Carl Uminski

Carl is a digital industry pioneer with over two decades of experience in creating new products, state-of-the-art platforms and leading scalable growth strategies for businesses across the globe. As Co-Founder & CEO at Somo, the UK’s largest independent digital product accelerator, Carl led the sale of the company to global specialist CI&T for £49 million, opening up even more growth opportunities, scale and digital expertise. Having built Somo from scratch to 300 people, across multiple locations in the UK, US, and Colombia, he led the delivery of its proposition and championed the agency values of Create Success, Lead with Knowledge, Love Innovation and Be Brave — values that he co-created and that have helped Somo win a succession of global best places to work awards in recent years. At Somo, Carl generated strong business performance for its global clients across a plethora of industries. Wielding extensive and uniquely diverse knowledge of the digital sector, Carl built solutions to meet any technical challenge the company faced, while crafting feasibility assessments and strategies for brands to succeed in an increasingly mobile world. He has advised and worked with the leaders of over 60 of the world’s biggest brands such as Audi, HSBC, Vodafone, Groupon, Zynga, BP, and British Gas’ Hive. Guiding these giants on their digital transformation journeys, Carl ensured they could meet rising customer expectations and create a radical differentiation that placed them at the forefront of their respective industries. Prior to founding Somo, Carl was a co-founder at Overture Europe, the company that pioneered the multi-billion dollar pay-per-click advertising industry in Europe. As CTO, he was integral in leading the business to success in 15(16?) European countries, and its eventual sale to Yahoo! for $1.63 billion in 2003. A leader in search and social networking, he was headhunted by the titans of Silicon Valley, and it was there he created Yahoo! One Search mobile platform, working with some of the world’s largest mobile brands. Previously, Carl was responsible for running real-time systems such as aircraft parking, flight information and security at seven British airports including London’s Heathrow Airport. In addition, Carl is a dedicated advisor, an active investor, board member and advisor to a number of successful technology start-ups including Swiftkey (sold to Microsoft), Hubble (Commercial Real Estate), Clim8 (Pioneering investments in Green businesses), The Ultimate Travel Club (a new disruptive travel technology company), Howsy (disrupting real-estate), Homelyfe (redefining insurance), Brewbroker (craft beer marketplace), Airspace (drone security), Careology (health tech) and others. Carl has been named the Most Influential Person in Mobile in The Drum’s Mobile Top 50, selected as one of the 20 Most Influential People in Mobile by Business Insider and honoured with the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 Best Management Team Award.