Speaker Profiles
Alex van Someren (Speaker)
Alex van Someren became involved with local firm Acorn Computer as a young teenager and left school at 17 to join the company, where he worked on the BBC Microcomputer and its successor the Acorn Electron. With his brother, Dr. Nicko van Someren, he established a business selling computer hardware products within their father's company, Aleph One, in 1986. They went on to set up their first independent business ANT Ltd, now ANT plc, in 1990 to produce networking products including Web Browser software which they licensed to the Oracle Corporation.
In 1996 he and Nicko founded nCipher with venture capital backing to develop internet security products using cryptography. nCipher plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2000 and counts major banking, finance and government among its customers around the world. ANT plc was listed on the London AIM market in 2005 and is now positioned in the embedded software market for IPTV. nCipher plc was sold to Thales SA in October 2008.
He still lives in Cambridge with his wife and three children, where he is an active member of the local entrepreneurial community. He is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and a Non-Executive Director of Inkski Limited.