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Interview with Sir David Brown

Sir David Brown got hooked on electronic engineering when his father took him to a Faraday Lecture at the age of 14. His first job was with Plessey, which had sponsored him through sixth form and university. At Plessey he worked on the UK’s first digital telephone exchanges and Ptarmigan a landmark tactical mobile cryptographic telecommunications system for the British army. He is a firm believer in the power of teamwork and went on to senior roles at STC, ICL, Northern Telecom and Motorola.

More recently, Sir David has focused on non-executive roles in technologies that are “edgy and fun”, such as hydrogen fuel cells and printing sciences. As chairman of the board of trustees at Bletchley Park, home of British World War II code-breaking, he is a passionate about encouraging young people to become engineers. With four honorary doctorates, a visiting fellowship at Oxford University and a knighthood, he continues to be an eminent figure in the telecoms and electronics industries.

Early Life

Sir David Brown was born in Wolverhampton, in May 1950. David’s father was a civil engineer working in local government and his mother was a primary school teacher. The family were especially keen on education as David explains: “My mother was the first of all of her family and all of her line to get what I call a decent education.  Her mother was insistent that her youngest daughter would get educated, whatever it took.  So of course that feeling was passed on to my mother, and passed on, and I have it, and my sons have it.  Life’s about learning as much as anything else, it’s endless, it never stops.”

 

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