Royal College of Art announces Wendy Tan White MBE as Clore Visiting Professor of Innovation

Wendy Tan White MBE is the CEO of Intrinsic, a robotics software and A.I. moonshot from Alphabet’s X. A long-time technology innovator, entrepreneur and investor, Wendy was a Partner at BGF Ventures and a General Partner at Entrepreneur First before joining X. She also co-founded, and was CEO at, Moonfruit, the world’s first SAAS website builder. Wendy also helped launch Zopa.com, the first European peer-to-peer lending site, and Egg.com, the UK's first internet bank.

Wendy is also a member of the UK Digital Economic Council, and World Economic Forum’s 2030 Vision Technology Leaders Group, as well as a Board Trustee for The Alan Turing Institute and Imperial College London’s Dyson School of Design Engineering. In 2016, Wendy was awarded an MBE for services to technology and business by The Queen.

The Clore Innovation Professorship, created with the support of Dame Vivien Duffield and the Clore Duffield Foundation, is an honorary role intended to inspire innovation, provide counsel and support the College’s entrepreneurship centre, InnovationRCA, as it embarks on the next phase of its expansion with the launch of a Design and Impact S/EIS fund.

Commenting on the appointment, Dr Paul Thompson, RCA Vice Chancellor, said: “I am really pleased to welcome Wendy to the RCA. She joins at an exciting time, with a very active entrepreneurship culture at the College and a world where design and creativity are increasingly recognised as powerful forces for innovation. Wendy’s background in computer science and then textile design, combined with her role as CEO of Intrinsic, a robotics software company and part of Alphabet Inc in Silicon Valley, makes her the perfect Clore Visiting Professor at InnovationRCA. Her expertise and knowledge of the venture capital ecology will really support our mission to foster the creation of more design-led young companies.”

Wendy Tan White MBE, said: “I’m delighted to accept the appointment as Visiting Clore Innovation Professor at InnovationRCA. I’d like to extend a sincere thank you to the RCA for welcoming me into its creative community. I couldn’t be more aligned or excited with the direction of RCA, the fund, and its mission. My purpose is for design and innovation to have global reach and positively impact humanity; design-driven innovation is essential to most modern businesses, and it’s an exciting time to invest in those skills.”

Dr Nadia Danhash, Director of InnovationRCA and IRCA Enterprise Ltd, commented “I am looking forward to working with Wendy. She brings exceptional experience and will undoubtedly be a much-valued sounding board. Having Wendy’s insights and network will greatly benefit us as we grow our portfolio and launch our S/EIS fund.”

ENDS

For further information please contact the RCA Press Office at [email protected].

Notes to Editors

About the Royal College of Art

Founded in 1837, the Royal College of Art is the world's leading university of art and design. Specialising in teaching and research, the RCA offers degrees of MA, MPhil, MRes and PhD across the disciplines of architecture, arts & humanities, design and communications.

A small, specialist and research-intensive postgraduate university based in the heart of London, the RCA provides 2500 students with unrivalled opportunities to deliver art and design projects that transform the world.

The RCA's approach is founded on the premise that art, design, creative thinking, science, engineering and technology must all collaborate to solve today's global challenges.

The RCA is home to more than 700 of the world’s leading academic and professional staff who teach and develop students in 30 academic programmes. RCA students are exposed to new knowledge in a way that encourages them to experiment.

The RCA runs joint courses with Imperial College London and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

InnovationRCA, the university's centre for enterprise, entrepreneurship, incubation and business support, has helped over 78 RCA business ideas become a reality that has led to the creation of over 800 UK jobs.

Alumni include such major figures as Dame Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley, Henry Moore OM, David Hockney OM, Sir Peter Blake, Sir Ridley Scott, Dame Zandra Rhodes, Sir Frank Bowling, Sir James Dyson OM, Tracey Emin RA CBE, Chris Ofili CBE, Sir Anthony Finkelstein, Francesca Amfitheatrof, Sir David Adjaye, Erdem Moralıoğlu MBE, Bianca Saunders and Thomas Heatherwick CBE RDI.

The RCA was named the world's leading university of art and design in the QS World Rankings 2022 for the eighth consecutive year (QS World Subject Rankings 2015-2022).

www.rca.ac.uk