One of the founders of CodeBase – the UK’s largest tech incubator – has been appointed an honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh.
Steven Drost, the chief strategy officer for the Edinburgh-headquartered tech ecosystem builder – revealed the news this week in a post on LinkedIn.
He announced that he will be working with the team at the University of Edinburgh Business School to ‘help bring some of the lessons learned at CodeBase and Techscaler to a new audience’.
Drost said: “In some personal news, I am very honored to share that I have been appointed as an Honorary Professor at The University of Edinburgh.
“The role is very complementary to what I have been doing and will continue to do at CodeBase.
“As a startup ecosystem builder, I am excited about forging closer links between programmes like Techscaler and academia in order to better collaborate, share networks, trade war stories, inspire more students and staff to become founders, and create better all round conditions for more societal impact around the innovation and startup space.”
“For Edinburgh specifically, this means not only doubling-down on the existing CodeBase relationships with the DDI hubs, e.g. the Bayes Centre, the Edinburgh Futures Institute, the Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh, but also co-creating programmes, connecting with investors globally, and generally opening up new opportunities for inspiring academic would-be founders.”
Drost has been instrumental in running the Scottish Government’s national Techscaler programme, one of the recommendations of former Skyscanner executive Mark Logan in his tech ecosystem review report of 2020.
The programme, which has hubs in towns and cities across Scotland, is designed to support entrepreneurs and founders in local communities to build and scale their tech businesses.
The scheme has recently expanded with pop-up hubs in San Francisco and Singapore, offering Scottish tech firms access to the world’s largest technology markets.