Impactful Gates Cambridge Scholars with Cambridge Judge ties

Three of this year’s 8 winners of The Impact Prize for Gates Cambridge Scholars at the University of Cambridge have connections to Cambridge Judge Business School. Their areas of focus range from health to Gaza to sustainability.

The Impact Prize awards announced on 6 January will be presented on 10 January at a ceremony that kicks off the 25th anniversary year for The Gates Cambridge Scholarship, the University’s flagship scholarship programme for international postgraduate students. The Scholarship was set up in 2000 following a generous donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and since 2001 there have been more than 2,000 scholars from 112 countries.

Having an impact across the world

“The scholars, all international postgraduate students, come from all walks of life and all disciplines, but they are keen to leave a positive mark on the world, to have real impact,” said the award announcement. “They symbolise the many different ways that scholars have been having an impact across the world and the enormous ripple effect that Gates Cambridge has had in such a short space of time.”

The 8 winners of the 2025 Impact Prize each receive £5,000 and are invited to participate in this year’s 25th anniversary events.

2025 Impact Prize winners’ connections to Cambridge Judge

Alexandra Grigore

Alexandra Grigore, a 2012 Gates Cambridge Scholar, who is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Simprints, an open-source biometric ID platform that provides essential health and other identity-related information to vulnerable populations around the world. Alexandra was part of the Simprints team that participated in the Accelerate Cambridge programme at the Cambridge Judge Entrepreneurship Centre. A Simprints Co-Founder, Toby Norman, was also a Gates Scholar and a PhD graduate of Cambridge Judge.

Mona Jebril

Mona Jebril, also a 2012 Gates Cambridge Scholar, is an interdisciplinary social scientist who is a Research Associate at the Centre for Business Research (CBR) at Cambridge Judge. A former teacher and university lecturer from Gaza, Mona’s research has addressed a range of issues including the political economy of health in Gaza. In August 2024, she authored a Policy Brief for the CBR that examines the role of world universities at times of war and crisis, with a focus on the reconstruction of higher education in the Gaza Strip. Mona has disseminated her research work through a variety of creative methods including theatre, poetry and animation to make it accessible to diverse audiences.

Uchechukwu Ogechukwu

Uchechukwu Ogechukwu, one of 3 Gates Cambridge Scholars studying at Cambridge Judge in the 2024/25 academic year, is doing an MPhil in Technology Policy to learn how to scale his Nigeria-based solar energy company Greenage Technologies and help other African student entrepreneurs to innovate and scale. At Cambridge he has set up an African Founders webinar series through King’s E-Lab at King’s College, Cambridge, whose Co-Founders are Cambridge Judge faculty members Kamiar Mohaddes, Associate Professor in Economics and Policy, and Thomas Roulet, Professor of Organisational Sociology and Leadership.

A longer version of this article appeared on the University of Cambridge website.