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Warren East, former CEO of Rolls Royce and Arm, speaking at a tech event in London on June 13, 2022.

CAMBRIDGE, England — The U.K. is doing a bad job of commercializing technology businesses globally and needs a mindset shift from the investor community to win on the world stage, a former CEO of British chip design firm Arm said Tuesday.

In a keynote speech at Cambridge Tech Week, Warren East, who led Arm between 1994 and 2013, said that there have been criticisms that lackluster growth and poor rates of GDP per head in the U.K. are a source of national "embarrassment."

He added that too often firms that achieve scale in Britain have a tendency to change locations from the U.K. or list abroad in countries such as the U.S., due to difficulties with achieving global relevance from the country.

"I think we have a lot to offer in terms of U.K.-based innovative technology," East told the audience at Cambridge Tech Week. However, he added: "We tend not to be able to realise as many global businesses as that promise would suggest."

East was also previously the CEO of U.K. aviation engineering giant Rolls-Royce . He is currently a non-executive director on the board of Tokamak Energy.

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