Leadership

Martin Hellawell

Independent Non-Executive Chair

Martin joined the Existing Group in July 2019 as chair and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 2 June 2024.

He has been chair of Gamma Communications since 2023, and he was chair of Softcat PLC from 2018-2023, both FTSE 250 organisations. He was also formerly chair of musicMagpie PLC and senior independent director at Team17 PLC, both AIM listed organisations.

Martin was chief executive of Softcat between 2006 and 2018 and was chief executive when Softcat listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2015.

In his earlier career Martin spent 13 years at Computacenter plc, where he was responsible for the marketing function, ran Computacenter's French subsidiary, and led acquisitions in the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Germany. He was part of Computacenter's initial public offering team in 1998.

Martin has a BA degree in Management and French from Lancaster University.

Dr Eben Upton CBE

Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Dr Eben Upton CBE DFBCS FREng is a founder of the Foundation and serves as the CEO of the Group. He was appointed to the Board of Directors on 12 March 2024.

He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2017, appointed a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society in 2019, and elected an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge in 2020. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to business and education in 2016. He was previously a Technical Director and Distinguished Engineer with fabless semiconductor company Broadcom, and co-founder and CTO of mobile games and middleware vendor Ideaworks3D. From 2004 to 2007 he held the post of Director of Studies for Computer Science at St John's College.

Eben holds a BA in Physics and Engineering, a Diploma in Computer Science, a PhD in Computer Science, and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Richard Boult

Chief Financial Officer

Richard joined the Existing Group as chief financial officer in October 2019 and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 12 March 2024.

He was previously the chief financial officer of Dovetail Games Limited, having previously served as the chief financial officer of Time Out Group plc at the time of its IPO and subsequently until March 2018. He was previously group finance director at BCA Marketplace plc, including at the time of its listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

Prior to joining BCA Marketplace, Richard held a number of senior finance roles at both group and divisional levels in major listed companies, including Wolseley plc, Darty plc and 21st Century Fox Inc.

Richard holds an MA in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in London.

Sherry Coutu CBE

Senior Independent Non-Executive Director

Sherry joined the Existing Group in December 2012 as a non-executive director and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 2 June 2024. She is a former trustee of the Foundation.

Sherry has 30 years of experience serving on the boards of companies, charities, government departments and universities, focusing on consumer digital, business information services, and education.

As an entrepreneur, Sherry founded Interactive Investor International plc, Founders4Schools, Digital Boost and the Scape-up Institute. She is a non-executive director at Pearson plc, the world's largest learning company where she chairs the remuneration committee and serves on the nomination and governance committees. Previous plc board experience includes RM plc where she was senior independent director, London Stock Exchange Group plc and Zoopla plc where she chaired the remuneration committees.

She was commissioned by the UK government to author the Scaleup Report on UK Economic Growth, was awarded a CBE for services to entrepreneurship, and has four honorary PhD's, one MSc in economics from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

David Gammon

Independent Non-Executive Director

David joined the Existing Group in September 2016 as a non-executive director and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 2 June 2024.

David has over 15 years' experience as an investment banker, having worked for Baring Securities, Salomon Brothers, Robert Fleming & Co, Challenger East and Credit Lyonnais. Since 2001, David has focused on developing, advising and investing in disruptive high growth technology companies. In 1988, David founded Rockspring, an advisory and investment firm, where he continues to be CEO today. In 2017, David was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. David's previous experience includes advisory roles at Thought Machine Limited and Marshall of Cambridge Holdings Limited. He held non-executive directorships at DeepMind Technologies Limited, Accesso Technology Group plc, Ubisense Trading Limited, Amino Technologies plc, bGlobal plc, and was chairman of Frontier Developments plc and acting CFO at internet specialist Envisional Solutions Limited. David is also a non-executive chairman of Wild Hydrogen Limited and non-executive director of L'Escargot Sur Mer Limited. He acts as an adviser to IQ Capital Partners LLP and has been a member of the Access to Finance and Growth Capital Committee of the Scale Up Institute since 2015.

Rachel Izzard

Independent Non-Executive Director

Rachel joined the Existing Group in 2022 as a non-executive director and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 2 June 2024.

Since June 2023, Rachel has been the chief financial officer at the Co-op and is an executive director on the Co-op Group board where she has responsibility for Finance, Property and Sustainability. An experienced board leader, Rachel has a strong background in financial stewardship and developing and leading teams through complex change to land strategic business outcomes.

Rachel has over 30 years’ experience in consumer-facing and B2B businesses, including as CFO and CIO at Aer Lingus, where she played a key role in a successful turnaround of both the customer proposition and financial performance. She was also CFO of IAG Cargo, co-founding the business following the separation of the cargo operations of British Airways and Iberia.

Earlier in her career, Rachel also held a range of senior airline leadership roles across Australia, Asia and North America. Rachel holds an honours degree in Astrophysics from Birmingham University and is also a chartered management accountant.

Chris Mairs CBE

Independent Non-Executive Director

Chris joined the Existing Group in 2019 as a non-executive director. He was appointed to the Board of Directors on 2 June 2024.

Chris is an angel investor focused on deep tech. He is a venture partner at Entrepreneur First and a former trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Chris was a co founder and chief technology officer of Metaswitch Networks, a cloud based communications company backed by Sequoia Capital, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2020. He was also chairman of Magic Pony Technology until its acquisition by Twitter in 2016

Chris is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and an honorary fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, and was awarded a CBE in 2014.

Dan Labbad

Non-Executive Director

Dan joined the Existing Group in 2021 as a non-executive director and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 2 June 2024.

Since December 2019, Dan has been the Chief Executive and an executive board member at The Crown Estate. He is a former trustee of the Foundation.

Prior to The Crown Estate, Dan held a number of positions at the global property and infrastructure group Lendlease, including group chief operating officer and the dual roles of chief executive officer, international operations and chief executive officer, Europe to oversee the expansion of Lendlease's businesses in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Dan has previously served as a director of the Green Building Council of Australia and more recently as chairman of the UK Green Building Council. Dan holds a first class honours degree in Engineering (Civil) from the University of Technology Sydney and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of NSW.

James Adams

Chief Technical Officer (Hardware)

James Adams joined the Group in March 2013 and has held various key roles within Cambridge‑based technology companies. He co‑founded the team within Broadcom that created the VideoCore 3D graphics accelerator intellectual property and, as one of its first employees, helped to grow the start-up Argon Design Ltd, which was later sold to Broadcom. James also co-founded FiveNinjas, a media player start-up which ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014, and worked for engineering consultancy Alphamosaic Ltd. Since March 2013, James has served as Raspberry Pi hardware lead. He served as the Existing Group’s Chief Operating Officer from September 2015 to September 2023, and since September 2023 he has served as Chief Technical Officer for hardware. James holds a Masters with honours in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine and an Executive MBA from the Judge Business School at Cambridge University.

Gordon Hollingworth

Chief Technical Officer (Software)

Gordon Hollingworth joined the Group in January 2013 to lead software engineering activities and has extensive experience in software engineering within the semiconductor industry. Gordon was previously a software engineering manager at Broadcom and a senior consultant at The Technology Partnership prior to his time at Broadcom. Gordon holds a first class Masters in electronic engineering from the University of York, a PhD in self-organising electronics, and an executive MBA from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Mike Buffham

Chief Commercial Officer

Mike Buffham joined the Group in December 2016 and has served as Chief Commercial Officer since September 2020, leading our commercial activities and global sales strategy. He has nearly 40 years’ experience in senior roles in the electronics industry, including with Premier Farnell between 2009 and 2016 (acting as Global Head of Product & Pricing between 2013 and 2016) and with Arrow Electronics between 1993 to 2009 (acting as Vice President of Marketing and Product Management, EMEA between 2007 and 2009).

Mike holds a foundation degree in Living with Technology from the Open University.

Helen Lynn

Director of Communications

Helen Lynn joined the Group in April 2014, holding various editorial, press, public relations, and social media roles until July 2024, since which time she has served as Director of Communications. Before moving into communications, Helen built a diverse technical and analytical background, spanning web development, database administration, user support, and documentation and training, developing extensive experience of how people interact with technology and information. Helen holds an MA in Modern & Medieval Languages from the University of Cambridge and a first class BSc in Life Sciences from the Open University.

Carol Copland

General Counsel and Company Secretary

Carol Copland joined the Group as a consultant in July 2018 and as an employee since June 2024. She serves as General Counsel and Company Secretary. She also served as the general counsel of the Foundation from 2018 to 2023. Carol has 25 years of legal experience, including as a partner at gunnercooke llp, chief legal officer and director at Metaswitch Networks, director of legal and corporate affairs at The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the Examinations and Appeals Board and an associate at Linklaters LLP. She was chair of the Lumos Foundation until January 2025 and is currently chair of the Berkhamsted Schools Group, as well as a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

Ian Newton

Business Development and Strategy Officer

Ian Newton joined the Group in January 2024 as Senior Adviser to the Chief Executive and the Board, providing strategic counsel through the company’s successful IPO, and has since served as Business Development and Strategy Officer. In this role, he leads business development and medium-term strategy, focusing on scaling the business through the “Board to Board” initiative and overseeing plc-related matters, including investor relations.

Ian has more than 25 years of experience in equity capital markets and investment management, with particular expertise in the UK and European technology sectors. Before joining Raspberry Pi, he was Head of Equity Capital Markets and a Partner at Sand Grove Capital Management, and previously held senior roles at Platinum Capital Management, James Caird Asset Management, Cheyne Capital Management, Bank of America and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.

Ian also serves as a member of the ICAEW Investment Committee and holds an MPhil in Management from the University of Cambridge and a BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Reading.