Innovators in the finest Scots tradition

Published on Thursday 27 July 2006 11:33

JIM REID might not be a name that readily springs to mind when it comes to the list of Scottish business success stories.

In fact, most people have probably never heard of him or even be aware of the impact his technical innovation has helped bestow on our modern lifestyles.

However, you will be aware of mobile phones, DVDs, digital cameras, iPods and Xbox consoles.

And the chances are that the microchips that deliver the audio and imaging capabilities on these and other digital consumer devices have the unassuming Mr Reid's design fingerprint somewhere on them. As co-founder and chief technical officer of Edinburgh-based Wolfson MicroElectronics, Mr Reid has been in the vanguard of technological innovation for 21 years after helping David Milne - Wolfson's chief executive - spin the company out from the University of Edinburgh's Wolfson Institute in 1985.

Even prior to that, Wolfson had been working on microchip applications for industry, including some of the first chips used in Nokia mobiles.

During the last three months alone, Wolfson's chips have been built into more than 6.5 million mobile handsets around the world - representing approximately three per cent of the worldwide mobile handset market and up from just one per cent a year ago.

Elsewhere, its chips are housed in a multitude of gadgets bearing the names of global technology giants such as Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Tom Tom,Toshiba, Apple, Benq, Canon, HP and LG.

In other words, the innovation that has been a historical hallmark of Scotland is alive and well.

In its early days in the 1970s, Wolfson was funded through the benevolence of private backers. Today, it is a stockmarket-listed company worth almost half a billion pounds.

In the last six months, Wolfson has added almost 50 to its workforce - around 15 per cent. It has also opened its eighth global location in Bangalore, India, adding to bases in the US, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore.

Wolfson has also just been named, for the second year running, Scottish plc of the Year at the Scottish Business Insider Awards.

Having announced he will quit Wolfson at the end of next month to "pursue personal interests", Mr Reid can head off knowing he has helped create a truly world-class company.