The UK government has appointed Simon Devonshire, director of telecommunications company Telefonica’s accelerator, Wayra Europe, as an entrepreneur-in-residence in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.
In his new role Devonshire will help shape policies meant to encourage the growth of British businesses and will act as a ‘scale-up’ entrepreneur, advising the government on how to help small businesses achieve growth and exports.
The Wayra Europe portfolio spans more than 200 digital startups with an investment value of over €150m ($200m).
Professor Timothy Dafforn, director of knowledge transfer, life and environmental sciences at the University of Birmingham, has also been brought aboard an entrepreneur-in-residence, and will work on building the emerging synthetic biology sector.
UK skills and enterprise minister Matthew Hancock announced the selections earlier this month at the Federation of Small Business summit in Liverpool.
Hancock said: “Both Simon and Timothy bring a range of experience and knowledge of the needs of small businesses. It is that expertise that we are bringing into the department to make sure that this country is the best place for a business to start up, scale up and thrive”.