WIREDGOV

On Friday 13th January techUK members heard from the UK’s first Cyber Envoy to the United States Andy Williams. Andy has spent the last twenty months in the United States advising UK cyber security companies on how best to promote their products. As the Cyber Envoy, he has worked with over 150 UK cyber security companies targeting the $45 bn US cyber market.

He told techUK members that, during his twenty months in post, he had been encouraged by the number of UK cyber companies coming to the US. He identified a number of reasons why British companies were very well placed to break into the US market, noting that the UK cyber industry was regarded as one of the most innovative in the world.

However, Andy expressed concern that approximately 80 per cent of companies that attempt to operate in the US fail to overcome some of the barriers to entering the market, and recognised time and resource investment, and capability as some of the key challenges preventing cyber companies from making a success of operating in the country.

Using his extensive network and industry expertise, Andy, in partnership with the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and other sponsors, has developed a public/private initiative dedicated to addressing these challenges.

The Global Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Entrepreneurship intends to provide cyber companies with the necessary tools, information and resources to break into the US market. The programme plans to deliver:

• A series of intensive executive management education programmes. The programme would be delivered by experienced US cyber industry experts over a one or two week period, to help overseas cyber entrepreneurs fully understand the US market and introduce companies to investors, government, and other entrepreneurs operating in the cyber space.
• A dedicated US market entry incubator service which will provide both a virtual and physical US office presence for qualifying overseas companies, backed by a 12 month program of dedicated market entry and development support.
• Access to a new set of powerful information assets which will be created to help map and analyse the US cyber market, the cyber investment community, the cyber research community and the US government’s expenditure in cyber security.

techUK looks forward to the launch of the Global Centre of Excellence, which will represent a new and innovative way of finding solutions to US market entry for cyber companies.

For more information about the plans for the centre, including the organisations involved, and the structure of the proposed programmes, please click below.

GLOBAL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN CYBER SECURITY... (PDF)