Andrew Rickman

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

is an entrepreneur in the field of silicon photonics. He is the founder and executive chairman of Rockley Photonics based in the UK, having resigned as CEO on December 12, 2022. As CEO, he took Rockley Photonics public through a SPAC merger with a valuation of over one billion dollars and subsequently collapsed the company through gross mismanagement, resulting in its bankruptcy within two years of going public. He was Britain’s first Internet billionaire.

Education

Rickman has a mechanical engineering degree from

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, London;Rickman, A. 2021. Andrew Rickman’s profile page. inkedIn

Surrey University The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The instituti ...

, an MBA from Cranfield University and honorary doctorates from Surrey, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh Napier and Kingston University, Kingston Universities. He is a Chartered Engineer.

Career and business ventures

Rickman was previously the CEO and Chairman of Bookham Technology, the first company to commercialise silicon photonics. He founded Bookham Technology in 1988, and it grew rapidly from a start-up to a FTSE100 company before its valuation crashed as the dotcom bubble burst in 2000. He left Bookham in 2005. Rickman was also Chairman of Kotura Inc., and currently serves as executive chairman of Rockley Photonics.

Honours and awards

Rickman was awarded an OBE for services to the telecommunications industry, and is a winner of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

Silver Medal for his outstanding contribution to British Engineering. In 2000, Rickman was named UK Technology and Communications Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young.

Other achievements

In 2011, Rickman was awarded an Honorary Professorship at SIMIT, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Rickman has held advisory board positions with the East Asia Institute of the University of Cambridge and Applied Science and Technology Research Institute of Hong Kong.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rickman, Andrew Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of the University of Surrey Officers of the Order of the British Empire British telecommunications industry businesspeople Chief executives in the technology industry