Stephen Allott

Stephen Allott is a British business executive and the founder of the Cambridge Computer Lab Ring.

Career

In 1995, on leaving McKinsey & Company, Allott joined Micromuse where he oversaw the expansion of the London-based network management software provider. Following its IPO on the Nasdaq in 1998, Allott was appointed President of Micromuse and a main board director in addition to his role as Chief Financial Officer.
In 2002, Allott founded the Cambridge Computer Lab Ring, named after the Cambridge Ring project led by Maurice Wilkes. According to the University of Cambridge Department of Computer Science and Technology, as of October 2025 there were 360 companies founded by the department's graduates and staff.
Allott delivered the 2006 Cambridge University Hughes Hall City Lecture 'From Science to Growth - what exactly is the mechanism by which scientific research turns into economic growth?' where the term "People Centric Approach" was first coined.
In 2011, Allott was appointed as the Crown Representative for Small and Medium Enterprises by the Cameron-Clegg coalition. Allott led the business development of the UK Government G-Cloud Marketplace, the Cabinet Office initiative for online procurement of cloud services.