Matt Clifford

Matt Clifford is best known as a British technology entrepreneur, policy adviser and global leader in artificial intelligence and innovation. Matt has built a career at the intersection of technology, government and entrepreneurship, helping shape how emerging technologies are developed and governed. His work as the Prime Minister’s Adviser on AI Opportunity and CEO of Entrepreneurs First gives him a unique perspective on the risks and opportunities created by rapidly advancing digital systems. As a cybersecurity speaker, Matt draws on this experience to explore how AI, innovation ecosystems, and national policy intersect with digital security and the future of technology. Matt focuses on the strategic challenges organisations and governments face in an era defined by artificial intelligence, data, and complex digital infrastructure. Matt helps audiences understand the broader implications of cybersecurity, from national security to business competitiveness, while encouraging forward-thinking approaches to governance, risk management, and technological responsibility.

Matt’s early education and career laid the intellectual foundations for the perspectives he brings to cybersecurity and technology leadership. He earned a Double First-Class Honours degree with Distinction from the University of Cambridge in 2004 before completing an MSc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2008. During this period, he also worked as a researcher for the Office of US Senator Sherrod Brown, gaining early exposure to policy and governance. He later joined McKinsey & Company, first as a Business Analyst in 2009 and then as an Associate in 2011. These experiences across academia, policy, and consulting shaped his understanding of how technology, economics, and public policy intersect, insights that now inform his discussions about cybersecurity, innovation ecosystems, and the responsible deployment of advanced technologies.

Matt continues to play a leading role in shaping the global conversation around technology and security. He is the co-founder and Chair of Entrepreneurs First, a global talent investor that has helped build numerous technology startups, and he previously served as its CEO. Beyond entrepreneurship, he has held influential public roles including Founding Chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), Non-Executive Director and Council member for Innovate UK, and adviser on AI opportunities to the UK Prime Minister. In 2023, he helped design the Frontier AI Task Force, later the UK’s AI Safety Institute, and served as the Prime Minister’s Representative for the AI Safety Summit. In 2024, he published the AI Opportunities Action Plan, was awarded a CBE for services to AI, and was named in the TIME100 list of the world’s most influential people in AI. His book ‘How to Be a Founder’, co-authored in 2022, was named Startup/Scaleup Book of the Year at the 2023 Business Book Awards.

Through his work as an entrepreneur, policy adviser, and technology leader, Matt Clifford offers audiences a rare perspective on the future of cybersecurity in an AI-driven world. His career bridging government, research, and startup innovation enables him to explain not only the risks emerging technologies present, but also the opportunities they offer when developed responsibly. As a cybersecurity speaker, Matt helps organisations and leaders understand how to navigate technological disruption, build secure innovation systems, and prepare for the rapidly evolving digital landscape. To hire Matt Clifford for your next industry event, conference or summit, contact The Cyber-Security Speakers Agency.