Richard Holway MBE has long been considered to be one of the UK’s leading ICT analysts. He now brands himself as ‘the UK’s oldest IT analyst’.

Richard started in computing in 1966 as a programmer, joined Hoskyns (now Capgemini) in 1968. He founded and then sold Systemsolve in the early 1970s before rejoining Hoskyns and progressing to join the board in 1979 as Group Marketing Director. In 1984, Richard was appointed Managing Director of Wootton Jeffreys plc before forming Richard Holway Limited in 1986.

Richard Holway Limited became the leading authority on the financial performance of the UK software and IT services market and its constituent companies. Richard launched the annual Holway Report in 1988. In 1989 he published the first edition of the monthly newsletter SYSTEMhouse and, in 1996, the Hotnews internet news service – one of the very first technology “blogs”.

TechMarketView’s HotViews is the current manifestation of Hotnews and is required daily reading for tens of thousands of tech CEOs and directors.

In November 2000 Richard Holway Limited was acquired by Ovum and the service continued as Ovum Holway. Richard was appointed as a director of Ovum as well as continuing as a leading analyst.

In March 2006. Ovum successfully IPOed on AIM at 190p. In Dec. 06, Datamonitor acquired Ovum for £42m/300p; a considerable premium. Richard stepped down from the board at that time.

In 2002, Richard was one of the founding members of the Prince’s Trust Technology Leadership Group. Richard’s annual speeches themselves raised over £1m to help disadvantaged young people. Richard served as the Chairman of the Group from April 07 to March 09. In 2009 he was appointed as Vice Chair of the Development Board. He then founded the Internet & Media Leadership Group. These two groups alone have raised over £75m for the Trust. In 2011, Richard took on the Chair of all the Trust’s Leadership Groups and was appointed to the Prince’s Trust Advisory Board – a position he held until retiring in 2016. He remains a Patron of the Prince’s Trust.

Note – Prince’s Trust now the King’s Trust.

Richard is also a Patron of Eikon – the Charity for Children in Surrey.

Richard has considerable experience as an NED (both of private and publicly quoted companies) and as an advisor to the boards of leading ICT companies. Richard served as a non executive director at the publicly quoted Allianz Technology Trust plc between Jan 2007 and Dec 2019.

Richard is currently a Partner at ScaleUp Group where he invests to help UK tech companies grow.
Richard joined forces with Anthony Miller once again in 2008 to launch TechMarketView LLP and served as Chairman for 15 years before retiring in Aug 23.

Richard was awarded an MBE in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his involvement as a volunteer at the Prince’s Trust. The citation read “for services to young people’. In 2014, Richard was made a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

In addition Richard has been given many awards. Most recently in 2023, with Anthony Miller, as Tech Commentator of the Year at the UK Tech Awards and, in 2024, the Wise Old Owl/Lifetime Achievement Award at ScaleUp Group’s Enterprise Awards.