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Before joining Cambridge Judge Business School, Dr Aghasi held a research fellow position at University of Sussex, where he joined Intrapreneurship Hub, a collaborative research initiative between the School of Business, Management and Economics at the University of Sussex, Renmin University of China, and SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy. Hub provides a platform to share the latest research findings and offers industry partners customised research projects, confidential analyses and metrics to assess corporate entrepreneurial performance. In his position, he developed a survey aiming at understanding how established companies adopt and apply different mechanisms such as startup programmes (accelerators and incubators), corporate venturing, and acquisition to support innovation, and growth, and instigate self-renewal.

Dr Aghasi obtained his PhD from a double degree programme funded under the Erasmus Mundus programme by the European Commission hosted at Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, in 2016. In his thesis, he investigated the determinants behind the turnover of the acquired top managers in acquisition of small high-tech firms which are mainly entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, he worked at the European Commission and national funded projects related to understanding the challenges of growth for European entrepreneurial ventures as the driver of innovation in various sectors including high-tech, knowledge intensive, and cultural creative industries.

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Monique's research includes the study of entrepreneurial teams, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship and gender; and the use of sociological approaches to broaden our understanding of entrepreneurial activity. Monique leads the EVER project which is a longitudinal qualitative study of the teams within Accelerator Cambridge. This project aims to understand the strategic decision-making of early ventures and how teams pivot over time. She is also currently working on a project exploring the impact of gender on entrepreneurship in the gaming industry. 

Previously, she worked on the design and implementation of a survey-based tool to measure the impact of entrepreneurial education (as part of multiple EU-funded projects) and remains passionate about understanding how research can improve the delivery and impact of entrepreneurship education to educate the next generation of entrepreneurs.  

Her original background is in Archaeology having completed a BA and MA in Archaeology at the University of Nottingham and taken part in excavations across Europe. Monique also has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and her thesis focused on applying philosophy to archaeology to look at the nature of knowledge creation of the past. This has given her the opportunity to bring new insights into the field of entrepreneurship and she is particularly interested in issues around gender, social theory and philosophy. Alongside her research, Monique is also a tutor and teaching associate on the Postgraduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship. 

Her research interests include entrepreneurial teams, entrepreneurial strategy, gender, entrepreneurship education and application of sociological approaches.

Panos is a Research Assistant at the Entrepreneurship Centre, and a PhD Candidate at IE Business School in Madrid. His research interests broadly lie at the intersection of finance, operations, and risk management. He asks how financial and operational risks impact strategic decisions and, more specifically, how portfolios of suppliers, products, and contracts can be coordinated so as to navigate the highly uncertain business landscape.

His most current research at the Entrepreneurship Centre is grounded in the pharmaceutical industry. Here, innovation in medicines is highlighted by already exorbitant and increasing R&D costs. To tackle these costs, pharmaceuticals, biotechs and other research institutions often team up to increase their probabilities of success.  The $1.8 billion question then is: How should portfolios of alliances and medicines be structured? Although portfolio theory advocates diversification as a strategy to spread and manage risks, the prescription of focusing and honing in on one's core competencies is equally credible.

Panos holds a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a masters degree in Business Management Research from IE Business School. Prior to joining Cambridge Judge, Panos has collaborated and/or received funding from various companies such as BMW and Banco Santander.

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