Hugh Williams is the principal of Via Alto Advisors, a technology advisory practice. He has worked as an advisor and interim executive with many companies including ASOS (UK), Doordash (US), and Ocado Technology (UK). He is also co-host of a new podcast, Tech Overflow.

Hugh is a co-founder and the chair of Australian charity Code for Schools. In 2024, the charity supported coding classes for over 64,000 students across Australia. He is also a Director of Toorak College and the Hugh and Selina Williams Foundation. Since 2017, Hugh has been an Honorary Professor at RMIT University.

Prior to 2017, he was a Vice President at Google and eBay, a Senior Vice President at Pivotal, and a Partner at Microsoft. Earlier, he spent over 10 years researching and developing search technologies, and 5 years running his own startup and consultancy.

He is one of the inventors of Infinite Scroll and he holds 38 US patents with another 41 US patents pending. In recognition, he was recently elected as a Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors.

Hugh has published 115 works, mostly in the field of Information Retrieval. He is the author of two books, including a best-seller on programming that sold over 100,000 copies. According to Google Scholar, his H-index is 40 and his works have been cited over 6,000 times. Hugh has a PhD in Computer Science from RMIT University in Australia.

Outside of work, Hugh is a fan of the Seattle Mariners, a 29-year Richmond Tigers member, and a Queens Park Rangers supporter. He was once the drummer in Snout.

If you’re interested in Hugh’s background, visit his linkedin profile.