The UK Semiconductor Centre (UKSC) has appointed Andy McLean as its first CEO.

Following McLean’s appointment, interim CEO Raj Gawera will take up the full-time role of COO.

In a statement, UKSC said McLean brings “four decades of experience working at leading semiconductor companies in the US,” including senior leadership roles at Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, and National Semiconductor.

Originally from the UK, McLean will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of UKSC’s mission to accelerate economic growth across the semiconductor sector by securing investment and aligning technological efforts where the UK is seen to have a competitive advantage.

"The UK has a unique opportunity to expand its world-leading capabilities and become a global leader in semiconductors,” said McLean. “What convinced me to return to the UK is the new level of ambition I’m seeing from government, industry, and academia. Historically, the UK has struggled to retain and scale its most promising semiconductor companies. But what is different now is the clear strategic intent and willingness to drive economic growth through frontier technologies such as semiconductors.

He added: "The UK is recognized globally as having world-class engineering talent and genuine competitive advantages in areas like chip design, photonics, advanced processes and materials, and compound semiconductors, but we need more ambition and coordination if we’re to accelerate scale-up, drive greater inward investment and develop the workforce the sector needs – that’s what I’m here to help deliver.”

McLean’s appointment comes a week after Technology Secretary Liz Kendall announced that the UK government would be launching its ‘AI Hardware Plan’ in June to coincide with London Tech Week.

“The global AI chips market is growing at an annual rate of 30 percent and is expected to reach one trillion dollars in the early 2030s,” Kendall said during a speech on April 28. “If Britain could secure just five percent of this market, it would bring fifty billion dollars in revenue to the UK with tens of thousands of high-paid jobs in tech.”

In August 2025, the Council for Science and Technology (CST) published a report that recommended the UK government establish a sovereign AI chip design industry in the country.

While the council said that semiconductors had “rightly been identified by the government as a priority technology for the future of the UK,” it cautioned UK’s chip industry is “niche and highly specialized” and that a “broad, generalized approach” would not allow the country to sufficiently catch up to the current front-runners.

Instead, CST says strengthening the UK’s semiconductor industry will require investment and activity in areas where the country can achieve the greatest strategic advantage, namely in AI chip design – which it labels as one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, and says should not be conflated with the chip manufacturing sector.