5 questions with Dr. Jacqui Taylor
Our guest of this IT Insights 5 questions episode is Dr. Jacqui Taylor, CEO and Founder at FlyingBinary Ltd. She is recognised as one of the 15 Most Influential Woman in UK Technology, 21 Most Inspiring Women in Cyber, 100 Global Leaders, an Expert Advisor to the European Commission and in the United Nations 2030 plan.
Jacqui has shared the advice she would give to someone at the very beginning of their journey with DeepTech as well as the challenges she faces when implementing innovative technology. She had also introduced the initiative called Empathy Economy, which has already welcomed over 100 million entrepreneurs from 172 countries. It has taught them how to be CyberSafe in an online world. Empathy Economy is working to launch a unique EE membership where Jacqui will share her success plan to support 1 million entrepreneurs or changemakers to create businesses to deliver the change the world needs to see across the world and she would love you to join her. If you want to grow or start a business that changes people’s lives the waitlist for the next cohort of Empathy Economy businesses is open, and you can join it at https://jacqui.online/waitlist.
To get access to the WEF research we used to help 10 million businesses Cybersafe go to https://wef.jacqui.online.
To stay updated follow Jacqui Taylor’s LinkedIn profile where she shares updates on her global work.
Ewa Banaś: Hi, welcome to another episode of the IT Insight series, “Five Questions.” Today, my guest is Jacqui Taylor:
- 15th most influential woman in UK technology,
- 21st most inspiring woman in cyber,
- one of the 250 founders of Tech City,
- top 10 global IoT innovator,
- recognized as one of the 100 global leaders,
- an expert advisor to the European Commission and the United Nations 2030 plan,
- most influential UK web scientist in 2021,
- and a top 34 IoT influencer on Twitter
and I could go on. Jacqui, I’m so excited to have you here with me.
Jacqui Taylor: Oh, it’s an absolute delight to be here with you and the audience.
Ewa Banaś: Before we move on with the questions, could you please introduce yourself to the audience a bit? Because I’m sure there’s so much more behind all the achievements I’ve just mentioned.
Jacqui Taylor: Yes, so I’m CEO and co-founder of Flying Binary, and I’m also the founder of the Empathy Economy. Flying Binary is a web science company that changes the world with deep tech. So far, we’ve positively impacted over half the world’s population.
We run on a mission of inclusion, and by that I mean “leave no one behind”. We have demonstrated across the world that technology is an enabler to allow everybody to participate in the changes the industrial Internet of Things is doing to our society. So we see technology as an enabling technology, and we know it can deliver an inclusion agenda. I know that because I have the data, and data is the king.
Ewa Banaś: Yes, thank you – or queen, our queen definitely. Thank you for that introduction. As you mentioned, you are an expert in deep technology and you believe that it has positively impacted half of the world’s population, which is amazing. Have you ever considered doing something totally different in your life professionally than what you’re doing now?
Jacqui Taylor: Yes, many times, and I am. I’m actually an aerospace engineer; I’m not a technologist. In order to get through my degree for Aerospace, I was part of the team that pioneered new-gen jet engine technology and built a new airframe – a new aircraft – to use that for a single mission: to reduce the noise pollution our aircraft industry creates across cities. Even from the very beginning of my career in Aerospace, I was always focused at a societal level. It’s just an industry I absolutely love. But when I qualified, I won prizes and everything for what I’d done. In fact, that aircraft – my dissertation – was taken under armed guard into the boardrooms of the company and commissioned. It was such a huge honour as a young aerospace engineer to be part of that, except not… because it turned out that the first 80 aircraft were commissioned by Saudi Arabia, and as a woman, I was not welcome as part of that project.
So, I graduated with lots of honours and I had lots of things I’d achieved, but I was out of a job. The managing director of my Aerospace company was a pilot friend of mine, and we discussed what I might do. I asked him a question that I’ve used ever since: “If you could get me to solve one problem, what would it be?” And he said, “I’d love to discover what those computer people are doing, because I never understand how it relates to building aircraft”. And so I said, “I’ll do that,” on the grounds that there wasn’t anything else on offer. It took me six weeks to realise what they were doing was something that filled me with horror, and out of that was my start in the technology industry and the beginnings of the aerospace change to software engineering. We put engineering at the heart of software, and for our aerospace industry, that was a massive change. I was delighted to be part of that – still sad I didn’t have my aerospace engineering career I trained for, but I’d always wanted to be an author and share my knowledge.
I’m now the author of 15 books. Then I realised that the books went out into the world and people picked them up, and then lots of people wanted me to speak. I have an agent that handles that work and I’m an international speaker, although I made it a largely virtual business since the pandemic. One of the things that I’ve always done is work directly with founders. I’m one of the original 250 founders of the digital economy in the UK, and the year we founded Flying Binary – because the industrial Internet of Things was not even a thing back in 2009 – I worked to mentor those founders. I’ve mentored three “unicorn” founders and many hundreds of seven, eight, and nine-figure businesses.
I’m also a funder; I’ve brought £22 billion inward investment into the UK since 2010. I’ve just launched a new £16 million Sterling fund to tackle the four key industries for climate change. I’m the world’s first Smart Cities Tsar. And I am a real person, too: I’m a mixed-media textile artist. I teach that too because I love it so much; I set up a textile school to share that passion. So, have I ever considered doing anything other than that? No, I’m quite loving all of that.
Ewa Banaś: I can see that, and it seems like you have tried it all – no limits for you.
Jacqui Taylor: I would love to be in a position where I spend more time in Maui because some of my research into the future of medicine exists there. Maybe I should add “official Maui Ambassador” to my list. I suppose one thing I should mention to bring it to life is that the whole climate change agenda is very dear to my heart. My focus is rescuing the loggerhead turtles – they’re the last prehistoric mammals living on earth. We put our resources into a project in Greece, my second home, to create an environment where we can reduce their risk of extinction.
Ewa Banaś: It sounds like you have a mission.
Jacqui Taylor: I do. We all do.
Ewa Banaś: Definitely. And what advice would you give to someone at the very beginning of their journey with deep tech?
Jacqui Taylor: That’s a really good question. Global data shows that only 19% of us will have jobs going forward in the deep tech world; for the rest, there’s a transition. Deep tech changes the way we live our lives and affects our humanity.
One key thing I say to people is that we are always ethical in everything. If ethics are not part of your core values, it’s not a place for you.
It’s the most complex and fascinating domain I’ve ever worked in, and I moved into quantum technology about four years ago. One of the things I’d say is that in deep tech right now, we’re “making it up” – the career paths are still being defined. If you love to explore and you’re curious, you can define your own career path. I’d also say to have some mentoring in place. Also, be aware that adversarial deep tech is a key area now, especially with the first ever cyber war on Earth and the attack on Ukraine.
Ewa Banaś: I love your approach. So many aspects that you touched upon sound so important to people and the world.
Jacqui Taylor: I absolutely love it. It tests our humanity as much as our intellect.
Ewa Banaś: You have worked on various fascinating projects, including those related to AI and data solutions. Could you share your biggest lessons learned?
Jacqui Taylor: The impact this technology is having on society has surprised many. I don’t take a dystopian view; I believe we can negotiate our way forward. When I talk about AI, I talk about responsible AI – just because you can with technology doesn’t mean you should.
The skills are very different from digital; as I mentioned, only 19% of people will have the skills to transform. It’s important to remember that deep tech is the enabler, not the outcome. An AI service is of no use unless you know why you want to use it – for example, to safeguard children or answer “wicked questions” in counter-terrorism. Also, deep tech is a team space. We are a holacracy where everybody has an equal say. I’m visually disabled and neurodiverse, and it’s about serving us all.
Ewa Banaś: Definitely. I can hear that teaching and learning are spheres you really enjoy. What are the challenges of teaching entrepreneurs to become change-makers, and how do you handle them?
Jacqui Taylor: Everything is built on an inclusion mission. We’ve learned that being neurodiverse is a superpower that tech unlocks; it levels the playing field. My youngest climate entrepreneur is three years old; he uses technology to make his point because he doesn’t have the language yet.
When teaching, we have to be cognizant of the cultural domain. For example, 52% of all cyberattacks are perpetrated against small-medium enterprises (SMEs). In the UK, SMEs create over 50% of the GDP. We took a different approach for every territory, working with entrepreneurs in places like Ukraine, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka to adapt the technology to its cultural setting. We now have 10 million entrepreneurs in 172 countries.
The challenge was that everyone expected direct access to me. Writing books and making speeches was a way of sharing knowledge so that I wasn’t the limiting factor.
Ewa Banaś: You’ve talked quite a lot on the Empathy Economy, but is there one inspiring story that stands out?
Jacqui Taylor: The one dearest to my heart is my work in Ukraine. I’ve known Ukrainian tech companies through my due diligence work for venture capitalists. On February 10th, I started getting messages that there was a problem, and then Russia invaded on the 24th. We have now helped over 300 organizations and 15,000 people.
One entrepreneur stood out because he asked for help with a specific project. Since then, I’ve been offering direct mentoring on LinkedIn every Wednesday at 12:30 UTC+1. I mentor Ukrainian entrepreneurs who are building Ukraine’s future for when the war is won. This is the value of the Empathy Economy: connecting on shared values in a collaborative way. It’s change-maker to change-maker. I told that friend in Ukraine, “If there isn’t a way, I’ll make a way”. We call that “Profit for Purpose”.
Ewa Banaś: We will share your LinkedIn address so the audience can receive your help. It was great to hear that story; it really gives hope.
Jacqui Taylor: I hope that is what it does. For people who want to move faster, I’ve opened the waitlist for the next cohort of Empathy Economy businesses.
I’ll also share links to the World Economic Forum research I mentioned. It’s scary, but we do what needs to be done so you don’t have to. I was asked if I was worried, and I said I’m only worried about the people of Russia, whom I’ve worked with since 2013. Anything else? No, absolutely not.
Ewa Banaś: We all need to hear a hopeful message, especially in these disturbing times. Jacqui, thank you for this talk. I will share all the links in the episode description. Thank you to our audience for listening, and see you next time.
Jacqui Taylor: Thank you, Ewa, it’s been a pleasure.
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