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

The Royal College of Art (RCA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Wendy Tan White MBE as Visiting Clore Innovation Professor within InnovationRCA, the RCA’s centre for entrepreneurship and commercialisation with a mission to help staff and graduates build successful businesses.

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.”