Andrew Rickman

Andrew Rickman OBE is an 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.^[1] He was Britain’s first Internet billionaire.^[2] As CEO, he took Rockley Photonics public through a SPAC merger with a valuation of over one billion dollars in 2021 and the company went private again in 2023.

Early life and education

Born circa 1960,^[2] his hometown was Bookham, Surrey.^[3] Rickman has a mechanical engineering degree from Imperial College, London;^[4] a PhD in silicon photonics from Surrey University (supervisor: Professor Graham Reed) an MBA from Cranfield University and honorary doctorates from Surrey, Edinburgh Napier and Kingston Universities. He is a Chartered Engineer.^[5]

Career and business ventures

Bookham Technology

Rickman was previously the CEO and Chairman of Bookham Technology, the first company to commercialise silicon photonics.^[6] He founded Bookham Technology in 1988.^[2] in the spare room in his family house in Wiltshire.^[6] Intel was an early investor in Bookham^[7] 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.^[2] Its valuation crashed as the dotcom bubble burst in 2000.^[2] Bookham Technology had an IPO in 2000, and later in 2009, became Oclaro.^[8] After moving the company to Silicon Valley, he left the company in 2004 to focus on being a technology investor.^[2]

Rockley Ventures

He invested $10 million Kotura in 2008, becoming chairman and joining the board of directors.^[9]

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.^[6] Other recent stakes included Firecomms.^[10] In 2009, he and his brother launched a new $100 million technology fund in China, in partner with the Shandong Academy of Sciences and Shandong High-Tech Investment Corporation.^[11] 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.^[10]

Rockley Photonics

He started a new business, Rockley Photonics, in 2013,^[2] serving as CEO.^[8] The company, which designs silicon photonic chips, was based in Oxford and California.^[8] In 2014, he was chairman and CEO of Rockey Photonics, and he had recently served as^[1] Kotura chairman,^[1][5] a silicon photonics company which is now part of Nvidia. As CEO, he took Rockley Photonics public through a SPAC merger with a valuation of over one billion dollars in 2021.

He resigned as CEO of Rockley Photonics Holdings Limited in December 2022, instead becoming executive chairman of Rockley.^[12] In early 2023, the company filed for bankruptcy protection and underwent a restructuring.^[13] In June 2023, he remained CEO of Rockley Photonics.^[14] The company went private again in 2023.

Honours and awards

Rickman was awarded an OBE for services to the telecommunications industry,^[5] and is a winner of the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal for his outstanding contribution to British Engineering in 2002.^[15][16] In 2000, Rickman was named UK Technology and Communications Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young.^[5]

Other achievements

In 2011, Rickman was awarded an Honorary Professorship at SIMIT, Chinese Academy of Sciences.^[4] 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.^[5][4]