About contributors to Ignite
One of our core values is to involve experienced and new entrepreneurs, practitioners and service providers in the delivery of all programmes, as they have the credibility to teach entrepreneurship through sharing their own experiences and knowledge and inspiring future entrepreneurs. This creates direct links between students and the business community.
All the contributors to the Ignite week are actively involved in the creation and development of new ideas and ventures. In all, there are 80-100 Contributors; most of them are leading entrepreneurs, innovators and professionals who have gone through similar types of experiences that you yourself are currently facing.
Monday 1 July
Matthew Grimes
Co-Director of Cambridge Judge Entrepreneurship Centre; Director of the MPhil in Innovation, Strategy and Organisation programme at Cambridge Judge Business School
Chris Coleridge
Management Practice Associate Professor, Cambridge Judge Business School
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.
Jamie Urquhart
Serial Entrepreneur and Mentor, Personal Projects
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.
Tuesday 2 July
Shazhad (Shaz) Ansari
Professor of Strategy & Innovation
PhD (University of Cambridge)
Aleksandra Pedraszewska (Ventures Panel)
AI Safety @ ElevenLabs, Founder @ VividQ
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”.
Richard Vellacott
Chair and CEO BiologIC Technologies
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 M. Cejas (Ventures Panel)
Co-founder and Vice-President R&D, Microfluidics
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.
Wednesday 3 July
John Yeomans
Angel Investor
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
Entrepreneurship Consultant
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 (Ventures Panel)
Investor/Advisor/Angel, Cleevely & Partners
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!).
Franck Courbon (Ventures Panel)
CEO Ethicronics
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 Keen
Partner and Head of Emerging Companies, Mishcon de Reya
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 (Ventures Panel)
Commercialisation Consultant, Cambridge Innovation Solutions
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
Head of Growth, Lupa Pets (Ventures Panel)
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.
Thursday 4 July
Alex Nicolaus
Chief People Officer, Paysend
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.
Vincent Mak
Professor of Marketing & Decision Sciences
PhD (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
Lindsey Clarke, PhD
VP of Commercial at MFX
Lindsey is passionate about bringing new technologies to the cell and gene therapy community that support and streamline translation and manufacturing. In her current role as VP of Commercial at MFX she is overseeing pre-market testing and commercial launch of their cell therapy manufacturing platform.
A scientist by training she gained her PhD in Immunology from UCL and has postdoctoral experience in Bioengineering from Imperial College. Subsequently she has spent more than a decade on the tools and technologies side of the Cell and Gene industry in a variety of roles spanning technical sales, support and business development, product management, marketing and go-to-market strategy. She’s worked with technologies ranging from bioreactors and cell processing equipment to analytical tools and ancillary materials. Having initially worked at the bigger players Miltenyi Biotec and Bio-Techne she made the move to startup more recently, at Ori Biotech and now MFX.
Lindsey is also co-founder of The CGT Circle – a women’s networking community, whose mission is to help realise the potential of women working in the cell and gene therapy sector by supporting local led efforts to help women in the industry build and foster meaningful network connections. She’s enthusiastic about attracting and supporting the next generation of talent coming into the industry and is regularly involved in mentoring and outreach activities.
Babita Devi
Coach, Mentor and Entrepreneur
Babita, a seasoned entrepreneur and coach with over 30 years of experience, cultivates success across diverse industries. Her signature program, The Alignment Accelerator, fosters alignment between personal and business growth, empowering early-stage businesses by recognising that a founder’s success is intrinsically linked to the venture’s success.
Through The Alignment Accelerator, Babita equips founders with the tools and guidance to achieve this parallel growth. This program goes beyond traditional business coaching, addressing the personal development needs of founders alongside business strategy and execution.
Babita collaborates with prestigious institutions like the University of Cambridge, Barclays Eagle Labs, Raising Stars, and Oxford Innovation Space. Her expertise extends to mentoring Masters in Entrepreneurship students at Cambridge and lecturing MBAs and Business Studies students.
A passionate connector, Babita actively cultivates vibrant networks of innovators and entrepreneurs. She serves on the Board of EdTech and Gaming startups, advises a Venture Capital fund, and holds a Non-Executive Director position at the Global Entrepreneurs Network UK, a vast community spanning 200 countries.
Recognising the personal challenges faced by founders, Babita offers tailored coaching to address mindset, strategy, and execution roadblocks. Her approach empowers individuals to lead with confidence, resilience, and a clear vision, fostering not just business growth, but also personal transformation. Babita’s experience encompasses a wide range of sectors, including gaming, healthcare, software, and education.
Massimo Gaetani
Entrepreneur, Coach, Director, BIQ Associates Limited
Massimo specialises in leadership development and personal growth for entrepreneurs and company directors while he is running his private healthcare business. He helps his clients to achieve success for themselves and their businesses by using a bespoke combination of Personal Development, Performance Coaching, Business Consultancy and Mentoring.
Massimo works by helping his clients to define and execute ambitious and challenging plans about their business, careers and life, stretching them beyond their comfort zone. He supports his work with over 20 years of corporate experience in small, medium and large enterprises in roles as diverse as Systems Engineer, Marketing Director and Business Consultant.
Massimo left the corporate world in 2007 to become an entrepreneur; during most of his corporate career, he was involved in the development of leading edge, innovative technologies as well as the transfer of existing technologies into new applications.
Michael Garrison
Director, Research Commercialisation, King’s College London (Retired) Non-Executive Board Director
Mike Garrison has over 30 years’ leadership experience in the US and global pharmaceutical industry combined with a further 10 years in building biotech and MedTech enterprises from early-stage disruptive life science research.
Mike led the US and global commercial development of three antivirals, zidovudine (Wellcome), valaciclovir (GlaxoSmithKline) and tenofovir df (Gilead Sciences), with each achieving blockbuster status (turnover >£1bn annually). He was CEO of Molecular Skincare and managed its trade-sale to York Pharma plc and became York’s Commercial Director, raising over £50mil in equity investment and completed three corporate acquisitions. He has held roles within the NHS and King’s College London where he founded King’s Commercialisation Institute, creating enterprises from the University’s life science research portfolio and raised £67m in equity and licensing finance for technologies such as immune oncology, gene therapy, viral vectors, and digital therapeutics. Mike was Chair of the UK’s NIHR Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Awards, a £140m, 3-year UK competitive funding programme to accelerate development of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Richard Heggie
Founder and CEO at H Catalyst
Richard has an EMBA from University of Cambridge (King’s College). e has 25+ years of experience in tier 1 finance, innovation, venture building, and complex problem solving.
Richard has a proven track record of cultivating global relationships, nurturing, and building teams to deliver outstanding results, and delivering award winning products.
Sarah Mardle
Business Transformation Consultant, Freelance
Dr Sarah Mardle has enjoyed a successful career as a senior leader in healthcare, including executive roles in medical device businesses. Starting as a research scientist in academia, she has significantly grown several startups into sustainable enterprises. Her extensive experience spans multinational pharmaceutical companies and product development consultancy firms.
With decades of expertise in business operations and compliance, Dr Mardle has introduced numerous in vitro diagnostics and medical devices to markets in the US, EU, and Asia. She actively contributes to medical standards development, shaping the future of healthcare.
A passionate advocate for leadership development, Dr Mardle has coached many to C-suite levels. She shares her expertise through lectures, mentoring programs, and speaking engagements.
Alan Platt
Non-Executive Director, Business Strategy and Technology Consultant
Alan graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1997 with a degree in Engineering. He started his career as an electrical engineer, managing infrastructure consuming more than 1% of the total UK electricity supply before moving on to a career in robotics and technology. His experience now covers a wide variety of industries from Construction and Pharmaceuticals to TV Broadcasting and SaaS Software.
Passionate about technology, Alan combines a strong technical background in engineering with experience of solving real world problems for non-technical customers. He co-founded CyberHive, a cybersecurity company focused on cutting edge post-quantum cryptography and connectivity. Alan is a non-executive director for The Bradfords Group, a £0.25Bn turnover building supplies group. As a consultant and sometime angel investor, Alan also currently advises several early stage tech companies.
Lord Karan Bilimoria
Founder of Cobra Beer
Vice President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
Karan Bilimoria is the founder of Cobra Beer, Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Limited, a joint venture with Molson Coors, and Chairman of Molson Coors Cobra India. In the Monde Selection, one of the most prestigious quality awards in the world for beer, the Cobra range have collectively been awarded a total of 111 Gold and Grand Gold medals since 2001, making it one of the most awarded beers in the world.
Lord Bilimoria is the Founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, a former Chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London); he was the youngest University Chancellor in the UK when appointed. Karan was a former Senior Non-Executive Director of the Booker Group now TESCO PLC (2007-2016); he is one of the first two visiting entrepreneurs at the University of Cambridge; he is a founding member of the Prime Minister of India’s Global Advisory Council. In 2006, Karan Bilimoria was appointed the Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, making him the first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords. In 2008 he was awarded the Pravasi Bharti Samman by the President of India.
Lord Bilimoria is an honorary fellow of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge and previously Chairman of the Advisory Board of Cambridge Judge Business School, Cambridge University. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young and graduated in law from the University of Cambridge. He is also an alumnus through executive education of the Cranfield School of Management, the London Business School and the Harvard Business School. In July 2014, he was installed as the seventh Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, making him the first Indian-born Chancellor of a Russell Group University in Great Britain, and he is the President of the UK Council for International Students Affairs (UKCISA). Since 2017 Lord Bilimoria has been a Bynum Tudor Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.
Lord Bilimoria is an Honorary Group Captain in 601 Squadron Royal Air Force. In June 2019, he was appointed Vice President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
Dr Hermann Hauser KBE, CBE FRS FREng FInstP
Co-Founder of Amadeus Capital Partners
Serial Entrepreneur and Co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, Dr Hermann Hauser KBE has wide experience in developing and financing companies in the information technology sector. He co-founded a number of high-tech companies including Acorn Computers which spun out ARM, E-trade UK, Virata and Cambridge Network. Subsequently Hermann became vice president of research at Olivetti. During his tenure at Olivetti, he established a global network of research laboratories. Since leaving Olivetti, Hermann has founded over 20 technology companies. In 1997, he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners. At Amadeus he invested in CSR, Solexa, Icera, Xmos and Cambridge Broadband.
In 2004, he was made a member of the Government’s Council for Science & Technology. In 2012 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his contribution to the translation of science into business and in 2013 a Distinguished Fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) for services to engineering and industry and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Hermann holds an MA in Physics from Vienna University and a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Hermann holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Bath, Loughborough, Anglia Ruskin. Strathclyde, Glasgow and York and was awarded an Honorary CBE for ‘innovative service to the UK enterprise sector’ in 2001.