Gavin Starks

Archive presentations

Keynote at O’Reilly’s Strata Conference on ‘making data work’

At TEDxNewYork

Commercial – previous

  • guardian — Yoti Guardian Council (6-year fixed term)
  • advisory board — Two Magnolias venture fund
  • board member at Spherics, exited to Sage Plc 
  • recognised as one of the “UK’s top data leaders and influencers” in 2016
  • founding CEO – Open Data Institute, a world-first created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Prof. Nigel Shadbolt, unlocking over £60M ($100M at the time) for the data-driven economy
  • founder – CEO and Chairman – multi-award-winning AMEE, raising over $10m from leading international venture capital funds (O’Reilly, USV, and Amadeus)
  • chairman — Provenance.org, blockchain-based product tracking
  • non-exec board — CupClub, circular-economy IoT packaging
  • advisory board — market analytics company
  • chairman — Rinse Group, at the centre of a vast musical community for over a decade
  • two companies I created were part of the first ten ‘Silicon Roundabout’ companies (Wired)
  • founding CEO – Consolidated Independent to create the digital supply chain for music, and become the market leader in digital distribution in 3-years
  • founder-team member/CTO – Asset TV, a secure video network where investment professionals share information
  • founder / CEO – award-winning cross-media company, Tornado Productions (sold to a larger media group in 2003 and onwards to Level3)
  • founder-team member and pioneer of streaming media in the UK and Europe from 1995 helping to set up Richard Branson’s “Virgin Net“, and the International Webcasting Association (IWA) in Europe
  • mentor to innovative UK startups in “Tech City” in both web and space/satellite industries
  • have led projects with UK Govt, BBC, Channel Four, Rolls Royce, Tate Modern, Shell, Radiohead, and UNICEF

Public & non-commercial roles – previous

  • Open Finance Task Force — Member
  • trustee — Blue Ventures (6-year fixed term)
  • co-chairman — Open Banking Working Group, creating the Open Banking Standard that led to new UK regulation
  • Innovation Working Group — UK Climate Financial Risk Forum
  • Open Finance Advisory Group — UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
  • non-executive director — anti-slavery registry, TISC reports
  • Business, Finance, Innovation, Investment Advisory Board for Longevity — UK All-Party Parliamentary Group
  • Open Banking Advisory Group — Payments New Zealand
  • advisory group member — flagship project on data sovereignty across Europe, DECODE (Decentralised Citizens Owned Data Ecosystem)
  • advisory board member — Greater London Authority (GLA) ‘Smart London’ programme
  • advisory board member — Ministry of Justice Data, Evidence and Science Advisory Board
  • advisory board member — UK Government’s Midata – “Energy Sector Board”, shaping policy with utilities and consumer-rights groups
  • founder-team member of Global Cool, a charity tackling public communication and mitigation of climate change
  • founder of exequo, a non-profit streaming media company for the 3rd sector

Academic / Research

  • ‘A Concise Taxonomy for Describing Data as an Art Material’ Leonardo, Volume 51, issue 1, February 2018
  • BSc (Astronomy): Specific research on Quasars
  • Masters of Music (Computer-Music): Published research on 3-D Sound and Virtual Reality Audio
  • Experimental Officer at Jodrell Bank Radio Observatory: Radio Astrophysics, Quasars, image processing, website dev (1994)
  • Created and lectured IEEE approved courses in Electronics and Music at Glasgow University
  • Music performed and research published and presented internationally (across five continents)
  • Contributor with the AmbientTV collective, the Acoustic Space Lab in Latvia, and Nesta/PAL workshops.