A History of the BT-Pembroke Lecture

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A Potted History of the BT-Pembroke Lecture

BT is one of Pembroke’s longest-standing Corporate Partners, with a relationship that stretches back over two decades. Over the years, BT has worked with Pembroke in a number of different ways, including on research projects and internships with students, and through connections to wider Cambridge initiatives such as the Centre for Science and Policy and the Judge Business School. Recently the University’s Strategic Partnership Office celebrated this fruitful relationship with an extensive case study of the Cambridge-BT relationship which, as Corporate Fellow Mike Payne said, “is founded on honesty, trust and integrity. To maintain this relationship over such a long period of time with so many different people involved is really quite remarkable and says a lot about the company.”

One of the foremost staples of Pembroke’s Partnership with BT is the now-annual BT-Pembroke Lecture, which takes place in November each year and showcases some of the current leading research and thinking taking place at BT. The first BT-Pembroke Lecture took place all the way back in 2007 and was delivered by Jeff Patmore, then the Head of Strategic University Research at BT.

Thanks to Jeff back in 2003, BT joined the Pembroke Corporate Partnership Programme – a unique programme building academic and industry relationships within the University. From here, came a fruitful and long-lasting relationship which exists to this day, and has allowed meaningful relationships to be built between people at BT and senior academics across a variety of disciplines within the University.

A few years into the Partnership, the idea for a BT-Pembroke lecture emerged, from one of the core values of the BT-Pembroke relationship – that of mutual benefit. The lecture was seen by BT as a fantastic opportunity to share their leading research and strategies with the Cambridge community, friends and partners – with everyone gaining an understanding of the work BT does and how to get involved as well as enhancing their own knowledge and thinking.

Jeff reflected that the two most valuable by-products of the BT lectures had been “the enhancement of BT's reputation in both research and management thinking and the facilitation of closer collaborations with academic colleagues on key projects”.

Professor Tim Whitley, MD BT Applied Research and William Pitt Fellow at Pembroke, commented that, “we really value our relationship with Pembroke College. The BT-Pembroke Annual lecture is a valuable event for us, by highlighting our innovative thinking in research and management as well as expanding our collaboration across the University and corporate links. We have had some fascinating topics presented over the years and we look forward to continuing with this prestigious annual event.”

All our partnerships are bespoke and the BT-Pembroke lecture is an enduring and valuable example of how the Corporate Partnership Programme fosters and values two-way collaboration.

In 2020 we moved the Lecture online, and last year we held it as a hybrid event. This year we will be back in person only (a recording will be published later). Our 2022 speaker will be Howard Watson, Chief Security and Networks Officer. Howard has 30 years of telecoms experience, possessing a broad knowledge of operational leadership, technology and IT, fortified by his expertise in strategic development, business transformation and post-merger integration. He will be describing how he builds and runs the UK’s biggest fixed and mobile networks.

Past lectures include:

2007 – Jeff Patmore, “The Changing Face of BT”

2008 – Jeff Patmore, “Unleashing the Power of Creativity”

2009 – Matt Bross, “Innovation and the Speed of Life”

2010 – “Creativity and Commerce: Making the relationship work”

2011 – Sir Michael Rake, “Cybersecurity: Privacy vs Public Interest”

2013 – Mark Hughes, “Cyber Security – at what cost?”

2015 – Professor Tim Whitley, “Purposeful Innovation”