Nigel Toon

Nigel Toon is co-founder, Chairman and CEO at Graphcore. Nigel Toon is a leading figure in AI and is often called upon to speak at major industry events. He has been recognized with numerous industry awards, including being ranked #1 on Business Insider’s ‘100 most influential people shaping British technology’ and as one of ‘The UK’s top 100 entrepreneurs’ by the Financial Times. Nigel is a technology business leader, entrepreneur and engineer, having been CEO at three successful venture capital-backed processor companies, including Graphcore, which he co-founded, and which developed a new type of microprocessor to accelerate Artificial Intelligence.  He was previously a senior executive at a major Silicon Valley, publicly listed semiconductor company. He has served as a Board Member and Chairman for several technology businesses and currently sits as  a Non-Executive Director on the board of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which is a non-departmental UK public body that directs over £8bn per year into research and innovation funding. He has also been a member of the UK Prime Minister’s Business Council. Nigel is the author on 3 granted patents and has been awarded a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Bristol; he lives in Somerset.