Ewan Mckinnon Kirk (born February 1961) is a British technology entrepreneur, founder of Cantab Capital Partners, chair of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and Non-Executive Director of

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

. He is also Co-Chair of the Turner Kirk Trust which supports

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

, education and conservation causes in the UK and the

developing world A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreeme ...

Early life and education

Kirk was born in February 1961 in

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

. He was raised in Scotland where he was brought up in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and attended Greenfaulds High School in

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; ) is a large town in the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, most-populous locality in Scotl ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk (co ...

. He studied for a BSc in

Natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...

and

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

before studying

Part III of the Mathematical Tripos Part, parts or PART may refer to: People *Part (surname) *Parts (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media *Part (music), a single strand or melody or harmony of music within a larger ensemble or a polyphonic musical composition *Part (bibliograph ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He was promoted to a PhD in

General relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

Career

Whilst at university, Kirk founded DaLEK Software, which developed the

Computer-aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

(CAD) package MicroDraft for

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...

and PCW computers. After graduation from Southampton, he returned to Cambridge, as Director at Innovation for the science and technology consultancy Scientific Generics.

Goldman Sachs

In 1992, Kirk joined

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

, initially working in

commodities In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. Th ...

before moving to

currencies A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or currency in circulation, circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use wi ...

. He was appointed a managing director in 1998, and became a Partner in 2000. As a partner, Kirk was responsible for heading up the bank's European

quantitative Quantitative may refer to: * Quantitative research, scientific investigation of quantitative properties * Quantitative analysis (disambiguation) * Quantitative verse, a metrical system in poetry * Statistics, also known as quantitative analysis ...

technologies group, which tested systematic investment strategies. He oversaw a team of 120 mathematicians, scientists and statisticians.

Cantab Capital Partners

In 2006, he founded Cantab Capital Partners, a science-driven quantitative

investment management Investment management (sometimes referred to more generally as financial asset management) is the professional asset management of various Security (finance), securities, including shareholdings, Bond (finance), bonds, and other assets, such as r ...

firm in Cambridge. The firm says its work resembles a "scientific research organisation" more than a financial firm. Most of the members of the team hold advanced degrees in mathematics, physics, statistics or computer science. The company has links with the University of Cambridge. In 2016, Cantab Capital Partners was acquired by GAM Investments, becoming part of GAM Systematic. At the time of acquisition, Cantab Capital Partners had 56 employees and £4.5bn under management. In February 2020, GAM Systematic won Eurohedge's 'Managed Futures – Under $500m' award for 2019. In 2020, Kirk was awarded HFM's Lifetime Achievement Award for his founding role in Cantab, contributions to quantitative investment and developing science-led approaches to finance. He exited as President of GAM Systematic Cantab in March 2021.

Other activity

Kirk is chair of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. In June 2021, Kirk joined the Board of

. Kirk is the Chair of and Founding Investor in Deeptech Labs, a start-up accelerator and

Venture Capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

fund based in Cambridge focused on building

deep tech Deep technology (deep tech) is a classification of organization, or more typically startup company, with the expressed objective of providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges. They present challenges ...

companies. In 2023, Kirk was made an honorary Doctor of Science by the

. In 2023, he was appointed the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Entrepreneur in Residence An entrepreneur in residence, or executive in residence (EIR), is a position commonly held by successful entrepreneurs in venture capital firms, private equity firms, startup accelerators, law firms or business schools. Typically, the EIR has le ...

at the University of Cambridge's mathematics department.

Philanthropy

In 2007, Ewan Kirk and his wife Dr Patricia Turner founded the Turner Kirk Trust, which provides funds to STEM, education and conservation causes in the UK and developing world. It funds "very high risk" projects. Since founding, Kirk's charitable trust has disbursed more than £7 million in funding. It is one of the largest private funders of fundamental mathematics research in the UK. In 2015, through Cantab Capital Partners, he donated £5 million to the University of Cambridge to establish the Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics of Information.

Political activity

In 2016, Kirk was part of the official campaign making the pro-science case for remaining in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

during the UK’s referendum on EU membership and donated £10,000 to Scientists for EU. Kirk is a member of the Liberal Democrats Business and Entrepreneurs Network, which is ‘a network of senior business people’ that ‘provides the party with expert advice on business and economic policy’. During the 2019 general election, Kirk was one of 60 business leaders to sign an open letter endorsing the Liberal Democrats and donated £300,000 to the party.

Personal life

Kirk is married and lives in Cambridge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Ewan 1961 births Alumni of the University of Southampton Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Goldman Sachs people Stock and commodity market managers British hedge fund managers British investors British stock traders Living people Liberal Democrats (UK) donors