Issue #232: Celebrating Ian Birtwistle
Today we share the latest North East tech news and features while remembering our friend Ian, who sadly passed away this week after a long battle with cancer.
Morning all. It’s been another busy week across the North East tech front and, as ever, I will get to the latest news and things you need to know shortly. First though, I’ve been thinking about community a lot this week.
My mate over in Middlesbrough Daniel Watson recently wrote about what Teesside’s digital-tech scene means to him. Dan is a great guy and his words resonated with me. Luckily there’s a lot of people in the NE tech scene like Dan. There are people who give back and pay it forward. Such principles are what the Ignite Accelerator was built on; speaking of, I didn’t realise but both raises we reported on in last week’s issue were from Ignite alumni companies. As I’ve written many times of late, access to finance is a huge challenge for us right so we’ll be championing good work on that front!
We pride ourselves in the North East tech sector, both anecdotally and formally, in our 'closely knit tech community’ being one of our key strengths. People really do matter. Ian Birtwistle was a well known figure in our community, he sadly passed away this week. Ian will be a massive miss. I’ve tried to write about him in a section below the headlines, celebrating how highly regarded he remains.
Finally this is the first of four issues leading up to International Women’s Day next month. I’m carving out space in the run up to shout about some of the excellent females shaping our sector and I’d like your thoughts too. It could be a founder, a community leader, a coworker of yours, a student… anyone! All I need you to do is provide their name, what they do and why they should be celebrated. Thanks!
Have a lovely weekend everyone, Jamie
This week’s news
Newcells Biotech raises £2.35m for lab models that help avoid animal testing
Newcastle Angel Hub relaunched as the Northern Investor Hub
Durham’s Plexus Innovation acquired
Boro’s Viral Effect sold following collapse into administration
Ex ARM VP joins Newcastle Uni spinout
hedgehog lab moves to One Strawberry Lane
Features
Opencast cofounder to retire from the business
My latest for the QT on tech’s role in our economy and demystifying AI
More I have been reading this week:
Identifying and describing UK innovation clusters
The UK Science and Technology framework
#IWD Part 1
A section championing the women in tech shaping our sector for the better. Here’s one from me to start us off! Please do share any others you’d like to shout about.
Louise Doyle, CEO and co-founder, Mesma
Lou is the CEO of online education software company, Mesma. Previously based in Sunderland and now HQ’d at The Core, Newcastle Helix, Mesma is on a mission to make quality assurance in education available and accessible to all.
Despite how busy Lou is, she’s always been generous with her time. Like the best founders, she’s continually learning and sharing knowledge. Whether it’s sharing insights on getting in to tech and starting up or leading the way when it comes to giving young people employment opportunities, Lou is value-driven in everything she does. We’re lucky to have her in the North East.
Ian Birtwistle
When I was a young writer I was once tasked with writing an obituary for a clergyman who also played a major role, I was told, in the North East’s business community. I’d never met this man and I didn’t know how to write an obituary, I’d never had to before. The books teach you that the best way, some argue the only way, is to ‘just report the facts’. Yet when it comes to writing about Ian, someone who genuinely touched the hearts of so many, I’d struggle to just give you a list of his career achievements today. Rather, here, I’m going to share what people thought of Ian.
I appreciate not all of our readers will have met Ian or will be familiar with his story. Ian was a hugely popular member of the North East business community, particularly in the digital-tech circles. Ian worked as a Sales and Marketing Manager at Newcastle-based agency Enigma Interactive. Before that he was one of the first employees at Ross Linnett’s Recite Me. He cared deeply about the region and the sector.
In Spring 2019, at the age of 35, Ian was diagnosed with bowel cancer. It had already spread to his liver, straight to Stage 4. It was always Ian’s intention not to let cancer win; rather he was determined to make memories with his wife and children. At the start of the year Ian setup a gofundme page to help his family after he was no longer able to work. You can view it here. Moreover, despite going through 67 rounds of chemo and various ops, Ian was a dedicated Children’s Cancer North fundraiser. His outstanding efforts were even recognised with an award.
Team Enigma were brilliant with Ian, you can read their beautiful, heartfelt post about him here. Likewise, read about Ian’s amazing achievements with the charity here.
I was by no means best mates with Ian, rather he was someone who just seemed to always be there! He’s someone I wish I spent more time with. He was fun. He’d laugh and joke with people at sector events and he’d be a class windup merchant on Twitter.
But Ian could be serious too. He came to all the sector report events, all the panels and anything digital skills-related too. This was because he wanted to make things better. Ian was also kind and supportive. He’d comment publicly and share articles I’d written and he’d message privately to check how I was getting on in physio. He always seemed to be smiling, too. That’s how I remember Ian. Just such an authentic force for good, who brought joy wherever he went. Clearly others thought so too:
Andy said: My only tuppence worth is that he was genuinely one of the good guys, who you could talk to like you'd known him for ten years. Sometimes you just know when someone is a good human and that was Ian.
Jill said: I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Ian for the past 10 years, he’s always been a supporter of the work we do, he will be huge miss to everyone that knows him.
Paula said: Ian was someone that radiated energy in any room.
Suzy said: Ian was *the* person to go sit with or chat to at a tech or marketing event in town, to me. He had time for everyone in those spaces; it didn't matter who they were. You just knew you'd be okay if he was in the room.
Pete said: Notwithstanding his clearly brilliant work, Ian was at heart one of those rare beings—a kind, warm, generous man. We'll miss him!
Graham said: Awful news about one of nicest and most charitable people I've ever worked with. Wish his family and all of you who had the pleasure of Ian's company on a daily basis my deepest sympathy.
If you’d like to read more about Ian or wish to share how you felt about him, please do so by clicking on the Post of the Week below. We’ll be back next Friday.