Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

World-renowned technology hothouse, St John’s Innovation Centre has appointed David Gill to succeed Walter Herriot OBE as managing director from December 2008 when Herriot retires.

David Gill qualified as a barrister before working in both investment and commercial banking, most recently as Head of the Innovation & Technology Unit for HSBC, the largest UK-based international bank.
 
He spent a year recently as a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in California, and since 2005 has been a partner in ET Capital, a specialist early-stage venture capital fund based in Cambridge.

David has co-authored surveys of technology funding in the USA, Israel, Germany and the UK, and has strong links with the higher education sector in Cambridge and elsewhere. He also has extensive experience of advising high technology businesses. 
 
Professor Ian Hutchings, chairman of SJIC said: "We are delighted to have found someone of the calibre of David Gill as Walter’s successor. He has exactly the blend of expertise and vision that the Centre needs for the future, and I very much look forward to working with him."
 
Gill said: "Since its inception, the St John’s Innovation Centre has made a vital contribution to the Cambridge technology cluster. Under Walter Herriot’s leadership, it has fostered some of the most ambitious and successful start-ups in Britain. I am honoured to have the opportunity to build on the Innovation Centre’s significant achievements at a time when knowledge-based businesses are increasingly important to the UK economy." 
 
St John’s Innovation Centre was founded in 1987 by St John's College, one of the colleges of the University of Cambridge, in the north of the city. The Centre was one of the first in the UK and has an international reputation. It currently has 53,000 sq ft of space, occupied by some 60 tenants. 

It acts as an incubator by assisting the formation and growth of early stage knowledge-based businesses, and not only provides physical space but also in-house management support. It also collaborates with public sector bodies and the University in providing advice to a large number of embryonic high-technology businesses.  
 
Herriot said: "I am extremely pleased that David Gill has been appointed as my successor.  I am sure that under his guidance and leadership the Innovation Centre will continue to play an important, and increasing, role in supporting the growth of knowledge-based businesses in Cambridge."