Jon has spent the majority of his career in the tech sector, most notably co-founding SwiftKey in 2008 and growing the business through to its acquisition by Microsoft in 2016. SwiftKey is best known for its smart typing technology which learns from each user to accurately autocorrect and predict their most-likely next word, and features on more than 1 billion devices to date. Since then, Jon has co-founded a video commerce start-up which he exited in 2024 and has made several early-stage angel investments, working with exceptional founders and co-investors across different sectors.
Jon is a member of Founders Pledge, an organisation which supports founders to give more effectively, and recently took part in the UBS Accelerate Collective – a 3-year learning programme which explored a range of innovative social finance models.
Jon studied Physics from the University of Cambridge and started his career working as a civil servant in the British Government. He was awarded an MBE in 2016 for services to technology.
While in Cambridge, Jon is looking to investigate whether in a world of increasing global consumption and stretched natural resources…is the status quo the only way? What alternatives are there?
Having worked within and benefited from ‘the way things are,’ he hopes to learn more about how we got here and explore what change is possible. Can we dare to dream of growing sustainably whilst increasing the quality of life for all?
