Hermann Hauser

Hermann Hauser is an Austrian physicist, entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Acorn Computers with Chris Curry in Cambridge in 1978. Educated at the University of Vienna and the University of Cambridge, he combined a scientist's interest in new technology with an instinct for building companies around it.

Acorn began with the System 1 computer kit and quickly developed a succession of increasingly capable machines. Hauser led the commercial side of the company while engineers including Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber built its technology. When the BBC sought a computer for its national Computer Literacy Project, Hauser backed the rapid prototype that became the BBC Micro. The machine was launched in 1981 and became a fixture in British schools, introducing a generation to programming.

Hauser also supported the research that produced Acorn's RISC Machine. The processor began as an internal effort to create a fast, efficient CPU for Acorn's next generation of computers and first appeared in the Archimedes range. The work later became the foundation of ARM, whose low-power processor designs went on to be used in billions of devices.

After Acorn, Hauser helped establish several technology companies and research ventures. He co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners in 1997 and became one of Cambridge's most influential technology investors. His career links the first British microcomputer boom with the later growth of the Cambridge technology cluster.