Ana heads up the Enterprise Hub team at the Royal Academy of Engineering supporting technology entrepreneurs on their journey of setting up and growing innovative, global companies.
Ana started her career in an technology start-up overseeing introduction of a number of innovative products services to market. Ana’s most recent role before the Academy was with the technology and innovation consultancy, PA Consulting Group, where she worked with a wide range of clients on business growth, innovation and economic growth projects, including an assignment setting up a technology hub in Beirut, Lebanon.
Dr Ian Brotherston is Head of Government Engagement at Innovate UK. Previously Ian was KTP Programme Manager at Innovate UK. Before joining Innovate UK Ian was a Head of Enterprise at Heriot-Watt University with responsibility for all aspects of Heriot-Watt’s business-related activities.
Prior to Heriot-Watt Ian was the Science and Technology Director for a start-up company with responsibility for all aspects of the business except for company secretarial work. Ian started his corporate career mixing business development and research science with a large organisation. Ian’s PhD (Electrochemistry at the University of Southampton) and Postdoctoral research (University of Texas at Dallas) were both industry sponsored.
Sarah heads up Campus London, Google’s first physical startup hub, providing founders with work and event space, mentorship and innovative educational programs as well as access to a vibrant startup community. From the pilot in London, Google for Entrepreneurs have now scaled Campus to Madrid, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tel Aviv and Warsaw, with over 220,000 members. She’s also the chair of women@ Google UK.
Sarah’s previous role at Google was launching a global Google Maps community team. Before Google, she worked in content and community for startups in the UK and Germany, advised brands such as Nokia on their social strategy and was a journalist for the Guardian.
Sarah’s passionate about diversity in tech, better city living and storytelling, and is on the board of Code First: Girls and makerspace Blackhorse Workshop.
Chris is Head of New Technology and Startup Research for Nesta, leading the organisation’s research into entrepreneurship and startup support such as accelerators. Prior to joining Nesta, Chris worked for several years at Imperial Innovations (now Touchstone Innovations), the technology commercialisation company, where his role focused on assessing emerging technologies and early stage investment opportunities, with a particular attention to cleantech. Following this, he spent two years within Imperial College, developing and managing the institution’s strategy for enterprise, technology transfer and translation. Chris has a first class degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, a PhD in History & Philosophy of Science, and a postgraduate diploma in strategy and innovation from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
Claire Mitchell is an inventor and founder of Chillipeeps and Mimi & Mago. From a moment of frustration and an email to Peter Jones, Claire created a multi-award winning feeding adapter for babies.
Claire is a proud inspirational mumpreneur, bursting with passion, determination and has a Yorkshire grit ‘no-nonsense’ approach. She mentors many entrepreneurs, and supports innovation and manufacturing. Amongst other things, Claire has spoken at numerous events, she is one of the faces of the IPO, a face of and judge of the Design Council Spark Programme and an Ambassador of the British Library (Leeds Business and IP Centre).
Scottish entrepreneur Alex has Athetoid cerebral palsy and used powerchairs since he was at school. He has developed an independent work and social life and has visited over 40 countries and 180 cities independently with his chair. He founded Freedom One Life with a vision to be the market leader in products and services that radically redefine and shift what mobility means for disabled people.
Freedom One Life is designing a next generation powered wheelchair. The company has won several awards including the 2016 Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs in the UK. Alex wants to inspire and empower those people living with physical disability. To enable those people around the world to expect and demand the same standard of living and mobility that an able-bodied person takes for granted.
A creative entrepreneur, Tom has led the early-stage development of many products, projects and organisations. In 2013 Tom founded Makerversity, now Europe’s most exciting community of creative startups with campuses at Somerset House, London and Amsterdam. Makerversity has been recognised by The Observer and NESTA as one of the Top 50 organisations in the UK ‘radically changing Britain for the better’, and by Network of Innovations, Culture and Creativity in Europe as the contintent’s most socially innovative creative business.
Tom also lectures at Sheffield Institute of Arts (Sheffield Hallam University) and is a Trustee of Yorkshire Artspace. His work has been exhibited at the Design Museum, Barbican and the V&A, he has written for industry-leading publications. He was recently selected as one of the World’s top cultural innovators by the British Council.
David Wardell has been assisting inventors internationally for over twenty years. He is a director of the Institute of Patentees and Inventors, former trustee of Nesta, former publisher and editor of Inventors World magazine and presenter for the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme.
He has adjudicated on many international judging panels including the ‘Prince of Wales Award for Innovation’. For many years he acted as the ‘President of the Jury’ for ‘INPEX’ – America’s largest invention trade show. For five years, he has also served as the ‘President of the Jury’ for the Croatian inventors’ salon – ‘Inova’.
Today David is the Publisher and Editor of www.inventricity.com – an online resource for all those interested in invention.