The Coalition for a Digital Economy has added Alex Depledge and Eileen Burbidge to its team as it prepares to step up its activity ahead of the General Election in May.
Depledge is CEO and founder of Hassle.com and will take over as chairman of Coadec from Jeff Lynn.
Depledge was named as 2014 ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ by TechCityInsider and has successfully grown Hassle.com, securing a $6m investment from top VC Accel Partners last year.
She is joined at Coadec by Eileen Burbidge who will become its latest Steering Committee member.
Recently profiled by Fortune magazine as the ‘Queen of British VC’, Burbidge is a partner at Passion Capital, the leading early-stage VC firm in London, and will bring her own experience of investing in startups, as well as business and product development roles at Yahoo!, Skype, and Apple.
Depledge said:
“I am delighted to take up the role as chairman of Coadec at a time when it is so important that the startup voice is heard at a political level.
“Coadec has done excellent work to date to build relationships and address the issues that affect digital startups.
“With the General Election now fast approaching we now have a great opportunity to build on this and make sure that the economic importance of tech startups in the UK is understood by all political parties and that our issues are on their agenda for the future, no matter who wins in May.”
Burbidge added:
“Every great entrepreneur has a driving ambition that fuels them and over the years I have spent in London I have admired the work of Coadec in ensuring that the voice of these entrepreneurs and startups are heard by policymakers.
“The UK’s digital economy is the fastest growing in the G20 and already makes up over 8% of GDP. But we need to make sure the UK remains the best place in the world to launch and grow a digital start up.”