Full-Time MBA alumna: Claire Cockerton

Claire Cockerton (Full-Time MBA 2010) talks about her MBA journey from running her own business in Canada to setting up her own companies driving innovation in FinTech in the heart of London’s financial centre.

Today, Claire is a serial entrepreneur and an industry leader in financial services and smart cities. She is the Founder, CEO and Chairwoman of Entiq, a global innovation and economy enabler, and a leader in innovation delivery, new venture development and ecosystem creation.

She was also the founding CEO of Innovate Finance, a City of London and Canary Wharf Group backed movement for a more balanced, resilient, and accessible financial services sector. Launched by Entiq, 54 fintech founders and the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, IF’s vision was to radically transform every aspect of banking to deliver more choice to consumers and benefit to society.

Claire set the strategy and co-led the implementation of Level39, Europe’s largest technology accelerator dedicated to fintech, retail and smart cities technologies, and continues as Special Advisor to Canary Wharf Group on developing a Financial Services and Smart Cities tech cluster.

During her MBA at Imperial, Claire specialised in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design, and helped establish the business model for Virgin’s ‘Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship’. She advised the Guardian Media Group on their ‘Digital First’ transformation strategy and helped implement their company-wide change programme. Claire founded, grew and sold (2009) ‘Aesthetic Earthworks’, a multi-million dollar sustainable architecture firm based in Toronto, Canada before moving to the UK.

Claire is an active member for Women in Tech, Tech London Advocates, Women Shift Digital, and is a member of Boris Johnson’s London Tech Ambassador Group.