London

Mohit Midha, COO, Blue Duck Education

Mohit Midha is Chief Operating Officer at Blue Duck Education, the company behind Mangahigh one of the world’s first games-based-learning sites, where students learn mathematics via purpose-built casual games that balance fun and learning. Prior to that, he worked as an independent consultant in the digital strategy arena, advising startups and SMEs in the TMT sector.  Before embarking on an entrepreneurial career track, Mohit did a stint as a senior consultant within the strategy practice at Accenture, where he advised clients in the financial services. He started his full-time career at Deutsche Bank in London, where he worked in various capacities and led the team responsible for redesigning the Bank’s technology infrastructure that allowed for a record growth in trading volumes.  Mohit is a Sainsbury Management Fellow and holds an MBA from London Business School, specialising in ‘private equity’ and ‘entrepreneurial management’. He did his bachelors in Computer Science and Electronics Engineering from University of Sussex, where he achieved a merit based scholarship each year. He co-founded the ‘Turnaround Management’ club while at London Business School and ‘Enable Ethiopia’ NGO while at Deustche Bank.

Adam Davies, Startup, Film Distribution

Adam P Davies has advised exclusively in the entertainment sector since qualifying as a solicitor in the early ‘90s.   In 1999, he left the law to provide film financing advice to sales agents, distributors, equity and tax funds, high-net-worth individuals, producers, talent agencies and studios, including by Fox Searchlight, who appointed him to source and secure slate finance for the studio arm. In 2002, he was personally invited by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences to attend the Oscars® at its inaugural ceremony at its new home on Hollywood & Vine.  Adam went on to head the Legal & Business Affairs departments of a number of international public listed companies in the film industry, and to help establish the (then) largest ever film finance fund on the African continent. In all, he has consulted to film companies on four continents, and has advised on the finance or distribution on more than 200 feature films  including several Oscar® winners. His latest book, the Film Finance Handbook, now in its 3rd edition, is reportedly the world’s best-selling book on the subject.   In 2008, Adam was selected by London Business School to become a Sloan Fellow, undertaking a year-long senior management programme in Strategy and Leadership, specialising in various entrepreneurship programems.   Whilst there, Adam switched his industry focus towards business models for digital distribution, leading various strategy and marketing consulting teams into key industry players, including LoveFilm. For his acclaimed 2009 Industry Report on the Critical Success Factors for Online Film Distribution, he collaborated with 26 leading industry companies including Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony, Microsoft, Google, Virgin, BT Vision, BBC, Lovefilm, the Film Council and even governmental peers.   He is now interested in setting up a business in this space.

Arshya Lakshman, FuturON

Arshya Lakshman, CEO & Founder of futurON Ltd, chose to make a living out of her hobby – creativity for the corporate world. futurON does marketing and social media strategies for the tech world. Arshya’s keen interest in blending the best of the creative and corporate world, started due to her education in Visual Communications (Madras University) and Business Management (Strathclyde Business School). From being a part of the Tamil films industry to being associated with multinational brands (like Ingenico, BBC, BBDO, Tata, Sony) and startups, Arshya has worked with a variety of industries and organizational sizes leading branding, marketing, PR and social media campaigns. Arshya is a serial globetrotter, she has worked and travelled across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Her love for the creative art led her to become an actor for a multicultural theatre group in the UK and singing for a band in Scotland. She also enjoys her photography, painting, martial arts and meditation. Arshya is a fellow in the 2012 Startup Leadership Program in London and is looking forward to combining her love for entrepreneurship, leadership and technology to dive deep into the startup world.

Barath Shankar Subramanian, Accel Partners

Barath Shankar Subramanian currently works as a Senior Consultant in the healthcare industry at Frost & Sullivan in London. Prior to his MBA, Barath was a Senior Industry Analyst with Frost & Sullivan in San Antonio and Pittsburgh, USA tracking emerging trends in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. During his MBA, Barath worked with startup ideas in the renewable energy and financial services markets from Carnegie Mellon University and helped them take it to market and. Barath interned with Accel Partners in an investment analysis role during his MBA. Most recently, Barath was named the Co-Program Leader for the Startup Leadership Program in London and selected as Fellow in the Class of 2012. Barath holds a Pharmacy (Honours) degree from Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences (BITS), Pilani India and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University USA. His hobbies include trivia, quizzing, cricket, golf and traveling.

Daniel Saunders, Founder & MD, Decarbon

Founder and Managing Director of Decarbon Limited. www.decarbon.uk.com. Decarbon offers equitable funding to help large energy users to lower their energy costs and carbon footprint. £5m capital ringfenced to date to fund energy saving projects. An evolution of business model (GreenLease) that won 2009 Cleantech Challenge. Prior to Decarbon, IBD Associate at Morgan Stanley, senior Managing Consultant at IBM, hold MBA from London Business School and a 1st class honours degree in Combined Sciences from University of Liverpool.

David  Noonan, Imperial

David P. Noonan received the B.Eng degree in Mechatronics from Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland in 2005 and the M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (Research) from King’s College London, London, U.K., in 2006. He is currently working toward the Ph.D degree jointly at the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery and the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, London, U.K. He has worked as a member of research staff at Imperial since 2007. His research interests include applications of mechatronics technology in medicine with an emphasis on articulated robotic devices, gaze contingent control and both stereo and fluorescence imaging platforms for minimally invasive surgery.

Ian Broom, Weboo

Ian Broom has been creating web sites since he was 15 years old.  Since then he has studied software development, business management, HR, and project management.  He has worked in project management, consulting, software development, and IT management roles for IT, finance, digital agency, and charity companies.  In 2004 Ian started Weboo in Australia to help clients with online advice, development, and management.  In 2007 Ian moved to the UK and started Weboo in the UK in 2009.  Weboo has rapidly expanded and today works with some of the biggest companies in the UK as well as helping smaller clients in the UK and Australia to effectively use the internet.  Ian is a serial networker who never says no to a coffee, he works hard to help others and enhance the startup community globally.  He is passionate in the business opportunities the internet offers entrepreneurs and works hard to stay on top of the latest technologies to ensure he can always give current advice to startups and customers.

Jackson Carroll, OnCallInsight

Jackson Carroll is the Founder and CEO of OnCallInsight and a Fellow in the 2012 Startup Leadership Program in London.  Jackson’s mission is to radically change the speed at which businesses are able to make strategic decisions.  He has worked for McKinsey and Company in London and with Accenture in Australia.  In his spare time Jackson enjoys open water swimming.  Jackson has an Information Technology (Honours I) degree and an MBA (with Distinction) from London Business School.

Jamie Wilson, Physician

Dr. Jamie Wilson is founder of an assisted living technology platform, helping older adults ?age in place? in their own homes.  He was previously Platform Director at SharpBrains, a  neurotechnology firm based in San Francisco, advising early stage companies on emerging technologies in neuroscience. Jamie previously wrote the digital strategy at Novartis and managed initial business development in digital. A physician and psychiatrist by background, he trained at Imperial College, London. In 2007, Jamie product managed a point-of-care clinical decision tool for a NASDAQ listed PDA clinical informatics platform, before founding an online physicians? marketplace in the UK. He has an MBA from the London Business School and is an alumnus of University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business. He is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in London.

Nazz Ahammad, Founding Director, Nimbulus Consulting

Nazz Ahammad is a serial entrepreneur and a Founding Director of two technology companies in Central London. He founded Nimbulus Consulting, one of the UK’s leading Microsoft Cloud computing consultancies, in 2009 and before that co-founded Hypercubic Solutions a leading small business IT consultancy in 2002. Before running his own businesses Nazz worked as a programmer at Goldman Sachs International for five years in London and New York after graduating from University College London.

Mandeep Rai, Media Reporter

Mandeep went from Private Banking at JP Morgan in London to a colourful ten years of creative activism, journalism and development. She used her degree in Politics, Economics and Philosophy to report for the BBC World Service, covering the emerging markets from every angle. She travelled up to 100 different countries, and produced documentaries/features and programs on Development Issues across the board; from Environmentalism in Ladakh to Luxury Goods trafficked into China, from Religion in the Galapagos Islands to the Lonely Dogs in Japan, from Astrology in the Atacama to Political Street Theatre in Kenya, followed by Retuers Television presenting political stories from the UN and the financial updates and explanations from the Nasdaq, Times Square, New York.  Mandeep earned her MSc from the London School of Economics, to broaden her understanding of Development issues, and subsequently worked for the UN in New York, DG Enterprise at the European Commission in Brussels and grassroots NGOs in the Himalayas, Uganda and Guatemala.  Prior to Business School, Mandeep worked for the Government of Abu Dhabi, to inform the global political economic dialogue around Islam and the Middle East. TwoFour54 partnered with both the BBC and Reuters, and she was given the responsibility to strategise and set up the first Media Venture Capital in the MENA region.  Now educated at Harvard Business School, MIT and London Business School, Mandeep has come full circle and is equipped and ready to change the world.

Joysy John, Equity Derivatives, Morgan Stanley

Joysy John currently works in Equity Derivatives business at Morgan Stanley, London. Prior to her MBA, Joysy worked for over six years with JPMorgan Chase in Singapore and New York, where she was the youngest person selected into JPMorgan’s Future Leader Development Programme (in 2002). Joysy has nurtured her entrepreneurial interests throughout her career. In her undergraduate years, she co-founded Students’ Initiative For Technopreneurship as a platform for students interested in entrepreneurship to network with industry and social leaders. In recent years she has worked with several entrepreneurs to help improve their business plans. Joysy is passionate about developing and empowering women to achieve their goals. She was the President of the Women in Business Club at London Business School. She also served on the first executive-committee for Financial Women’s Association in Singapore and was responsible for launching the mentoring programme for young women. She has mentored high-school students through Big Brothers Big Sisters and Financial Women’s Association in New York. She was a student delegate at the 2007 Women’s Forum held at Deauville, France. She volunteers with Young Enterprise to teach primary school students. Joysy is originally from India and has lived in Singapore, USA and UK. She holds a Computer Engineering (Honours) degree from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and an MBA with Distinction from London Business School. She was a recipient of the SIA-NOL scholarship for her undergraduate studies and the 2006 Forte Scholarship for her MBA. Her hobbies include horse-riding, ceramic arts, travelling and hosting parties.

Lily Lapenna, Founder & CEO, MyBnk

Lily Lapenna is the Founder and CEO of award winning UK social enterprise, MyBnk. Her non-profit organisation helps 11-25-year-olds in some of the poorest parts of London manage their money effectively and make enterprising choices. She’s created the county’s first FSA approved, independent, in-school and online youth-led banking scheme. Lily is Italian and grew up between London, Italy and the USA within a very socially minded family. At 18 she left London for rural Zimbabwe working on youth AIDS awareness. A SOAS graduate in Development, she later worked in Asia for BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) and after this experience, returned to London and founded MyBnk. From a lone pilot and with no government funds, her charity has reached over 34,000 young Londoners in three years. Her 24 microfinance branches offer young people a safe and accessible place to save, develop good financial habits. Pupils are trained to administer the banks and decide on approving 0% interest loans – 100s have had their first enterprise experience. As part of the this global movement, she is spreading her expertise to China with the Shanghai Better Education Foundation, Save the Children in Ghana, Kenya, Nepal and Columbia, and PEDN in Uganda.  This autumn the first of several UK social franchises goes live in the North West of England. This year Lily was appointed a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Selected as an Ashoka fellow in 2010, she was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the New Statesman in 2008 and her programmes continue to win awards for excellence in financial capability – most recently in 2010 by Children and Young People Now Magazine. Lily mentors and guide start-ups such as Big Society Award winners, FoodCycle, of which she is a Director. She sits on the Board of Trustees for CIVA (Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action) and is an advisor to the charity Olive Branch for Children (Tanzania).

Melissa Morris, Founder & CEO, Network Locum

Melissa is CEO and Founder of Network Locum, which she founded in 2010. Network Locum is an online marketplace where temporary doctors (Locums) can find jobs in GP practices, and medical centres.  Melissa’s experience working for the NHS both during her time at Mckinsey and at her current role in London’s Strategic Health Authority, enabled her to identify the locum marketplace as both a painpoint for GPs and a needless expense to the health system; damaging doctor-patient relationships and preventing locums from maximising their earning potential.   Network Locum was featured at the spring 2011 launch of the coalition government’s Startup Britain campaign. Melissa has a strong background in finance and management consultancy having worked for Citigroup’s Investment Banking Division and top-tier management consultancy, McKinsey, she gained experience she was keen to transfer to her own business.  Melissa has a strong academic record, gaining a 1st class Degree in Business from the University of Bath and 3 A’s at A level

Rajeeb Dey, CEO, Enternships

Rajeeb Dey (25) is CEO of Enternships.com – a jobs portal connecting talented students and graduates to ‘entrepreneurial work placements’ in start-ups and small businesses worldwide.   Rajeeb graduated in 2008 with First Class Honours in Economics & Management from the University of Oxford where he was the longest serving President of Oxford Entrepreneurs.   His entrepreneurial endeavours started at the age of 17 when he Founded the English Secondary Students’ Association (ESSA) – the first national organisation working to give school students aged 11-19 a voice in their education – and for which he has received numerous accolades including the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award & Fellowship of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA).   He was awarded the “02 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2009 for Enternships and has been recognised as one of the ‘rising stars’ of the Business World by Spectator Business Magazine. Rajeeb was profiled in The Observer as ‘One to Watch in 2010′ from “Courvoisier The Future 500 Network” – a prestigious network of emerging leaders in the UK.   Since launching Enternships in May 2009, Rajeeb has secured global media coverage including CNN, BBC World News, The Daily Telegraph, ABC News, The Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal to name a few. He was referred to by the Financial Times as “among the most high profile” young entrepreneurs in the UK.   Most recently he was one of the Co-Founders of the StartUp Britain campaign – an initiative supported by HM Government which aims to celebrate, inspire and accelerate entrepreneurship in the UK. StartUp Britain was launched in March 2011 by the Prime Minister David Cameron, Chancellor George Osborne and Secretary of State Vince Cable. Rajeeb also accompanied the Prime Minister on his recent Trade mission to Africa in July 2011.  Rajeeb is also a Trustee of UnLtd – the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, a Channel 4 Education Advisory Board Member and on the UK India Business Council Next Generation Advisory Board.

Øyvind Henriksen, poq studio

Øyvind Henriksen, founder of poq studio. Poq studio creates mobile apps for fashion shops. He was awarded twice in Gulltaggen Norwegian Web Awards for e-commerce websites. He was lead developer in a digital agency for 10 years, and is now getting into mobile commerce.  He graduated from the MSc Technology Entrepreneurship programme at UCL in 2011. He likes backpacking and hiking, but is also a bit of a gaming geek. He is a Fellow in the 2012 Startup Leadership Program in London.

Philip Woodward, Founder, HipSnip

Significant experience and success in corporate strategy, business management and start-ups. Currently growing HipSnip, an exciting mobile internet business. Five years experience in board level corporate strategy for international blue chip companies in various sectors including FMCG, consumer electronics and consumer finance.  Specialties Mobile marketing, social media, corporate strategy, financial analysis, competetive assessment and benchmarking, purchasing and procurement strategy, small business strategy, consumer goods

Tony Dhillon, Head of European Operations, GrowVC

Tony is a finance, media and technology professional. He is currently the Head of European Operations for Grow VC a global venture community for start-ups entrepreneurs, funders and experts.  He has raised significant funds for feature films and has worked for Barclays Corporate in the technology, media and telecoms team and at Variety Magazine.   Tony holds a BSc in Economics with Management from the University of Royal Holloway and holds the Securities and Investment Institutes – Certificate in Investment and Financial Advice.   He has a passion for entrepreneurship, start-ups, innovation and ideas which will help shape our world in the future.

Will McQuillan, CoFounder, Osmoda

Will McQuillan graduated from Trinity College Dublin, where he received his Bachelor of Business Studies. After an Internship for Lehman Brothers in UK M&A, he became one of the founding employees of Ondra Partners, a start-up investment-banking boutique. He helped Ondra grow from 4 people to having over 40 people in London, New York and Paris within two years.  He is currently the Co-Founder of Osmoda, an online fashion marketplace curated by its users and also Co-Founder of BetaPitch, a start up accelerator.  In his spare time William is also a mentor for Spring Board and LSE Incubators in the UK and is the London Ambassador for the Sandbox Network.

Zoe Peden, Founder, MyChoicePad

Originally from Stockport this Northern Lass migrated south to study at LSE and spent the first ten years of working life in editorial management and product development at various publishers in the UK and Australia, with a particular interest in web technologies. She made the transition to senior management and the charitable sector aged 30 and looked after the development of resources at The Makaton Charity. While at the charity Zoe become obsessed with all things EdTech – particularly in regards to Makaton users and the special needs arena. This was an area crying out for some industry disruption.  Alongside working for the charity, Zoe started a flexible MBA at Henley Business School. Having had a longstanding interest in entrepreneurship and a desire to set up her own business the MBA gave her the confidence to take the risk and put everything behind the idea for MyChoicePad. It was too big an opportunity to resist!  Zoe loves building things that change lives and puts smiles on faces. She is fascinated with all EdTech stuff, the thriving world of UK tech start ups, entrepreneurship and innovation in general and mobile app development.