13 Facts About Andrew Karney

Andrew Karney, FIET, CEng, FRSA was born on 24 May 1942 and is a British electrical engineer, businessman and company director.

Andrew Karney started his career working as a teacher for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Lebanon and Gaza in 1964 and 1965, when it was occupied by Egypt.

Andrew Karney was honoured by the United Nations Secretary-General, U Thant in 1969.

Andrew Karney played an important role in the development of the world's first fully electronic digital telephone exchange, which was developed in collaboration with Laboratoire Central de Telecommunications, based in Paris, and which was then installed in Moorgate in the City of London in 1967.

Andrew Karney worked as a senior scientist at the central research laboratories of the UK General Electric Company on the development codecs for high speed digital transmission systems which were used to test the capabilities of helix wave guides, digital radio receivers for GCHQ and electronic telephone exchanges.

Andrew Karney was project director of the European project based in Paris to bring the Internet to Europe from 1975 to 1976.

In 1984, Andrew Karney became a main board director responsible for the telecommunications, electronics, space, government and media sectors as well as operations in Italy and Asia, which included he development of the trading system for the new unified Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the first container management system for Hongkong International Terminals.

Andrew Karney then became a trustee of the Welfare Association works to support some of the most marginalised Palestinian families and communities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and in the refugee camps in Lebanon.

Andrew Karney is a member of Chatham House, The Council for Arab-British Understanding and an expert on contemporary Middle Eastern affairs, particularly Palestine and Syria.

Andrew Karney's father was Gilbert Henry Peter Karney, vicar of Embleton, Northumberland, his grandfather was Bishop Arthur Karney, the first bishop of Johannesburg.

Andrew Karney's mother was Celia Karney, granddaughter of John Wigham Richardson, a Quaker Victorian shipbuilder and founder of Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson shipbuilders on Tyneside, who built the RMS Mauretania.

Andrew Karney was a talented amateur photographer in the 1960s specialising in ballet photography published in various dance magazines and national newspapers.

Andrew Karney took some of the iconic photographs of the 1968 demonstrations in Paris against the Gaullist government.