Digital Catapult NI appoints William Revels as new managing director

The founder of the BT Ireland Innovation centre and the PwC Advanced Research and Engineering centre has been appointed as managing director of Digital Catapult Northern Ireland.

A highly regarded technology leader with 25 years’ experience in the fields of software, telecommunications and managed services, William Revels also founded numerous start-ups in the fields of quality of service for IP networks and GPS location systems and has been awarded patents in both. One of these, Slever Solutions Ltd, successfully received the Invest Northern Ireland Smart Award for Industry and exited its technology to BT.

Originally from Belfast, William said: “As the new managing director for Digital Catapult Northern Ireland, I want to bring out the best in manufacturing and the creative industries here by utilising our technology subject matter experts and innovation capabilities to accelerate the adoption of advanced digital technologies.

“Discovering new ways of solving industry challenges will help increase productivity and open new revenue-generating markets, driving opportunity and longevity for both business and local economies.

“I look forward to working closely with academia, Local Government Departments, industry, the startup ecosystem and the investor community here in Northern Ireland and beyond.”

Digital Catapult Northern Ireland is a fast-growing regional centre of Digital Catapult, the UK authority on advanced digital technology.

Working closely with organisations like Invest NI and the Department for the Economy, Digital Catapult Northern Ireland fuels business adoption of emerging technologies, and is a key player in industry-changing programmes like the Smart Nano Northern Ireland consortium with Seagate Technology.

William is also a visiting professor at Ulster University and chairs the highly regarded Connected Health Innovation Centre. A chartered member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), he is an enthusiastic advocate for innovation and technology.

Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapult, added: “With pioneering work in both manufacturing and creative industries, the Digital Catapult team in Northern Ireland is going from strength to strength and helping to develop regional prosperity.

“I am absolutely delighted to welcome William to our team. I have no doubt that he will provide a strong foundation for our future growth both across Northern Ireland and also in contributing to national UK-wide programmes. William's background in innovation at PWC and before that at BT means that he comes to Digital Catapult with an incredible wealth of experience and insight and we are thrilled to have such a respected leader onboard to take our team forward in the region.

“Our Northern Ireland centre is already offering exciting opportunities for local businesses to derive value from advanced digital technologies - such as our Smart Manufacturing Experiment programme, which allows manufacturers to build their knowledge and skills in the smart technologies of the future.”

William joins the team as they prepare to launch the FutureScope Smart Manufacturing Experiment programme which will help 12 Northern Ireland manufacturing companies to gain the necessary skills and knowledge to introduce the technologies, tools and techniques of Industry 4.0 in their workplace.