Dr. Tomaž Slivnik, Senior Advisor

Dr. Tomaž Slivnik was born in Communist Yugoslavia, in a traditional family which did not share the regime's values. He is a natural born libertarian and independent-minded individualist and was so even in the face of pressure to conform under the communist regime, which was a source of early punishment but also later success. Dr. Slivnik was able to travel to the United States and the Silicon Valley in the 1980s, at the height of the computer and silicon revolution which led him to develop an interest in computers. Following success in computer programming competitions, he developed a relationship with the local representative of the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which led to his first entrepreneurial venture in computer software. He won a scholarship to the United World College of the Adriatic, an international school in Italy, where he got exposure to free market economics. After winning a bronze medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad, he won a place at Trinity College, Cambridge to study Mathematics with Computer Science, where he obtained an MA, a MMath, and a PhD in Mathematics. He spent time at various universities including the Louisiana State University, Griffith University and the National University of Singapore as a visitor, researcher and assistant professor.

Dr Slivnik founded several successful technology businesses. In turn, he became a successful technology angel investor, non-executive director and mentor to startups and a younger generation of technology entrepreneurs. The companies he has founded, co-founded, invested in or served on the board of, have sold tens of millions of products to numerous blue chip customers, have made their way into well-known consumer brands and into Buckingham Palace. Dr. Slivnik is a member of the board of Cambridge Angels, the UK's pre-eminent business angel network, an Honorary Industrial Fellow at the School of Physics of the University of Bristol, where he mentors technology entrepreneurs at the Bristol Quantum Technologies Entrepreneurship Centre (QTEC). He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (FTICA).

Dr. Slivnik is an active sponsor and contributor to numerous causes of liberty worldwide.