Imperial Founders Forum: Founders and Investors Forming Effective Partnerships
Join us for the next Imperial Founders Forum on Wednesday 6 March 2024, hosted by the IPC Team and Professor David Klug (Associate Dean for Enterprise in the Faculty of Natural Sciences).
The Forum is open to all academic staff, particularly those who are either active or curious about commercialisation and/or increasing the non-academic impact of their work. Come and share your knowledge in entrepreneurship, engage in networking and create connections. The theme will be Founders and Investors: Forming Effective Partnerships.
The Forum aims to develop a vibrant community of entrepreneurs and academics engaged in impact beyond academe. This informal grouping is open to all academic staff, particularly those who are either active or curious about commercialisation and/or increasing the non-academic impact of their work. The intention is to create a self-supporting community of academic entrepreneurs able to provide, guidance, advice, experience, contacts and support to each other.
Business leaders and Imperial academics will be invited to come together over a series of forum sessions to share knowledge in entrepreneurship, engage in networking and create connections.
For this in-person session, we will have a panel of three investors and David as a host/chair of the event. We will have a panel only of investors and stimulate as much in the way of questions from the audience as possible. The theme will be Founders and Investors: Forming Effective Partnerships.
Charlotte is an Investment Manager in the Direct Life Sciences team at British Patient Capital (BPC), investing in Series A+ companies across the life science sector from therapeutics to medical devices. She joined BPC in 2021, prior to which she worked with a large European corporate venture fund. Charlotte is enthusiastic about developing the life science ecosystem in the UK, working with companies, accelerators, and incubators to drive growth.
Charlotte holds a BSc in Biochemistry and Genetics from the University of Nottingham, MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge, and PhD in Computational Genomics from the University of Leicester.
Lee Thornton
Lee has a strong and enduring interest in all things science and technology, and this has been central to his career for over 15 years since he graduated with a Doctorate from Oxford in 2006. His role at IP Group is focussed on sourcing, building and growing companies with a game-changing commercial proposition based on world-leading and well-evidenced scientific invention. He has lead investments and grown companies in sectors ranging from future computing to next generation wireless networks whilst maintaining a broad interest and network across the UK’s deeptech landscape.
Alongside an understanding of the technology landscape across a variety of sectors and its application to creating breakthrough commercial propositions, Lee brings extensive experience of working with tech companies of all sizes, helping them to develop and grow, having worked as a Science and Technology Trade Commissioner for the Canadian Government prior to joining IP Group in 2015. Before taking on that role, he was deeply involved in a cutting edge project as a Senior Scientist working for part of the UK’s Ministry of Defence. Lee holds a PhD and a MChem (1st Class) from the University of Oxford.
Alexis Dormandy
Alexis has 30 years of experience in the commercialisation of technology, as CEO, investor, and board member. He originally trained as a doctor before embarking on a business career that began at McKinsey, followed by the Virgin Group. He ran his first Virgin business aged 26, and went on to join the Virgin Group board, where he was responsible for new businesses. He launched Virgin Mobile and Virgin Active, and later ran Virgin’s internet investments.
Alexis subsequently led the Consumer business at Orange, where he was also Chief Marketing Officer and helped grow the company to become the UK’s leading mobile operator. He then served as Managing Director at Candover, a large European private equity firm; at which time he was also European Chairman of RED, the AIDS charity founded by Bono. Alexis went on to become a Partner at Atomico, one of Europe’s leading technology investors, where he was also a member of their Investment Committee.
Most recently Alexis was CEO at Oxford Science Enterprises, a billion-pound investment company that creates transformational businesses based on the science discoveries of Oxford University. During his time there, he helped launch over 20 new businesses across deep tech, life sciences, and health tech; and sat on the boards of companies focused on everything from post-quantum computing, to early stage cancer detection, to nano-imaging technologies.
