PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

During the last twenty years, there have been many academics, politicians and policymakers (including yours truly) who have looked over to the innovation developed in Silicon Valley, California and wondered if we could ever emulate that success here in Wales. Whilst the former First Minister Rhodri Morgan proposed only last week that South Wales could become the “UK’s answer to Silicon Valley”, he is not alone in the world with such a suggestion for his local area. With imitation often being the sincerest form of flattery, many others regions across the globe have tried to emulate the ‘secret sauce’ that has led to this small valley to the South East of San Francisco becoming the seedbed for world-leading companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Google. But after fifty years of success, can it maintain its position as the premier location for innovation in the World? This is a question that its own business community has recently been asking itself. This has culminated in a...

A great new film has been released which every person interested in entrepreneurship should watch. Something Ventured tells the story of the creation of an industry that went on to become the single greatest engine of innovation and economic growth in the 20th century. It is told by the visionary risk-takers who dared to make it happen…Tom Perkins, Don Valentine, Arthur Rock, Dick Kramlich and others. The film also includes some of our finest entrepreneurs sharing how they worked with these venture capitalists to grow world-class companies like Intel, Apple, Cisco, Atari, Genentech, Tandem and others. Beginning in the late 1950s, this small group of high rollers fostered a one-of-a-kind business culture that encouraged extraordinary risk and made possible unprecedented rewards. They laid the groundwork for America’s start-up economy, providing not just the working capital but the guidance to allow seedling companies to reach their full potential. The lives of hundreds ...

Last summer, the University of Wales Global Academy established an office in Silicon Valley, California, the global centre for innovative and entrepreneurial businesses. Based at the Irish Innovation Centre (IIC) in San Jose, the self-proclaimed capital of Silicon Valley, the aim of the office is to provide a presence for Welsh businesses that felt ready to present their innovation technology to potential investors, taking advantage of the soft-landing that the IIC provides to companies already based there. As most of you are no doubt aware, Silicon Valley is where some of the leading high technology businesses in the World are to be found, with great companies such as Apple, Cisco, eBay, Google, Hewlett Packard, Intel and Yahoo having their corporate headquarters located there. And of course, let’s not forget that it is also the home of Facebook, a company that was started in a bedroom eight years ago but which, in the next few months, will undertake a stock market flotation ...