Hermann Hauser
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Hermann Maria Hauser, CBE FREng FinstP CPhys (born 23 October 1948), is an entrepreneur who was born in Vienna, Austria but is primarily associated with Silicon Fen in England.
When he was 15 he came to the United Kingdom to learn English at a language school in Cambridge. After his first degree in Physics from Vienna University, he returned to Cambridge to do a PhD in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory.
He is probably most well-known for his part in setting up Acorn with Chris Curry and Andy Hopper. He was voted the UK's 'Computer Personality of the Year' of 1984. When Olivetti took control of Acorn in 1985, he became vice-president for research at Olivetti where he was in charge of laboratories in the US and Europe. In 1986, Hauser co-founded the Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) in Cambridge along with Professor Andy Hopper. Hopper became the laboratory's Director.
In 1988, Hauser left Olivetti to start the Active Book Company, investing one million pounds of his own money. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes made by Acorn, which had kept its technology to itself, he demonstrated the Active Book to as many large companies as he could. AT&T acquired Active Book and incorporated it into EO in July 1991. Hauser became Chief Technical Officer and Chairman of EO Europe. EO folded on Friday, 29 July 1994.
In 1990, Hauser was involved in spinning out Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) from Acorn.
In 1993, Hauser set up Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd with Andy Hopper. The company was acquired by Conexant Systems on 1 March 2004. He founded NetChannel Ltd in June 1996 as a holding company in order to begin work on marketing the NetStation. NetChannel was sold to AOL in 1998. In 1997 he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd, a venture capital company, and in 1998 he was a founder of Cambridge Network Ltd.
In 1998, Hauser was elected into an Honorary Fellowship of Hughes Hall, Cambridge, and he was also elected into an Honorary Fellowship of King's College with effect from 1 January 2000.
Hauser was awarded an Honorary CBE for "innovative service to the UK enterprise sector" in 2001.
On 14 June 2001, the Hauser-Raspe Foundation was registered as a charity by Dr Hermann Hauser and Dr Pamela Raspe to advance education.
On 8 July 2002, Hauser was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
In 2005, Hauser received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur. The award was presented at the annual European Electronics Industry Awards in London.
Dr Hauser is a Non-Executive Director of Cambridge Display Technology Ltd and a Member of the Board of Red-M (Communications) Ltd. He holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Bath and Loughborough and from Anglia Polytechnic University. He is a member of the Advisory Board on the Higher Education Innovation Fund, and of the UK's Council for Science and Technology.
[edit] External links
- Public oration, Loughborough University, 1998
- Herman Hauser's Second Chance by Christopher Anderson, 1996
