Hugo Spowers - Founder, Riversimple

An Oxford University trained engineer and entrepreneur, Hugo founded and ran a business over 15 years, designing and building racing cars and restoring historic racing cars. He left motorsport due to environmental concerns and went on to obtain an MBA from Cranfield University, where he conducted a feasibility study into bringing hydrogen fuel cell cars to market. This led him to found Riversimple. Hugo is a trustee of the 40 Fires Foundation, an open source foundation set up to help advance the development of the Riversimple vehicle. 40 Fires believes in an open source approach. By inviting others to join in developing the vehicles, Riversimple expects to speed up development times, produce more robust, reliable products, drive the adoption of common standards and drive down component costs. Riversimple has received backing from relatives of Ernst Piech, a member of the Porsche family.