A Glasgow-headquartered internet of things (IoT) accelerator centre has been boosted by key appointments including the former managing director and interim CEO of Scottish Enterprise.
The Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC) is set to benefit from the public sector experience of Linda Hanna, as well as a host of other senior appointments.
Sean Murphy, Meta VP for supply chain, will also join an enhanced advisory board which includes recently-appointed Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan.
STAC CEO 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, and IoT plays 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, and support our push to match Scottish innovation with the greatest societal issues we face.”
He added: “With people like Sean and Jim in place on our advisory board, we can count on combined experience gained from leadership roles at global brands like Blackberry, Facebook and Meta, and Volvo Cars. We think this speaks volumes in terms of the powerhouse team we are building at STAC.”
Sean Murphy said: “I am excited to join the team at STAC to harness the very evident talent in Scotland. 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 (OEMs). 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. The partnership is part of the European Union-funded EIT HEI Initiative.
STAC is also working with one of its 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 that delivers continuing financial support to Scotland’s first IoT accelerator.
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, and cohort companies raising investment in excess of £100m.
STAC is supported by Scottish Enterprise, CENSIS (Scotland’s Innovation Centre for sensing, imaging and IoT technologies), and Glasgow-headquartered product design firm Filament. STAC’s local partners in Scotland include Anderson Anderson & Brown, Burness Paull, Scintilla, Arceptive, Soben, Integrated Graphene, Jordan Talent Solutions, and Pivot International.
STAC’s international partners are: San Francisco HQ-ed customer engagement platform Twilio; design, global manufacturing, supply chain and aftermarket services specialist Plexus Corp.; Intel Corporation, the semiconductor chip manufacturer who are enabling a more intelligent Internet of Things (IoT); Keysight, the world’s leading test and measurement company for IoT devices, and; Fortune 500, Colorado HQ-ed US electronics group Arrow Electron