Raspberry Pi Foundation founded by Eben Upton
Foundation
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charitable organization registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The board of trustees was assembled by 2008, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation was founded as a registered charity in May 2009 in Caldecote, England. In 2016, The foundation moved its headquarters to Station Road, Cambridge, moving again in 2018, to Hills Road, Cambridge.The foundation is supported by the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Broadcom.
Its aim is to "promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing." Project co-founder Eben Upton is a former academic, currently employed by Broadcom as a system-on-chip architect and associate technical director. Components, albeit in small numbers, were able to be sourced from suppliers, due to the charitable status of the organization.History
When the decline in numbers and skills of students applying for Computer Science became a concern for a team that included Eben Upton, Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory in 2006, a need for a tiny and affordable computer came to their minds. Several versions of the early Raspberry Pi prototypes were designed but were very limited by the high cost and low power processors for mobile devices at that time.In 2008, the team started a collaboration with Pete Lomas, MD of Norcott Technologies and David Braben, the co-author of the seminal BBC Micro game Elite, and formed the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Three years later, the Raspberry Pi Model B was born and it had sold over two million units within two years of mass production.Founders and leadership
The founders of the organisation were:
Eben Upton
Rob Mullins, senior lecturer in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge
Jack Lang, affiliated lecturer in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and the founder of Electronic Share Information Ltd
Alan Mycroft, professor of computing in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge
David Braben, CEO of Frontier Developments and co-writer of the 1984 game Elite
Pete Lomas, MD of Norcott TechnologiesIn early 2013, the organization split into two parts: Raspberry Pi Foundation, which is responsible for the charitable and educational activities; and Raspberry Pi Trading Ltd, responsible for the engineering and trading activities. Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raspberry Pi Foundation, with the money earned from sales of Raspberry Pi products being used to fund the charitable work of the Foundation. Eben Upton was initially CEO of both divisions, but in September 2013 Lance Howarth became CEO of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, with Eben Upton remaining as CEO of Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd. Philip Colligan took over from Lance Howarth as CEO of Raspberry Pi Foundation in July 2015.
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