April 17, 2025

15 minutes

Available for over a year

At a time when coding and IT was in its infancy, Sir Kenneth fortuitously took a computer class to get out of cross country running; that choice would shape the rest of his life. From an internship at IBM, he later went on to a senior position at Wang laboratories, but then was fired after an unsuccessful management buyout. He eventually struck out on his own and founded two merchant banks. The entrepreneur talks to Evan Davis about the moment he was fired after trying to engineer a management buyout, and then what happened next.

Production team:

Producers: Eleanor Harrison-Dengate

Editor: Matt Willis

Sound: John Scott

Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison