Dave Birch

Dave is a Director of Consult Hyperion, the IT management consultancy that specialises in electronic transactions, which he helped to found in 1986. Prior to this he spent several years working as a consultant in Europe, the Far East and North America. He graduated from the University of Southampton with a B.Sc (Hons.) in Physics.

Described by The Independent newspaper in 2004 as a “grade-A geek”, and by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation in 2005 as “one of the most user-friendly of the UK’s über-techies”, Dave is a member of the advisory board for European Business Review, a writer for Financial World and UK correspondent to the Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce. He has contributed to publications ranging from the Parliamentary IT Review to Prospect and is well-known for his more than 100 Second Sight columns in The Guardian.

As a media commentator on technology issues he has appeared on BBC television and radio, Sky and other channels around the world. He has lectured to MBA level on the impact of new information and communications technologies and is an invited member of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Working Group on Information Technology and Privacy. He is the editor of Digital Identity Management published by Gower in 2006. A tutor at the Visa Business School for some years, he has delivered a number of workshops on contactless technologies to banks and other organisations. He has written a number of papers on RFID/NFC and RFID security for publications including NCC IT Advisor. He was a a European Commission expert reviewer in the field of mobile commerce for 2004/5.

Some of the recent projects that Dave has been involved in range from advising an international mobile telecommunications operator on cross-border electronic funds transfer in Africa and helping a US-based company develop new products for the electronic identity market in Europe to providing executive-level decision-support on contactless payments to a “big four” UK bank and advising a UK financial services organisation on the use of electronic money in mass transit systems. He is an experienced presenter, having given invited presentations in Europe, the Americas and the Far East, and has many years’ experience facilitating workshops combining new technology and business.