David E. Potter

David Edwin Potter was a South African businessman who founded Psion PLC in 1980 and later chaired it. Born in East London, South Africa, in 1943 and brought up in Cape Town, he took a Beit scholarship to read natural sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, then a Commonwealth Scholarship to study for a doctorate in mathematical physics at Imperial College London, where he joined the staff and taught during the 1970s. At Psion he led the company from its early days as a leader in software for home microcomputers through the 1984 Organiser, described as the first volume handheld computer for personal use. In 1988 he led the flotation of Psion on the London Stock Exchange, and in 1998 he led the creation of Symbian Limited with Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Matsushita. He stood down as chief executive in 1999 to become chairman and retired from that role in September 2009. He was appointed a CBE in 1997, elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2001 and served as a non-executive director of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2009. He and his wife Elaine created a foundation supporting education, research and development projects. He died on 28 June 2026.