30572_Kao Data Critical Careers_Pages - Flipbook - Page 60
What initially drew you to digital
infrastructure?
an I confess that I never really had any intention of ending up
in digital or tech? I spent all my formative years in 昀椀nance and
strategy consulting helping massive multinationals on everything
from M&A to global tax planning and restructuring. I moved into an
Innovation Director role about 12 years ago though, and after spending
some time on digital transformation internally and for large corporate
clients I ended up on a project with what was Tech North back then,
and their startup community. I was immediately absolutely hooked. I
couldn’t believe how ambitious the founders were, how collaborative the
ecosystem was, and how fast impressive companies and products that
would change and improve so many aspects of our lives were being built
and developed.
C
Liz
Scott, MBE
CEO,
Turing Innovation Catalyst
60
When Tech North and Tech City teamed up to create Tech Nation as
a national organisation centred on helping startups and scaleups right
across the UK to thrive, I was lucky enough to be asked to join. My
昀椀rst role there was building and then looking after a national team,
and a network of about 4.5k high potential scaleups. Being involved in
developing the startup ecosystem that had started in silicon roundabout,
and then took hold right across the UK was so interesting.
I went on to look after international programmes, the global tech talent
visa and commercial partnerships, and developed a deep understanding
of the role ecosystem development plays in creating the right conditions
for startup growth. Once again, that relationship between hard
infrastructure and programmatic support was important – all the bits of
the jigsaw in an ecosystem need to be present and working well if our
startups and scaleups are to thrive.
