Co-founder, Metaswitch Network
Chris Mairs is a software engineer and angel investor, with a long history in the telecommunications industry. He is best known for co-founding Metaswitch Networks, which pioneered heterogeneous voice communications.
Chris did not begin as an engineer but, in 1975 began a career in accountancy. When failing eyesight made review of large volumes of hand-written ledgers invoices and receipts impractical, he switched from studying mathematics to computer science at the University of Cambridge.
While he was still studying, Chris worked in various roles for IBM, where he facilitated conversions for industry onto IBM mainframes. After graduating, he co-founded Data Connection, focusing on connectivity between IBM systems and computers from all other manufacturers.
Exploiting systems architected by Chris, Data Connection – eventually renamed Metaswitch Networks - grew rapidly, deploying its software on over 300 combinations of hardware and operating systems.
In recognition for his accomplishments in telecommunications, in 2006, Chris was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He was awarded a CBE in the 2014 New Years Honours List for services to engineering.
After his career at Metaswitch, Chris joined the board of Raspberry Pi and is a Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First. He advises many technology start ups across AI, semi-conductor chip design and bio-technology.
Ingenia article
Professor Chris Mairs CBE FREng
