Potter, David Edwin (1943- )

South African-born entrepreneur. Potter pursued an academic career before founding Psion (Potter Scientific Instruments Or Nothing) in 1980, which became a world leader in the hand-held computer market. In 1998 he became chairman of Symbian, a partnership with mobile phone makers Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Matsushita, formed to develop the technology to fuse computers and mobile phones. That year US computer entrepreneur Bill Gates was reported, in a leaked memo, to have identified Psion as a major threat to Microsoft. The Sunday Times Rich List estimated his net worth at £575 million in 2001. Potter stepped down from the day-to-day running of Psion in 1996, but remains chairman.

In 1980, with £60,000 from his stock market investments, Potter started Psion as a publisher and developer of software, writing computer games such as Flight Simulator. In 1984 he began to develop hardware products and launched the Organizer, the first volume-produced hand-held computer. Reflecting its rapid success, the company was floated in 1988 and, in 1991, introduced its Series 3, a cross between a laptop computer and an organizer. Potter made an abortive attempt in 1996 to buy Amstrad, run by English entrepreneur Alan Sugar, for its cellular phone business, with the aim of developing the convergence of the computing and telecoms markets. His company has since faced increasing competition from companies such as Palm and Microsoft and has issued profit warnings, followed by a company restructuring with 100 job losses in March 2001.

Potter was brought up in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1963 he took up a Beit Scholarship to study natural sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. In 1970 he received a PhD in mathematical physics with a Commonwealth Scholarship at Imperial College, London, where he was subsequently a member of staff until 1980. During the 1970s, he also taught at London University and at the University of California, and wrote a number of academic papers and a book, Computational Physics (1972), on the use of computers in mathematics and physics. In 1993 he received the Mountbatten Medal from the Institute of Electrical Engineers, and a CBE in 1997. He sits on the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Council for Science and Technology, and served on the 1997 Dearing Committee on higher education. The David and Elaine Potter Charitable Foundation supports projects in education, health and the developing world.