Former Rolls-Royce and Arm boss joins Oxford's Tokamak Energy as NED

By Nicky Godding

21 May 2023

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Tokamak Energy has announced that Warren East CBE, previously CEO of Rolls-Royce and British semiconductor and software design company Arm is joining its Board as Non-Executive Director.

He will join the Milton Park-based company, which is pursuing the global deployment of commercial fusion energy through the combined development of spherical tokamaks with high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets, at the end of May 2023.

Dr Chris Martin, Chairman of Tokamak Energy, said: “I am delighted to welcome Warren East to our Board. His experience in growing businesses such as Arm and turning Rolls-Royce towards a sustainable future will be invaluable to Tokamak Energy as we scale up towards clean, affordable and secure fusion power in the 2030s.

“There have been some amazing achievements that have got Tokamak Energy to where it is today, and Warren will now play an important role in the next phase of our growth, as we commercialise our world-leading magnet technology through a variety of applications.”

Warren East said: “I am excited to become part of the fusion energy revolution. For our future energy security and net zero transition this is the biggest shift many of us will witness in our lifetime. With its strong track record in developing and designing tokamaks, along with its unparalleled magnet technology, Tokamak Energy is best placed to lead the commercialisation of a vital emerging industry.”

After 11 years at Texas Instruments, Warren joined Arm in 1994, was appointed to the board in 2000, and was CEO from 2001 to 2013. Under his leadership, Arm became the world’s leading semiconductor IP licensing company.

In 2014, Warren became a non-executive director of Rolls-Royce Holdings and chair of the board's technology committee. As CEO from April 2015, he led Rolls-Royce through the Covid-19 pandemic impact on global aviation and championed the strategic shift to net zero. After seven years leading Rolls-Royce, he retired from the company on 31 December 2022.

Warren is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society and a companion of the Chartered Management Institute. Warren has a degree in Engineering Science from Oxford University, an MBA from Cranfield, and honorary doctorates from Cranfield and Newcastle Universities. With his wife, he established The Relithan Charitable Trust, supporting science education.

He was made CBE in 2014 for services to Engineering and Technology.

Tokamak Energy has been a pioneer in recognising the opportunity to apply and develop HTS magnet technology for fusion energy, the process that powers the sun and stars. It is also the only private fusion company to have more than 10 years’ experience of designing, building and operating tokamaks.

ENDS

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.