Andy Boyd

Andy Boyd was born Andrew Boyd on 9 December 1964.
He is currently the knowledge manager for Royal Dutch Shell group of companies and holds a Royal Charter with the Royal College of Music in London as Classical Guitar Examiner, he was formerly the Visiting Professor of Knowledge Management at the London School of Economics between 2002 and 2005. He is also a blogger and venture capitalist specialising in Angel Investing in start-ups, he was a finalist for Young Entrepreneur of the year in 2006 in the Netherlands for this work.
He resides in the Netherlands
Early years
Boyd was tutored by Lech Arbaszewski of Royal College of Music Classical Guitar Tutor from the age of 6 till he was 25 in Wrexham North Wales where Arbaszewski resided at the weekend. He later spent one full year at the Royal College of Music between the years of 15 and 16, under the tutoring of Huw Jones.
At the age of 14 he was already working semi professionally as a local session musician recording in Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Abbey Studios in Chester, playing a wide range of guitars (electric, acoustic, classical, banjo, mandolin and steel). He eventually took over Arbaszewski's part time role as the Royal Collage of Music Classical Guitar Examiner, a position he holds to this day.
With his friend Phil Davis he formed a very successful music school which tutored many local children, to fund the school Boyd played sessions in the local recording studios as well as Llyn Tegig Studios in Bala which he initially co-owned with Davis.
Although Boyd is famously reserved about this period of his life it is rumoured he played sessions for Dire Straits, Jethro Tull, Jesus and Mary Chain and The Alarm
He is signed to EMI Classical and publishes via Welsh Witch Music, Stevie Nicks's music publishing company
Physics and later career
Boyd was never entirely comfortable working within the music business so always pursued a dual employment strategy; he was accepted into a sponsored education programme, By Royal Dutch Shell based at the Stanlow Refinery in Cheshire.
He has via this sponsorship a BSc (Hons in Physics) and a Phd in Macro Economics and a PhD Physics. He has worked for Shell in the UK, USA, Malaysia and The Netherlands
The first part of Boyd's Shell career was in Measurement and Control, changing a number of times between engineering and measurement physics research. Then he developed into the field of Knowledge Management, holding this position within Shell's refinery business, exploration and Production business and Basell Polyolefins, he currently works for Shell Global Solutions based in Amsterdam.
It was during his time with Basell (1998 till 2005), that he became active in the academic research into the field of knowledge management. He was a sponsor of the Metis programme at the Telematica Instituut in Enschede, and advisory member of the programme board of Twente University, regular guest lecturer at Amsterdam's Vrij University, Technical University in Delft and was visiting professor at the London School of Economics, leading a research team into the knowledge management aspects of radical outsourcing options.
Under the Shell umbrella he gives consultancy in knowledge management and has done so to Unilever, BASF, Montell and The Dutch and British governments, and is often a public speaker in this field.
Venture Capitalism
Via his investment vehicle Boyd makes investments to start ups whose business plans interest him, he is currently a majority shareholder in 3 European based small companies
Other Interests
Boyd is a collector of Welsh and Dutch contemporary paintings and is an award winning furniture maker.

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