Sarah Turner

Sarah discovered a very nascent multimedia industry and the Internet (or JANET to be precise) in 1992 while doing her MSc in Information Systems. Her dissertation was on the subject of human computer interaction at a time when graphical user interfaces were just starting to emerge. The art-science intersection and making computing accessible to non-technical people was always far more interesting than systems analysis.

Sarah spent the next five years designing and developing digital communication and change management solutions at Maxim for a range of clients including Motorola, Bovis and Lloyds Bank. She rose to the position of Head of Multimedia, leading a team of 30. This was the time when CD-ROM was the primary way of distributing multimedia content - remember Microsoft Encarta? In 1996, while at Maxim, Sarah appeared on an episode of BBC series, This Multimedia Business. (According to the producers - Hendrik Ball and George Auckland - it had the very first BBC website to accompany a TV programme and was the first TV programme to show a website address on screen. The series was made and broadcast a full year before www.bbc.co.uk was launched: see See programme details and read a recent blog post where it features.)

By 1997 the Web was reaching critical mass, a dotcom industry was beginning to emerge and Sarah joined Wired Sussex, first as project manager and then becoming managing director. It was the first network of its kind and became the blueprint for the plethora of regional digital networks that now exist throughout the UK. This was Sarah's first real experience of the benefits of collaboration - helping relatively small companies to punch above their weight in the press, with government ministers and large organisations and at trade events.

While still at Wired Sussex, Sarah was seconded to the Foreign and Commonweath Office in Hong Kong for six months to champion UK technology in Hong Kong and China. She recruited companies like Lastminute.com and Autonomy to help her fly the flag. Shortly after, together with UK videogames industry luminaries such as Peter Molyneux, Jez Sans, Ian Baverstock, Jason Kingsley and John Chasey, she helped set up TIGA, the trade body for UK games developers. Although not a gamer herself, she has always been fascinated by the level of interactivity, complexity and the all digital nature of computer games.

In 2001 Sarah began working with the Department of Trade & Industry (now Department for Business Innovation & Skills) on an international partnering programme called the Global Watch Service. A large part of the work was corralling companies to work together to address challenges facing their businesses. While there she led several fact-finding missions to the US, Canada, Japan, Korea and Brazil examining the impact of new technology, business models and management practice on the UK digital media sector. Download the reports here.

In 2007 she set up Double Shot with Simon which she combined with R&D consultancy for UK Trade and Investment, this time helping large overseas-owned corporations collaborate with UK universities and businesses. She has helped clients such as Disney Research and Turner Broadcasting find partners in academia and industry in search, speech synthesis, social gaming, displays and so on. In 2010 was invited to join UKTI’s Global Entrepreneurs Programme (GEP). The GEP Team consists of a network of internationally successful entrepreneurs who are able to offer their insight, networks and experience on a part-time basis to help accelerate companies into global markets from their UK headquarters.

"Sarah has an instinctive understanding of our business and what will be of interest to us. With her knowledge and connections she is able to find opportunities that we might never come across. Several excellent collaborations with UK companies and academics have resulted which has helped us move the business forward technologically as well as raise the profile of R&D within Turner Broadcasting."
Bob Schukai, VP Platform R&D, Turner Broadcasting

“Sarah was one of our mentors for the Springboard accelerator programme -- and she was simply outstanding. Every introduction she made for us was high-quality, precision targeted and tremendously useful. Some of the biggest outcomes from our time in the UK were a direct result of Sarah's assistance, an indication of her keen understanding of people and well-honed ability to make connections. To top it all off, she has a fantastic attitude: full of energy, positivity, and creative inspiration. It was a delight to work with Sarah and I really hope to get the opportunity again in the future.”
Kaila Colbin, CMO, MiniMonos