UK's first tech envoy to the US outlines his priorities

For the first time, the United Kingdom has a technology envoy to the United States, supporting the U.K. ambassador to the country on issues including technology and entrepreneurship. Joe White, a longtime entrepreneur and venture capitalist, was recently appointed consul general to San Francisco and technology envoy to the U.S. The combined role is part of the new Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, which replaced the Department for International Development last year. “The need for this role stems from the fact that tech is playing a larger role in the global political landscape,” White told Devex. Governments working to strike the balance between supporting innovation while also developing new systems of accountability and oversight are increasingly looking to San Francisco as a place to engage in tech diplomacy. “I think there’s a real need for governments to bring in people that can speak that language and help mediate those conversations,” White said. “Education consumes tech, health consumes tech, defense consumes tech — it’s all over the place. And so the Foreign Office role is to try and help coordinate that.” --— Joe White, U.K. consul general to San Francisco and technology envoy to the U.S. White is well connected within the U.K. tech industry. He co-founded a successful website and e-commerce platform and then went on to invest in other companies once that was acquired. White moved to San Francisco when his wife, Wendy Tan White, accepted a role with X, Alphabet’s “moonshot factory,” two years ago. Joe White became general partner at Entrepreneur First, which brings together individuals from industry and academia to build technology companies. Both he and his wife were awarded MBEs, making them members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, by Queen Elizabeth II for services to technology and business. While White’s latest role falls under FCDO, he works across a range of U.K. government departments. “The nature of tech is such that it can’t be contained within one space, within one department,” he said. “Education consumes tech, health consumes tech, defense consumes tech — it’s all over the place. And so the Foreign Office role is to try and help coordinate that.” Brexit, the split between the U.K. and the European Union, goes into full effect this year. The U.K. also holds the presidency of the G-7 group of countries and 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties. At those international forums, the U.K. will engage with other countries on many issues underpinned by technology, White said. He is based in San Francisco, living at the British consul general’s residence. One of his priorities is to work with U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration as its policies toward Big Tech take shape. And though White is not focused on international development per se, the direction that technology takes on a variety of issues — for example, misinformation — has wide-ranging global implications, White said, with high stakes in low- and middle-income countries. One of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the way it mobilized the science community and technology industry to innovate and collaborate at an unprecedented pace and scale, White said. “It’s a war-style mobilization frankly, without a war, though clearly this is not a costless pandemic we’re living through,” he said. The question now is how to maintain this kind of mobilization on the other side of the crisis. “I think the challenge for governments globally is going to be the balance between — having just spent an enormous amount of money on economic aid both domestically and internationally during this very difficult economic time — can we maintain that spend on some of these innovation areas?” he said.