Andrew Rickman

Andrew Rickman OBE is a British entrepreneur in the field of silicon photonics. He is the founder, and was executive chairman and CEO of Rockley Photonics, a technology firm based in the United Kingdom. He was Britain’s first Internet billionaire. As CEO, he took Rockley Photonics public through a SPAC merger with a valuation of over US$ 1 billion in 2021 and the company went private again in 2023.

Early life and education Born circa 1960, Rickman has a mechanical engineering degree from Imperial College, London; a PhD in silicon photonics from Surrey University (supervisor: Graham Reed) an MBA from Cranfield University and honorary doctorates from Surrey, Edinburgh Napier and Kingston Universities. He is a chartered engineer.

Career and business ventures Bookham Technology Rickman was previously the CEO and Chairman of Bookham Technology, the first company to commercialise silicon photonics. He founded Bookham Technology in 1988. and Gordon Moore was involved.

Bookham grew rapidly from a start-up to a FTSE100 company, making Rickman the first technology billionaire in the UK, with a personal wealth of over £1.5 billion in the summer of 2000.

By 2009, he had created the investment company Rockley Ventures with his brother Robert. The company had invested in Blue Whale Mail, and Spikes Cavell. In 2010, it was reported that Rickman and his brother had raised $200 million from the Shandong and Shanxi governments to invest in technology firms in various Chinese provinces, such as Shandong Micro-Sensor Photonics. His Rockley China Fund was mostly backed by Hong Kong-based investors.

Rockley Photonics He started a new business, Rockley Photonics, in 2013, The company, which designs silicon photonic chips, was based in Oxford and California. In early 2023, the company filed for bankruptcy protection and underwent a restructuring. In June 2023, he remained CEO of Rockley Photonics. The company went private again in 2023.

Honours and awards Rickman was awarded an OBE for services to the telecommunications industry, 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.