Suran Goonatilake
Suran Goonatilake, OBE, was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He studied at Royal College Colombo, then earned a degree in Computing and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex, followed by a PhD in Machine Learning at University College London (UCL). While a student at UCL, he co-founded a machine‑learning company called Searchspace with three fellow students. In May 2005, Searchspace was acquired by Warburg Pincus.
He is an academic, entrepreneur and producer who serves as a visiting professor in the Department of Computer Science at UCL. He has co-founded several deep‑tech companies, often turning university research from British universities into businesses.
In 2005 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to entrepreneurship.
He founded the Centre for Fashion Enterprise in London, a non‑profit that finances and supports high‑growth fashion designers. It introduced a model inspired by technology startups and the film and music industries. Notable alumni include Erdem Moralıoğlu, Marios Schwab, Mary Katrantzou, Manish Arora and JW Anderson.
In 2006 he was the executive producer of Scenes of a Sexual Nature, a romantic comedy directed by Ed Blum and starring Ewan McGregor and Tom Hardy. It premiered at the 2006 London Raindance Film Festival.
In 2007 he was the executive producer for Luxury Unveiled, a documentary TV series about top fashion and luxury brands such as Chanel, Tiffany, Dunhill and Cartier.
He has co-edited two books.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:14 (CET).