Simon Wardley

Simon Wardley is the Software Services Manager for Canonical, the main sponsor of Ubuntu. He is a proven executive with 14 years of solid experience in developing and delivering products. Simon has created and executed business and IT strategies within start-ups and multi-nationals ranging from FMCG to Web 2.0 and has a track record of building profitable software companies and consultancies. He is also an international speaker on the commodisation of IT, cloud computing, utility computing, fabrication technologies and the open source movement.

As a trained geneticist with a talent for mathematics and a background in economics, Simon has always found himself dealing with complex systems. Whilst the underlying principals behind such systems have remained constant, his experience has varied from the behavioral patterns of ladybirds to modeling environmental impacts of chemical pollution to developing novel computer systems to managing companies. Along the way he has developed a significant array of tools and experience for modeling and managing such non-linear environments. Simon believes that with the growth of utility computing and the inevitable realization that much of IT is becoming more of a commodity, there is an ever faster pursuit of innovation within the IT industry. Innovation is itself a highly complex system which is dependent upon uncertainty, and it is in the managing of innovation that Simon's expertise as both a consultant and public speaker is sought.

Simon has a MA in Natural Sciences (Genetics) from Cambridge University and an MSc in Energy & Environmental Management from Glasgow Caledonian University.