Contributors

Chris is Senior Faculty in Management Practice at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. A former entrepreneur, for 15 years he has been teaching and carrying out advisory work in strategy.

He has won multiple awards for his teaching, sits on numerous startup advisory boards and advises corporates on partnering/ecosystem strategy. He holds an MBA from London Business School, an MSc in Social Psychology and a PhD in Management from the London School of Economics.

Until recently Jamie was a Venture Partner with Pond Venture Partners, investors in early stage companies in the fields of semiconductor, communication, wireless and software. His current interests are IoT and the development of embedded control systems.
He has a BSc from Bath University in Physics and Physical Electronics and started his career in analogue and digital chip design at Plessey Research (Caswell), who part-funded his degree.

Jamie left Plessey to join Acorn Computers in 1984 to start on the implementation of the ARM processor, later managing the VLSI Design team. Jamie was part of the founding team of ARM Holdings from its inception in November 1990 until November 2002. At ARM he undertook a number of roles, including VP of Sales and Marketing, Chief Operating Officer when the company floated on NASDAQ and the LSE, and latterly Chief Strategy Officer. After ARM he was an angel investor, before joining Pond Venture Partners as a Venture Partner.

He has experience of working with public companies and start-ups in operational and non-executive roles. He chaired the ESCO Steering Group whose report in 2013 led to the formation of the ESCO Council.

Jamie is a Fellow of the IET and an Honorary Fellow (Entrepreneurship) of the Judge Business School.

Aleksandra Pedraszewska is a technology entrepreneur, venture builder, and operator. In 2017, she co-founded VividQ, a world-leading provider of holographic display technology, based in Cambridge (UK), where she led financial, legal and people operations as a COO. She took the company from a prototype to a 50-people team, with customers across the US and APAC, $25m in equity capital, and a title of “Best British Technology Pioneer”. Before joining VividQ’s founding team, she gained professional experience at Rolls-Royce, HBO, and an investment fund IdeaLab Ventures. She gained her BA at the University of Cambridge, and MPhil at Cambridge Judge Business School. She was named as a Forbes ‘30 under 30’ in the Technology Europe category. Currently, Aleksandra leads AI Safety initiatives at ElevenLabs, which provides AI audio tools for voiceovers, narration, and dubbing. ElevenLabs reached a unicorn valuation in a record time in 2024. Aleksandra is also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Cambridge’s accelerator programme “Founders”.

In seven years as deputy CEO, CFO, COO and Company Secretary, Richard was instrumental in growing Horizon Discovery Group plc from an emerging private company of £3m revenue in 2012 to a recognised global leader in gene editing delivering revenue of £60m at a valuation of £350m.  Richard stepped down from the Board of Horizon in January 2019 to pursue other interests.

From 2010 to 2012, Richard was Vice President, Finance at CSR plc, a dual listed FTSE 250 technology company with $1bn of revenues. Previously, he was a director in Deloitte’s life sciences practice, working with leading companies such as AstraZeneca, Vectura, CAT, Acambis and Abcam.  He specialised in capital market transactions including numerous IPOs, M&As and fundraisings on AIM, Main Market and NASDAQ.

Richard is a qualified chartered accountant with a first class degree in biological sciences from Durham University.  Richard is a life science thought leader, has advised the European Committee on funding for life science companies and is a mentor of aspiring talent.

Cesare is one of the 2021 UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Awardees for a multi-million package to advance microfluidics R&D as well as develop leadership position as a tool in the advanced therapies industry. As co-founder, he has assisted in helping raise a total of about £8m in funding (both dilutive and non-dilutive) so far from VCs, angels, and corporate investors.

Cesare is responsible for assisting business development through design, engineering, bioprocessing, prototyping validation, intellectual property and low-volume manufacturing of microfluidics-based products – the core technology of their company.

Cesare has a degree in in Physics, Chemistry, and Materials Science Engineering and has used that background to complement his activities in Soft Matter Physics and Microfluidics Engineering and has adapted that to advanced therapy applications.

Cesare participated in Ignite in 2017 and has since started an Executive MBA at the Judge Business School from 2022-2024.

John chaired Cambridge Angels from 2013-2016.  He specialises in growth data and communications businesses.

He is Chairman of Wazoku (software for innovation management), and on the boards of Hybrid Access Technologies (gigabit broadband through software); Rovco (AI and machine learning for undersea surveys using advanced vision and location (SLAM) systems); and Plinth (impact reporting software for the charity sector) and is board observer at Focalpoint Positioning (next generation positioning systems).

He is a director and trustee of onebillion, which provides primary tablet-based learning in maths, reading and writing across the third world, and which won the Global Learning XPrize sponsored by Elon Musk.

John mentors a number of tech entrepreneurs. He is an engineer whose career was in telecommunications, involving contract research; a start up in office automation; product management, sales, marketing at an innovative telecom systems provider; consulting at KPMG; and investment banking at HSBC, where he built and  led their global TMT corporate finance team throughout the dot.com boom.

Kaitlin Fritz, a Cambridge MBA alum, is an award-winning entrepreneur, enterprise educator, and business coach who has supported 800+ founders globally.

Having been a Forbes-recognized founder herself with the immersive edtech platform Musemio, she aims to make entrepreneurship more accessible and practical to fellow ventures. This has led her to design multiple acceleration programmes globally, teach entrepreneurs in incubation programmes across UK universities like UCL and University of Cambridge, and mentor startups 1:1 on topics like business strategy, pitching, go-to-market, and fundraising. She shares her insights additionally on YouTube and via her podcast, Everyday Entrepreneurship.

Matthew Cleevely, MEng (Oxon), MPhil (Cantab), MIET, was the Chair and founder of 10to8, a global appointment and scheduling software business sold in 2023. He is an active angel investor and manages Cleevely & Partners, a family office that focuses on nurturing and scaling businesses alongside policy work that supports innovation and economic growth.

Matthew advises early-stage technology businesses and is a member of the Cambridge Angels. He has experience across a broad range of sectors, with a focus on deep tech (tech/bio) companies in Cambridge, and at every stage of growth, from foundation to exit. This includes managing the sale of technology businesses. He is also an investor and director in several companies in Cambridge, as well as SaaS businesses and the Pint Shop (a pub!).

Following 3.5 years at Gemalto (now Thales-DIS) and 7 years at the University of Cambridge (postdoc, Fellow, EPSRC IAA lead), Franck Courbon MRes., MPhil, Meng., PhD., founded Ethicronics in June 2022, full-time since November 2022.

Ethicronics first aims to revolutionise the electronics industry with an innovative B2B turn-key software solution that guarantees no more fake or compromised electronics hardware.

Infosecurity Europe most innovative Cyber UK SME 2024 finalist, NATO Innovation Challenge 2024 finalist, Cambridge Science and Technology Awards Finalist, NCSC for Startups and Cambridge Accelerate alumnus, Ethicronics has also received several support such as from InnovateUK and is starting a £400k electronics hardware assurance defense project (+£500k participation from prime) and has applied to a £2.5M collaborative project with world leaders.

From our base at the Allia Future Business Centre in the heart of Silicon Fen, Cambridge, Ethicronics is committed to impact at scale for a brighter and safer future.

Chris leads the emerging companies’ team at Mishcon de Reya and is one of the UK’s most experienced start-up and venture capital lawyers. His team advises on around 175 equity financings annually from offices in Cambridge, Oxford and London. He acts for companies and investors across all technology sectors and at every stage of their journey, from inception to exit.

Alex Smeets is a self-employed Associate of Cambridge Enterprise’s International Outreach Programme, which focuses on helping universities from around the world to strengthen their ability to commercialise their knowledge and research results. He is an assessor of business innovation grant applications for public authorities in the UK and elsewhere, and helps with various technology venture acceleration programmes and business plan competitions in Cambridge on a pro bono basis.

Until April 2011 Alex was a Regional Director of Oxford Innovation Ltd and a consultant for Oxford Innovation’s sister company SQW Consulting.

Prior to this, Alex was an Executive Director of the renowned technology business incubator St John’s Innovation Centre Ltd. He has a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge and worked in materials research and development for five years before branching out into the support of innovation, entrepreneurship and the commercialisation of new knowledge.

Syed Qureshi is a tech entrepreneur and growth strategist born in India and now based in the UK. He began coding at age 11 and founded a tech consultancy for SMEs, eventually expanding to an offshore development team in India. His notable clients include the World Health Organisation, for whom he developed an algorithm to identify at-risk pregnant mothers, and acted as a grey hat hacker to improve KFC’s and Krispy Kreme’s infrastructure.

After university, Syed joined McKinsey as a Business Analyst, working in over 15 countries in two years, focusing on Growth Strategy and Product Launches, including creating a Netflix rival in the Middle East. While at Cambridge, he helped 11x, a startup, scale its revenue from £0 to £4 million in nine months and secure £20 million in Series A funding.

Now, Syed is the Head of Growth at Lupa Pets, a seed-stage startup. He is spearheading the development of an all-in-one Practice Management Software for vets, aiming to scale the company to unicorn status within five years.

Originally from Germany, raised in France, and with a British education, Alex has pretty good odds at every world or European championship. In more practical terms, that international background really underpins Alex’s 20+ years career to date in Europe, China, and across Asia. Along the way, Alex has been fortunate to have helped large corporates (Barclays, JLR, Accenture) and now fast-growing start-ups (Grab, Circles.Life, Paysend) across different industries with their people and culture challenges in this era of digital disruption.

Alex’s passion is helping companies to attract, retain, and develop exceptional talent. Alex’s experience lies in building high-performing teams and everything that sustains them – from People Partnering to Total Rewards, to Employer Branding and Talent Acquisition & Development. Alex works to develop and sustain innovative talent strategies, strong culture, a great employee experience, and the best possible data and evidence base on which to make decisions.

Finally, Alex has recently published the first book, “Startup Culture: Your Superpower for Sustainable Growth,” which aims to help readers use Startup Culture to reach their potential and build their own competitive advantage. Outside startups you can find Alex either running ultra races around the world or trying to improve his Tennis game.