Ian Page received his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 1970 from King’s College, London University. He received his M.Sc. in Systems Engineering from City University , London in 1972. Initially he worked in the computer industry (ICL and Plessey), working in the areas of real-time and parallel systems. In an unplanned move, he became an academic at Queen Mary College, University of London in 1976. He moved to the Computing Laboratory of Oxford University in 1984 where he became Reader in Computing Science.
In 1990, he founded a new research group at Oxford working in the area of hardware compilation. He created the ‘Handel’ methodology for designing electronic systems. This gives software designers the ability to design complete systems containing both hardware and software elements, quickly, reliably, and effectively. The Handel design approach, is also a natural partner to FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chip technology. Together, the two technologies enable complete systems incorporating hardware and software elements to be realized in minutes from a software-only design.
In 1996, the Handel technology was spun out to Embedded Solutions Limited – later to become Celoxica.
Since 2003 his major role is Business Development Director of Seven Spires Investments, an early-stage, high-tech investment fund established with £25m of private money. He manages investments of up £1 million per year per company and sits on the boards of most investee companies.
Page is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Computing at Imperial College, University of London. He is also Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Reading, and undertakes occasional independent consulting activities.
