Speaker Sir Greg Winter, Elise Jenkins of Opto Biosystems and Dr Rebecca Myers of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Prize winners announced at Business Weekly awards

21 September 2023

The article at a glance

The founder of a biotech firm and a cleantech company won prizes sponsored by Cambridge Judge Business School at the annual honours of publication Business Weekly.

Elise Jenkins of Opto Biosystems won the Cambridge Judge Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award, while cleantech company Immaterial was named Cambridge Judge Graduate Business of the Year at the annual Business Weekly awards held at Homerton College on 14 September. 

Elise is the CTO and Co-Founder of Opto Biosystems, which develops technology that improves the lives of people suffering from neurological disorders by developing minimally invasive implants. She originally studied electrical engineering before becoming a neuro-oncology researcher, and completed her PhD in the Bioelectronics Laboratory at University of Cambridge. Opto Biosystems publicly launched in April this year.

Awards presented by the Entrepreneurship Centre’s Heads of Education and Practice

Elise was presented the Business Weekly award by Dr Rebecca Myers, Head of Education at the Entrepreneurship Centre at Cambridge Judge, in recognition of her outstanding achievements and for inspiring and nurturing other women to excel.  

Cambridge-based Immaterial is developing a range of metal-organic frameworks to be used in bespoke systems for a range of energy transition and clean air applications including carbon capture and hydrogen purification. The award was presented by Ann Davidson, Head of Practice at the Entrepreneurship Centre at Cambridge Judge, in recognition of showing outstanding commercial potential over the last year and contributing to the employment and retention of Cambridge graduate talent.    

This year’s awards covered companies of all sizes, from startups to globally recognised names. There were 14 categories including Young Company of the Year, Life Science Innovation and Sustainability Champion. The guest speaker was Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Sir Greg Winter.