Brenner (Physiology or
Medicine, 2002)
Bob Horvitz (Physiology or
Medicine, 2002)
John Sulston (Physiology or
Medicine, 2002)
Venki Ramakrishnan (Chemistry, 2009)“The Mott report is widely and justifiably regarded in Cambridge today as constituting a watershed in the evolution of the University’s official attitude to industrial development and to collaboration with the local authorities. It was almost certainly without precedent in Britain at the time that a university should take the lead so explicitly and forcefully in such planning matters – it is still highly unusual even today.The Cambridge Phenomenon: The Growth of High Technology Industry in a University Town
Segal Quince Wicksteed, 1985.
The cAmbrIdge Phenomenon 50 years of innovation and enterprise
View of the Science Park, built on Trinity College land.
Michael Derringer
Courtesy of Bidwell’s, Cam
bridge
Cambridge Judge Business School has been closely
involved with entrepreneurship and the local technology
cluster since its inception. The original Advisory Board,
which helped establish the School’s precursor, the Institute
of Management Studies, included Matthew Bullock, who
played a key role in the funding of technology start-ups
around Cambridge in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Bullock argued the importance of providing management
training to these young companies, which were often
founded by engineers and scientists out of the university
with little or no business experience.
Numerous other local entrepreneurs, including David
Cleevely, Hermann Hauser and Alex van Someren, have
participated in the growth of Cambridge Judge since then,
as mentors, teachers, and entrepreneurs in residence.
The links continue today, and are now strengthened by
MBA and MPhil students undertaking consulting projects
for local companies. The Cambridge cluster being highly
varied, students can work with operations that range in
size from the FTSE100 company ARM to start-ups that
are just beginning to define their markets. Cambridge
Judge students also participate in the well-established
business plan competitions run by Cambridge University
Entrepreneurs, CUE, as competitors and as advisors.
The importance of entrepreneurship as an integral
part of the School’s research and teaching programmes
was cemented by the establishment of the Centre for
Entrepreneurial Learning in 2003. Over 140 businesses
have been started up by CfEL alumni, in Cambridge and
elsewhere, and participants in the Ignite summer schools
raised over £50 million in funding between 1999 and
2009. Among companies started up by CfEL alumni are
Alphamosaic (sold to Broadcom in 2004), BlueGnome and
Daniolabs (sold to Summit in 2007).
More recently, iPhone app company Magicsolver.com
was co-founded in 2009 by Cambridge MBA Emmanuel
Carraud, and computer science graduates Oliver Lamming
and Leon Palm, who originally met at an Enterprise Tuesday
event organised by CfEL. They went on to win not only
the CUE business plan competition, but also three months
at the Plug & Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California,
awarded at the Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge event.
Cambridge Judge Business School’s new Postgraduate
Diploma in Entrepreneurship, which sees its first intake
in September 2011, marks the next step in an enduring
relationship with enterprise and in particular the Cambridge
technology cluster.
no cLusTer Is An IsLAnd Cambridge Judge Business School
28
cAmbrIdge Judge busIness schooL
1954 Management Studies at Cambridge University taught in Engineering
department
1986 Management Studies Tripos introduced
1989 Decision to create separate Department of Management Studies
1990 Institute of Management Studies set up under first Director, Professor Stephen
Watson
1991 First intake, 19 MBA and 19 MPhil students; donations from Sir Paul and Lady
Judge and Monument Trust enable Old Addenbrooke’s to be converted
1995 Professor Sandra Dawson becomes Director, oversees completion of building
work and move into Old Addenbrooke’s site
1996 Building officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on March 8th, named the Judge
Institute of Management Studies
1997 Margaret Thatcher Professorship of Enterprise Studies established with
£2million grant from the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, Professor Alan Hughes
becomes first holder of the Chair
1998 Cambridge Programme for Entrepreneurs established
1999 Funding awarded by Science Enterprise Challenge Fund to set up Cambridge
Entrepreneurship Centre and run it for five years
2001 Expansion into space in top floor of building, which had not been converted in
the original building programme
2003 Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CfEL) splits out of Entrepreneurship Centre
and becomes part of the School, appoints first two Visiting Entrepreneurs,
Karan (now Lord) Bilimoria and Hermann Hauser
2005 Renamed Cambridge Judge Business School
2006 Professor Arnoud de Meyer becomes Director
2009 Expands into Keynes House and buildings on Trumpington Street
2010 Over 55 faculty members, many international, work across seven research
groups, and teach some 750 students annually
2011 Professor Christoph Loch becomes Director
The Judge Business School (now The University of Cambrdge Judge Business School) was opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1995. The new building was designed by architect John Outram.
Right: Interior, Judge Business School.
Ben Watkins
Ben Watkins
Cambridge Judge Business School has been closely
involved with entrepreneurship and the local technology
cluster since its inception. The original Advisory Board,
which helped establish the School’s precursor, the Institute
of Management Studies, included Matthew Bullock, who
played a key role in the funding of technology start-ups
around Cambridge in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Bullock argued the importance of providing management
training to these young companies, which were often
founded by engineers and scientists out of the university
with little or no business experience.
Numerous other local entrepreneurs, including David
Cleevely, Hermann Hauser and Alex van Someren, have
participated in the growth of Cambridge Judge since then,
as mentors, teachers, and entrepreneurs in residence.
The links continue today, and are now strengthened by
MBA and MPhil students undertaking consulting projects
for local companies. The Cambridge cluster being highly
varied, students can work with operations that range in
size from the FTSE100 company ARM to start-ups that
are just beginning to define their markets. Cambridge
Judge students also participate in the well-established
business plan competitions run by Cambridge University
Entrepreneurs, CUE, as competitors and as advisors.
The importance of entrepreneurship as an integral
part of the School’s research and teaching programmes
was cemented by the establishment of the Centre for
Entrepreneurial Learning in 2003. Over 140 businesses
have been started up by CfEL alumni, in Cambridge and
elsewhere, and participants in the Ignite summer schools
raised over £50 million in funding between 1999 and
2009. Among companies started up by CfEL alumni are
Alphamosaic (sold to Broadcom in 2004), BlueGnome and
Daniolabs (sold to Summit in 2007).
More recently, iPhone app company Magicsolver.com
was co-founded in 2009 by Cambridge MBA Emmanuel
Carraud, and computer science graduates Oliver Lamming
and Leon Palm, who originally met at an Enterprise Tuesday
event organised by CfEL. They went on to win not only
the CUE business plan competition, but also three months
at the Plug & Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California,
awarded at the Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge event.
Cambridge Judge Business School’s new Postgraduate
Diploma in Entrepreneurship, which sees its first intake
in September 2011, marks the next step in an enduring
relationship with enterprise and in particular the Cambridge
technology cluster.
no cLusTer Is An IsLAnd Cambridge Judge Business School
28
cAmbrIdge Judge busIness schooL
1954 Management Studies at Cambridge University taught in Engineering
department
1986 Management Studies Tripos introduced
1989 Decision to create separate Department of Management Studies
1990 Institute of Management Studies set up under first Director, Professor Stephen
Watson
1991 First intake, 19 MBA and 19 MPhil students; donations from Sir Paul and Lady
Judge and Monument Trust enable Old Addenbrooke’s to be converted
1995 Professor Sandra Dawson becomes Director, oversees completion of building
work and move into Old Addenbrooke’s site
1996 Building officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on March 8th, named the Judge
Institute of Management Studies
1997 Margaret Thatcher Professorship of Enterprise Studies established with
£2million grant from the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, Professor Alan Hughes
becomes first holder of the Chair
1998 Cambridge Programme for Entrepreneurs established
1999 Funding awarded by Science Enterprise Challenge Fund to set up Cambridge
Entrepreneurship Centre and run it for five years
2001 Expansion into space in top floor of building, which had not been converted in
the original building programme
2003 Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CfEL) splits out of Entrepreneurship Centre
and becomes part of the School, appoints first two Visiting Entrepreneurs,
Karan (now Lord) Bilimoria and Hermann Hauser
2005 Renamed Cambridge Judge Business School
2006 Professor Arnoud de Meyer becomes Director
2009 Expands into Keynes House and buildings on Trumpington Street
2010 Over 55 faculty members, many international, work across seven research
groups, and teach some 750 students annually
2011 Professor Christoph Loch becomes Director
The Judge Business School (now The University of Cambrdge Judge Business School) was opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1995. The new building was designed by architect John Outram.
Right: Interior, Judge Business School.
Ben Watkins
Ben Watkins
bIoscIence
A school leaver who started his training at ICI and a
graduate from Imperial are among the founding fathers of
the bioscience industry in and around Cambridge. Today,
there are several science and research parks dedicated to
biotech in the region – including the Babraham Research
Campus, which recently announced a £44 million grant
from the government to support bioscience innovation –
but when Sir Christopher Evans, the Imperial graduate,
launched his first company, Enzymatix in 1987, things were
very different.
Enzymatix had a £1.3 million investment from British
Sugar, but despite this, its first home was an old sheep
shed without any sinks. Starting out selling batches of
enzymes for £750 a box to pharmaceutical companies, the
company would go on to develop a form of phospholipid
that helped premature babies to breathe (which Evans
and his colleagues tested on themselves), and a natural
compound that ensured farmed salmon had pink flesh
without the need for chemical dyes. The latter was sold to
Abbott for £4 million.
By 1992, Evans had met Alan Goodman. Goodman had
come to biotech via ICI, Ciba-Geigy, Trebor, Agricultural
Genetics Company and Medeva. He founded Advanced
Technology Management (ATM) in 1992 to invest in and
provide consultancy to biotech businesses, and Enzymatix
was one of ATM’s first clients. Goodman’s advice was
to split the company, which resulted in the formation of
Chiroscience and Celsis. Chiroscience went on to list on
the London Stock Exchange in 1994 with a market cap of
£102 million, then merged with Slough company Celltech
in 1999. The combined company was sold to Belgian
biopharmaceutical company UCB in 2004, while several
ex-employees, including Andy Richards, had already
gone on to found new companies. Celsis, which focused
on developing enzyme technology to detect microbial
contamination, was listed from 1993 to 1999, when it
was acquired by Chicago company J O Hambro Capital
Management Group.
Goodman and Evans would go on, separately and
sometimes together, to found, co-found and fund numerous
other companies, including Peptide Therapeutics (later
Acambis, sold to Sanofi-Aventis in 2008 for £276 million),
Enviros, Cerebrus, Merlin Ventures, CeNes, Oxford
Biomedica, Amura, Salix and Avlar BioVentures. Evans
even launched a non-biotech company, Toad, which
developed car security systems.
Cambridge University’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology
(LMB) has also played a significant role in the development
of biotech. Set up by the Medical Research Council in 1947,
LMB started out in the Cavendish – conveniently near the
Eagle Pub where Watson and Crick would announce their
discovery of the structure of DNA – and eventually moved
into purpose-built premises on the Addenbrooke’s Hospital
site on the outskirts of Cambridge in 1962. In 2012, LMB
will move into new buildings on the same site, costing
£200 million and partly funded by royalties from antibody
research at the lab.
With 13 LMB scientists sharing 9 Nobel prizes
between them (including Fred Sanger who won twice),
it’s not surprising that several biotech companies have
been founded based on LMB research. Among them are
Domantis, Ribotargets, BioGen and Cambridge Antibody
Technology, CAT, which is now known as MedImmune.
144
Above: Professor Sir Christopher Evans OBE, in Enzymatix in the Daly Research Laboratories at Babraham.
Left: Alan Goodman, founder and chief executive of Avlar BioVentures Limited, has spearheaded a number of biotechnology companies including Acambis, Oxford BioMedica, Intercytex and CeNes Pharmaceuticals.
A busy laboratory at MedImmune Cambridge.
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds Healthcare and Bioscience
bIoscIence
A school leaver who started his training at ICI and a
graduate from Imperial are among the founding fathers of
the bioscience industry in and around Cambridge. Today,
there are several science and research parks dedicated to
biotech in the region – including the Babraham Research
Campus, which recently announced a £44 million grant
from the government to support bioscience innovation –
but when Sir Christopher Evans, the Imperial graduate,
launched his first company, Enzymatix in 1987, things were
very different.
Enzymatix had a £1.3 million investment from British
Sugar, but despite this, its first home was an old sheep
shed without any sinks. Starting out selling batches of
enzymes for £750 a box to pharmaceutical companies, the
company would go on to develop a form of phospholipid
that helped premature babies to breathe (which Evans
and his colleagues tested on themselves), and a natural
compound that ensured farmed salmon had pink flesh
without the need for chemical dyes. The latter was sold to
Abbott for £4 million.
By 1992, Evans had met Alan Goodman. Goodman had
come to biotech via ICI, Ciba-Geigy, Trebor, Agricultural
Genetics Company and Medeva. He founded Advanced
Technology Management (ATM) in 1992 to invest in and
provide consultancy to biotech businesses, and Enzymatix
was one of ATM’s first clients. Goodman’s advice was
to split the company, which resulted in the formation of
Chiroscience and Celsis. Chiroscience went on to list on
the London Stock Exchange in 1994 with a market cap of
£102 million, then merged with Slough company Celltech
in 1999. The combined company was sold to Belgian
biopharmaceutical company UCB in 2004, while several
ex-employees, including Andy Richards, had already
gone on to found new companies. Celsis, which focused
on developing enzyme technology to detect microbial
contamination, was listed from 1993 to 1999, when it
was acquired by Chicago company J O Hambro Capital
Management Group.
Goodman and Evans would go on, separately and
sometimes together, to found, co-found and fund numerous
other companies, including Peptide Therapeutics (later
Acambis, sold to Sanofi-Aventis in 2008 for £276 million),
Enviros, Cerebrus, Merlin Ventures, CeNes, Oxford
Biomedica, Amura, Salix and Avlar BioVentures. Evans
even launched a non-biotech company, Toad, which
developed car security systems.
Cambridge University’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology
(LMB) has also played a significant role in the development
of biotech. Set up by the Medical Research Council in 1947,
LMB started out in the Cavendish – conveniently near the
Eagle Pub where Watson and Crick would announce their
discovery of the structure of DNA – and eventually moved
into purpose-built premises on the Addenbrooke’s Hospital
site on the outskirts of Cambridge in 1962. In 2012, LMB
will move into new buildings on the same site, costing
£200 million and partly funded by royalties from antibody
research at the lab.
With 13 LMB scientists sharing 9 Nobel prizes
between them (including Fred Sanger who won twice),
it’s not surprising that several biotech companies have
been founded based on LMB research. Among them are
Domantis, Ribotargets, BioGen and Cambridge Antibody
Technology, CAT, which is now known as MedImmune.
144
Above: Professor Sir Christopher Evans OBE, in Enzymatix in the Daly Research Laboratories at Babraham.
Left: Alan Goodman, founder and chief executive of Avlar BioVentures Limited, has spearheaded a number of biotechnology companies including Acambis, Oxford BioMedica, Intercytex and CeNes Pharmaceuticals.
A busy laboratory at MedImmune Cambridge.
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds Healthcare and Bioscience
What we now know as MedImmune started out as
Cambridge Antibody Technology, CAT, in 1990. Jane Osbourn,
Site Leader for MedImmune in Cambridge and vice president,
research, likes to talk about the nine lives of CAT, from the
founding idea through building the product pipeline and
listing on the London Stock Exchange to today’s presence
as a global drug discovery and development organisation.
Osbourn has been with the company since 1993, when she
joined some 20 fellow employees working at the laboratory
bench. Today, MedImmune Cambridge has over 500
employees and occupies three buildings in Granta Park.
Work by David Chiswell, Greg Winter, John McCafferty
and others in Cambridge University’s Laboratory of
Molecular Biology in the 1980s demonstrated that
human antibody fragments could be created and isolated
using bacteriophages, opening up the possibility of the
therapeutic use of human monoclonal
antibodies. Previous efforts to develop
therapeutic antibodies from mice had
been unsuccessful, so this research
represented a major breakthrough. Winter
and Chiswell, supported by the Medical
Research Council, founded CAT in 1990 to
develop their work into drug products.
CAT spent its fi rst few months in
Winter’s laboratory, before moving to
the Babraham Research Campus. Within
two years, the company had moved
to Melbourn Science Park, where it
grew year by year to eventually occupy
nine buildings. By 2000, another move
was clearly indicated, this time to
two buildings on Granta Park, and in
2008 MedImmune expanded into a third building. In the
meantime, CAT had listed on the London Stock Exchange in
1997, raising £43 million. A secondary fundraising on the
market in 2000 raised a further £93 million, and CAT also
listed on NASDAQ in 2001.
One of the early tasks was to develop the technology
and use it to create an internal product pipeline. Licensing
was seen as one way to build revenue to fund further
development, and numerous licence deals were signed
with a number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies,
including Genzyme, Merck, Monsanto, Pfi zer and Wyeth.
By 1993, CAT had discovered a promising drug
candidate, which they named D2E7. A collaboration
with BASF produced the clinical candidate, which was
christened Adalimumab and began early clinical trials in
1999. Abbott bought BASF’s pharmaceutical division in
2001, and proceeded to take Adalimumab through clinical
trials to FDA approval under the brand name Humira
(Human Monoclonal Antibody in Rheumatoid Arthritis)
in 2002.
In 2003, CAT initiated legal proceedings challenging
the level of royalties Abbott was paying on sales of Humira.
The resulting court case found for CAT in December 2004,
but the situation was only resolved when the two sides
settled shortly before an appeal hearing. The litigation had
depressed CAT’s share price, preventing the company’s
proposed purchase of Oxford GlycoSciences in 2003. Humira
became a ‘blockbuster’ – more than $1 billion in annual sales
– in 2005, and global sales exceeded $5 billion in 2009.
The resolution of the Abbott royalty case freed
CAT to proceed with an alliance with AstraZeneca. The
alliance had an ambitious scope of 25 projects over fi ve
years focused on respiratory diseases and infl ammation.
An innovative partnership structure was created which
promoted joint collaborative discovery and development,
and shared funding and management.
AstraZeneca made a strategic decision to move into
biologics two years later. Their experience of working with
CAT in the alliance, in retrospect a form of practical due
diligence, made CAT the obvious choice for an acquisition,
but CAT in return, knowing they needed a strategic partner
because they did not have the resources to fund clinical
development, spoke to several other big pharma companies
and conducted their own due diligence on AstraZeneca,
visiting their research centre at Alderley Park. The eventual
result was that AstraZeneca bought CAT for £702 million
in 2006.
In 2007, AstraZeneca announced it had bought US
company MedImmune for over $15 billion. Merging the new
acquisition with CAT created a single biologics division,
combining MedImmune’s manufacturing capacity and drug
development pipeline with CAT’s antibody libraries and
expertise in drug discovery. The resulting organisation took
the MedImmune name because of its wider recognition in
the important American market.
MedImmune’s Cambridge operations focus on drug
discovery to proof of concept (Phase II). The number of
employees has increased by over 50% in the last two years,
as the company builds its capacity to develop promising
biologic drug candidates.
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds Healthcare and Bioscience
146
Left: David Chiswell, former CEO of Cambridge Antibody Technology.
Left: A teaspoon of the CAT library containing 100 billion medicines, part of the MedImmune technology portfolio.
Right: A vial of CAT libraries can contain up to 1011 antibodies.
medImmune
What we now know as MedImmune started out as
Cambridge Antibody Technology, CAT, in 1990. Jane Osbourn,
Site Leader for MedImmune in Cambridge and vice president,
research, likes to talk about the nine lives of CAT, from the
founding idea through building the product pipeline and
listing on the London Stock Exchange to today’s presence
as a global drug discovery and development organisation.
Osbourn has been with the company since 1993, when she
joined some 20 fellow employees working at the laboratory
bench. Today, MedImmune Cambridge has over 500
employees and occupies three buildings in Granta Park.
Work by David Chiswell, Greg Winter, John McCafferty
and others in Cambridge University’s Laboratory of
Molecular Biology in the 1980s demonstrated that
human antibody fragments could be created and isolated
using bacteriophages, opening up the possibility of the
therapeutic use of human monoclonal
antibodies. Previous efforts to develop
therapeutic antibodies from mice had
been unsuccessful, so this research
represented a major breakthrough. Winter
and Chiswell, supported by the Medical
Research Council, founded CAT in 1990 to
develop their work into drug products.
CAT spent its fi rst few months in
Winter’s laboratory, before moving to
the Babraham Research Campus. Within
two years, the company had moved
to Melbourn Science Park, where it
grew year by year to eventually occupy
nine buildings. By 2000, another move
was clearly indicated, this time to
two buildings on Granta Park, and in
2008 MedImmune expanded into a third building. In the
meantime, CAT had listed on the London Stock Exchange in
1997, raising £43 million. A secondary fundraising on the
market in 2000 raised a further £93 million, and CAT also
listed on NASDAQ in 2001.
One of the early tasks was to develop the technology
and use it to create an internal product pipeline. Licensing
was seen as one way to build revenue to fund further
development, and numerous licence deals were signed
with a number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies,
including Genzyme, Merck, Monsanto, Pfi zer and Wyeth.
By 1993, CAT had discovered a promising drug
candidate, which they named D2E7. A collaboration
with BASF produced the clinical candidate, which was
christened Adalimumab and began early clinical trials in
1999. Abbott bought BASF’s pharmaceutical division in
2001, and proceeded to take Adalimumab through clinical
trials to FDA approval under the brand name Humira
(Human Monoclonal Antibody in Rheumatoid Arthritis)
in 2002.
In 2003, CAT initiated legal proceedings challenging
the level of royalties Abbott was paying on sales of Humira.
The resulting court case found for CAT in December 2004,
but the situation was only resolved when the two sides
settled shortly before an appeal hearing. The litigation had
depressed CAT’s share price, preventing the company’s
proposed purchase of Oxford GlycoSciences in 2003. Humira
became a ‘blockbuster’ – more than $1 billion in annual sales
– in 2005, and global sales exceeded $5 billion in 2009.
The resolution of the Abbott royalty case freed
CAT to proceed with an alliance with AstraZeneca. The
alliance had an ambitious scope of 25 projects over fi ve
years focused on respiratory diseases and infl ammation.
An innovative partnership structure was created which
promoted joint collaborative discovery and development,
and shared funding and management.
AstraZeneca made a strategic decision to move into
biologics two years later. Their experience of working with
CAT in the alliance, in retrospect a form of practical due
diligence, made CAT the obvious choice for an acquisition,
but CAT in return, knowing they needed a strategic partner
because they did not have the resources to fund clinical
development, spoke to several other big pharma companies
and conducted their own due diligence on AstraZeneca,
visiting their research centre at Alderley Park. The eventual
result was that AstraZeneca bought CAT for £702 million
in 2006.
In 2007, AstraZeneca announced it had bought US
company MedImmune for over $15 billion. Merging the new
acquisition with CAT created a single biologics division,
combining MedImmune’s manufacturing capacity and drug
development pipeline with CAT’s antibody libraries and
expertise in drug discovery. The resulting organisation took
the MedImmune name because of its wider recognition in
the important American market.
MedImmune’s Cambridge operations focus on drug
discovery to proof of concept (Phase II). The number of
employees has increased by over 50% in the last two years,
as the company builds its capacity to develop promising
biologic drug candidates.
cLusTers, consTeLLATIons And cLouds Healthcare and Bioscience
146
Left: David Chiswell, former CEO of Cambridge Antibody Technology.
Left: A teaspoon of the CAT library containing 100 billion medicines, part of the MedImmune technology portfolio.
Right: A vial of CAT libraries can contain up to 1011 antibodies.
medImmune
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