Eben Upton

Eben Upton is a prominent Welsh entrepreneur and engineer, best known as the Chief Executive Officer of Raspberry Pi Holdings. Born on April 5, 1978, he has played a pivotal role in the development and success of the Raspberry Pi microcomputer, which aims to promote computer science education globally.

Education and Early Life

Upton was born in Griffithstown, Wales, and spent part of his early childhood in Papua New Guinea. He later returned to the UK for his education, attending various schools in England. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and Engineering from the University of Cambridge in 1999, followed by a Diploma in Computer Science in 2001. Upton completed his PhD in Computer Science at Cambridge and later obtained an Executive MBA from the Cambridge Judge Business School, graduating first in his class.12

Career Highlights

Before founding Raspberry Pi, Upton held several significant positions, including:

• Director of Studies in Computer Science at St John's College, Cambridge.
• Distinguished Engineer at Broadcom, where he contributed to video and graphics hardware development.
• Founder of Ideaworks3D and Podfun, both successful companies in mobile games and middleware.24

In 2008, he co-founded the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the goal of creating affordable computing solutions for educational purposes. Under his leadership, Raspberry Pi has grown significantly, with its products now widely used in both educational settings and industrial applications. Upton has also been instrumental in moving production of Raspberry Pi devices to the UK.135

Achievements and Recognition

Eben Upton has received numerous accolades throughout his career:

• Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2016 for services to business and education.
• Elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2017.
• Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society (DFBCS) in 2019.
• Honorary Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge.46

He has authored several publications related to computing and education, including the Raspberry Pi User Guide and Learning Computer Architecture with Raspberry Pi.

Personal Life

Upton is married to Liz Upton, who is also a co-founder of Raspberry Pi. They met during their time at university.14

Through his work with Raspberry Pi, Eben Upton continues to influence the fields of technology and education, making computing accessible to a new generation.