Female Founders Day: Peer Mentoring
6 Nov 2025
11:15 -12:45
Times are shown in local time.
Open to: Entrepreneurs
To be confirmed
About this event
The Female Founders Day event series features accomplished female entrepreneurs, who share their experiences, insights, and challenges they tackle in the world of business. This event promises to help strengthen and consolidate the Female Founder community in Cambridge.
Female Founders: Peer Mentoring highlights the significance of female-led mentoring to support entrepreneurs and the impactful results it can achieve. Join a panel discussion exploring the challenges and issues raised during mentoring. This event also offers the opportunity to book 1:1 mentoring sessions with accomplished female founders who have reached key milestones and are eager to share their insights. Additionally, participants can connect with experience female mentors from diverse backgrounds, specialising in areas such as strategy, leadership, funding, and team building.
Panel topics
Have a topic in mind?
Suggest it during registration.
We’d love for you to join and share this with your network.
Details of the Chair, panellists, coaches and mentors to follow. Please make sure to register so we can plan accordingly, accommodate any specific catering requirements you may have, and ensure you’re on the attendee list.
Why attend?
- 1:1 mentoring sessions with accomplished female founders who’ve reached key milestones.
- Access to expert mentors in strategy, leadership, funding, and team building.
- Engage in a panel discussion exploring real challenges raised during mentoring sessions.
Agenda
09:15 – 10:00
Mentoring session
10:15 – 11:00
Mentoring session
11:15 – 12:45
Panel discussion
Venue TBC
12:45 – 14:00
Networking lunch
Venue TBC
14:00 – 14:45
Mentoring session
15:00 – 15:45
Mentoring session
16:00 – 17:30
Pitch & Judge #4
Chen-Tsao Lecture theatre
17:30 – 19:00
Networking drinks
Venue TBC
Chair
Jennifer Waller Martin
EMBA Executive Director, Cambridge Judge Business School
Dr Jennifer Waller Martin is an International education leader with a passion for learning, traveling and experiencing everything the world has to offer. Frequently traveling to all parts of the globe and driven by inspiring others to learn. Experience of managing international teams and working in Asia, Middle East, North America and Europe, as well as senior management experience in teaching, academic research, marketing, sales and operation functions all in Higher Education environments. Loves challenging growth environments, KPI Management and continuous development.
Panellists
Dr Ghina M Halabi
Education Manager
Dr Ghina M Halabi is an inspiring astrophysicist and social entrepreneur. With a passion for unravelling the mysteries of the cosmos, her research explored the structure and evolution of stars, probing their life cycles and the physics that governs their behaviour to provide insights about the universe and our place in it.
Demonstrating her adaptability and keen insight, Ghina transitioned from the enigmatic world of astrophysics to the dynamic and disruptive realm of entrepreneurship.
Leveraging her expertise at the intersection of space science and commercialisation, Ghina joined the Education Team at the Entrepreneurship Centre, where she has played a crucial role in the creation and management of transformative programmes that empower academics to commercialise their research and flourish beyond the lab.
As an advocate for gender representation, she designed and leads EnterpriseTECH and EnterpriseWOMEN, an innovative entrepreneurship development programme specifically tailored for early-stage women entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs. Since 2022 she has completed executive education courses on VC, Fund Management, and SME growth at Imperial College London and University of Bath School of Management.
In a remarkable achievement, Ghina became the first individual to earn a PhD in astrophysics from a Lebanese university.
Driven by a commitment to promoting STEM and advocating for women in science, she founded She Speaks Science, a multi-lingual social enterprise dedicated to fostering a positive STEM identity among young people and amplifying the voices of women scientists through storytelling. She Speaks Science has received funding and support from prestigious organisations such as the International Astronomical Union and University of Cambridge.
Prior to her current endeavours, Ghina held positions as a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, a fellow at Wolfson College, and a lecturer at the American University of Beirut. She has spoken at international conferences and global forums, including UN Women, UNOOSA, and TEDx, and has featured in various media outlets. She currently mentors on UK Space Agency accelerator Entrepreneurial Spark.
Emmi Nicholl
Managing Director of the angel investment group, Cambridge Angels
Emmi Nicholl is the Managing Director of the angel investment group, Cambridge Angels – some of Europe’s leading early-stage investors. Our group provides smart capital from investors who are themselves exited entrepreneurs. Our group equips future generations of entrepreneurs by supporting innovative technology companies seeking global impact. My role is to help Cambridge Angels develop its reach by building networks to attract high quality investment opportunities. I get to talk to founders who are seeking funding and learn a lot about a huge variety of tech businesses.
My skill set lies in my ability to assist businesses to execute on strategic goals, so my career has consisted largely of going into small to medium businesses that are undergoing transformation and helping them solve the challenges inherent in growth and change.
Sarah Mardle
Founder, Alma Business Consulting
Dr Sarah Mardle is a seasoned leader with extensive experience in healthcare, from scaling start-ups to executive roles in multinational organisations.
After many decades in the industry, she founded Alma Business Consulting to empower entrepreneurs through tailored consultancy and coaching, combining strategic insight with hands-on expertise.
A certified coach and dedicated mentor, Sarah contributes to the University of Cambridge’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, supporting programmes like Cambridge Judge Business School’s Ignite and Accelerate. Her passion for fostering resilience and leadership in entrepreneurship is grounded in a career marked by innovation and sustainable growth.
Amelia Amour
Partner in the Early Stage Fund, Amadeus Capital Partners
I am a Partner in the Early Stage Funds with an investment focus of Autonomous Systems, AI and Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Digital Health and Medical Technology.
Being based in Cambridge I have a particular interest in supporting spin-outs from the University and am a board director of Cambridge Touch Technologies, a company developing the next generation of force touch for mobile phones and tablets, and a board observer at machine learning company prowler.io and Graphcore, a Bristol-based chip company increasing the speed of AI and machine learning in the cloud.