(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer ended a three-month search for a new investment minister, naming former Darktrace Chief Executive Officer Poppy Gustafsson to fill the key role, in a signal his government sees the technology industry as a driver of UK growth in the years to come.
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Gustafsson — whose appointment was announced late on Thursday — will make her first appearance at a meeting of regional leaders on Friday, as the government prepares to host a major international investment summit in London on Monday.
The former tech executive’s new role will be key to Labour’s aim of boosting economic growth across the country by attracting investment from both British and overseas investors. She will lead an Office for Investment designed to bring expertise from industry into government, as the UK strives to prove it’s open for business after years of post-Brexit disruption to trade and investment.
Filling the ministerial role will come as a relief for Starmer after his government — in power for three months already — had struggled to fill the post, with their first choice candidate, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, pulling out. Gustafsson will now be able to see the government through the international investment summit on Monday, which Starmer has touted as a key part of his pledge to spur growth.
“Securing investment is central to our mission to deliver economic growth which will create jobs, improve living standards, and make communities and families across the country better off,” Starmer’s office said in a statement.
Ahead of Monday’s International Investment Summit, the government has announced a slew of investments planned by companies in the UK. They included commitments by Scottish Power’s Spanish owner Iberdrola to spend as much as £24 billion ($31 billion) over the next five years, by Orsted and Greenvolt to invest £8 billion and £2.5 billion respectively in offshore wind farms, and Blackstone Inc. to plow a much as £10 billion into an artificial intelligence data center in Blyth, northeast England.
But aside from the Iberdrola investment, which was double its previous commitment, most of the money had been previously announced, increasing the pressure for Labour to drum up new investment to show its approach is working. Starmer has promised to scrap planning red tape and create a more stable investment environment in order to lure foreign cash.
The bet on Gustafsson illustrates the importance the new government places on technology, which is one of eight sectors ministers have identified to be at the center of a planned industrial strategy.
The 42-year-old followed the late British entrepreneur Mike Lynch over to Darktrace from her previous role at Autonomy, the UK tech company Lynch founded that was sold to HP in a controversial $11 billion deal a decade ago. She then led Darktrace from startup through its initial public offering and ultimately to its sale to Thoma Bravo last year, receiving a UK honor known as an OBE for services to cyber security while running the company.
Gustafsson will be made a peer in the House of Lords and is charged with promoting the UK to investors and businesses around the world. Her role will straddle the Department for Business and Trade and the Treasury. On Friday, she was scheduled to join Starmer at the first meeting of the Council of Nations and Regions, a new body set up by Labour to bring together the heads of the UK’s devolved governments.
In a statement, Starmer described Gustafsson as “an accomplished entrepreneur who brings invaluable experience to the role,” while Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said “her private sector expertise will be vital in ensuring we attract more valuable investment into Britain.”
The government’s first choice for the post, Wegg-Prosser, who co-founded the political advisory firm Global Counsel with Labour veteran Peter Mandelson, withdrew in order to avoid having to make costly changes to his business ties. Past occupants have tended to be investment bankers or business leaders, including former Barclays Plc Deputy Chairman Gerry Grimstone and ex-Financial Times Group Chief Executive Officer Rona Fairhead.
–With assistance from Amy Thomson and Alex Wickham.
(Adds background on UK investment summit, Gustafsson, starting in fifth paragraph.)
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