entrepreneur

Mark Nagurski, Derry’s own Martha Lane Fox – 10 things the two Digital Champions have in common

This week Mark Nagurski started his new role as Derry’s first Digital Champion.  There’s been a lot of interest in and around the appointment and it’s become a whole lot bigger & more prestigious since Derry’s win of the UK City of Culture 2013 competition.  “Digital Champion” is a job title we’d never heard of 5 years ago but it’s becoming increasingly popular.  Other job titles of a similar ilk and in the same type of space would be Brian Halligan’s appointment as “entrepreneur in residence” at MIT or the appointment of Lloyd Davis as “social artist in residence” at the University of London’s Centre for Creative Collaboration.

Mark’s remit is to spend the next two years promoting the burgeoning creative digital sector in the North West of Ireland.

Now I realise that Martha’s job as the UK’s Digital Champion is on a much bigger scale than Mark’s but I thought it would be a bit of fun to spot some similarities between them beyond their shared job title – so here goes:

1.       They are both internet entrepreneurs and have been deeply steeped in the internet and what it means for business and society forever

2.       Neither of them studied a technology subject at university – Martha studied Ancient & Modern History at Oxford and Mark studied International Relations at the LSE

3.       They were both born in the 1970s so they’re both still “young”

4.       They’ll both talk to anyone

5.       They both write extremely well & are articulate in conversation

6.       They love starting things and are serial entrepreneurs

7.       Neither of them have sisters

8.       They are both grafters and will work their backsides off for a cause they believe in

9.       They believe in themselves and their own abilities

10.   They know what they’re talking about and command respect from their audiences and peers.

Good luck in the new role Mark.  I for one am delighted with your appointment and I can’t wait to see the success and opportunity you’ll bring to Derry and the NW in the next couple of years.


Mark_nagurski
Mlf

He made me what I am…
Bryan_july_2010

…even though he will deny it!  Dr Bryan Keating (pictured above at Learning Pool’s office earlier this month) is one of the reasons I moved from London to Northern Ireland, 10 years ago at the end of this month.  I left my safe job as FD of CIPFA’s commercial subsidiary IPF.  I’d worked at CIPFA for what felt like 100 years or more.  It was cosy & familiar and I’d recruited and collected a high performing team around me over the years.  As an organisation, we hit all our targets & were able to predict with a high degree of certainty what we’d be doing for the next 3 – 5 years.  Life was easy.

What could be stranger than leaving that environment to become a dotcommer – working for one of Belfast’s high tech VC funded start-ups?  Drenched in uncertainty, constantly seeking funding, moving the goalposts every day, handling our tricky VCs, managing our quota of prima donnas (every tech start-up has them!)…Bryan was the person that calmly showed me how to deal with all of that & more.  Take my hand & walk into the abyss – sometimes that’s what you have to do.

He coached & mentored me when I needed it with sensible advice and his practical and so friendly way.  Bryan shared with me his wisdom and told me his stories – the kinds of stories every fledgling entrepreneur needs to listen to and hear.  We had a few adventures & met some great people (and some not so great people) along the way, burned the midnight oil when we needed to and we had a lot of laughs.

Bryan gave me confidence and encouraged me to go on & become an entrepreneur myself and for that I will be forever grateful to him.  It hasn’t always been an easy journey but it has been challenging and fulfilling.  If I hadn’t met him when I did, that would definitely not have happened for me.  He is a great man and over the years I have learned so much from him.  Even now, when I have an important decision to make, I calmly ask myself what Bryan would suggest – and I’m able to think it through in my head.  I usually carry a few of his crazy diagrams in my handbag, scribbled quickly on a napkin or the nearest scrap of paper as he explains something, and I look at them from time to time & reflect on the advice he’s given to me.  I carry some of his words in my head and repeat them to myself from time to time like a mantra.  I find myself saying some of those same things now to my own young team.

Bryan – thank you for everything that you’ve done for me and for everything you’ve done for the hundreds of other start-ups and entrepreneurs that you’ve helped and encouraged along the way – we appreciate you and I don’t know where we’d be without you!