STEERING COMMITTEE
Cambridge Wide Open Day is championed by some of the ecosytem's most influential figures deeply committed to its purpose and vision.
Prashant Shah
CEO, o2h discovery and Co-Founder, o2h group
Aline Charpentier
Head Of Innovation, Bruntwood SciTech
Jamie Clyde
Strategic Advisor, West Midlands Growth Company
Faye Holland
Founder & Director, Cofinitive
Dominika Soriano
Venture Operations and Ecosystem Lead, Cambridge Future Tech
Samantha Jackson
Marketing and Business Development Manager, Babraham Research Campus
Alexandra Huener
Head of Entrepreneurship, Milner Therapeutics Institute
Prashant is a serial entrepreneur in life sciences and tech in which one of those companies was acquired by a public company. He is currently active in seed investing (a portfolio of ~50 companies), product/IP development, services, and building lab/office infrastructure. The early career was with the Strategy group at Accenture. He has a BEng, an MSc, in which he worked on the Human Genome Program at the Sanger Centre, and an MPhil in Management from the Judge Institute. Prashant is also a General Partner in the o2h SEIS/EIS Human Health Funds.
Prashant Shah
CEO, o2h discovery and Co-Founder, o2h group
Aline is the Head of Innovation for Bruntwood SciTech Melbourn Science Park, working on establishing it as a thriving ecosystem for TechBio companies. Aline’s experience covers a wide range of support to entrepreneurs in life sciences, having developed Bioentrepreneurs bootcamps across Europe, established the One Nucleus Virtual Innovation Centre for growing companies and now advising an early stage therapeutics fund, BioTranscript. Prior to joining the Cambridge ecosystem, she worked on technology transfer programmes for the scientific services of the French Embassy in the USA (Boston) and technology scouting at the CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique). She holds a MSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Toulouse and MBA from Grenoble School of Management.
Aline Charpentier
Head Of Innovation, Bruntwood SciTech
Jamie is regional director for Bruntwood SciTech in Cambridge and Birmingham and also leads the delivery of Innovation Services to help companies in the Bruntwood SciTech network to form, scale and grow.
After studying Engineering, Jamie became a management consultant, partnering with a small team to grow and sell two companies with international corporate client portfolios and now has over 25 years experience of start-ups and corporate innovation, gained in many high growth businesses across a variety of sectors.
Jamie has also led a number of corporate start-ups. He was Chief Customer Officer for the launch of Virgin Mobile SA, building an organisation of 750 staff in less than 6 months; he was founder and CEO of British Airways/Comair’s SLOW Airport Lounges which won a series of international awards; he launched EDF Energy’s spin out Hoppy, and co-founded the fintech 22SEVEN which was acquired by Old Mutual. Prior to joining Bruntwood SciTech, Jamie advised Regus on its global transformation into IWG group, helping to establish a number of new brands.
Jamie is a non-executive director of RBCHS (UK’s largest Community Hydro Scheme), a mentor for the Prince’s Trust and an RSA Fellow.
Jamie Clyde
Strategic Advisor, West Midlands Growth Company
Faye Holland founded the multi-award-winning specialist PR and communications consultancy, Cofinitive, which is focused on promoting innovative and disruptive early-stage startups through to scaleups and large corporates with a focus on tech and innovation. All tech. Any innovation. Transformative, AI, IT, Quantum Computing, Agritech, MedTech, HealthTech, BioTech, Semi-Conductor.
She also created the influential #21toWatch Technology Innovation Awards (as featured in Forbes) to celebrate the lesser-known but outstanding emerging talent within the region’s booming Science and Technology industries; those that really deserve recognition, funding and support because what they are doing is truly ground-breaking.
In 2022 she became co-host/ owner of the Cambridge Tech Podcast which is dedicated to covering all things tech from the heart of the UK’s tech capital, Europe’s biggest tech startup cluster and one of the most respected tech and innovation hubs in the world.
Faye Holland
Founder & Director, Cofinitive
Dominika brings an international and highly collaborative approach to her role as Venture Operations and Ecosystem Lead at Cambridge Future Tech.
She has travelled and studied extensively, and her experience is underpinned with a solid legal background: holding both a Master’s and Bachelor of Laws, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Affairs from the University of West Florida, where her academic achievements placed her on the President’s Honor Roll.
Originally from Slovakia, she is fluent in English, Slovak, Czech, Hungarian and proficient in German. Dominika’s professional experience spans across continents and sectors, including as a paralegal in Slovakia and in business development at Lion Aerospace International Corp in Florida. She also holds a certification in Research Commercialisation and Technology Transfer, and is concurrently pursuing a Master of Laws at BPP Law School alongside her role at Cambridge Future Tech.
Dominika Soriano
Venture Operations and Ecosystem Lead, Cambridge Future Tech
Samantha Jackson is the Marketing and Business Development Manager at Babraham Research Campus, the UK’s leading campus to support early-stage bioscience enterprises.
The Campus provides emerging and growing biotech companies laboratory and office space, together with access to outstanding scientific facilities. They aim to be the most successful bio-incubator campus in Europe and to support the Cambridge region and the UK bio-science communities. Set within 430 acres of stunning parkland, the campus also offers excellent conferencing and event facilities available to hire all year round.
Samantha Jackson
Marketing and Business Development Manager, Babraham Research Campus
Alexandra Huener has joined the Milner team as the Head of Entrepreneurship. This exciting new role has been created to lead our expanding initiatives for entrepreneurs here in Cambridge, through the Milner Frame Shift bio-incubator, the Affiliated Venture Partner network and the Bio-Spark Fellowship programme being run together with Cambridge Gravity.
Alexandra brings to the team a wealth of experience in creating networks and initiatives that enable scientists with new innovations to build contacts and gain commercial know-how. She has run entrepreneurial programmes both in Germany and here in Cambridge. Most recently, she has developed and managed the IMPULSE programme for tech innovators in West Cambridge since 2016 – an annual programme focused on helping early stage entrepreneurs build a business case around their ideas, and establish a network of mentors, investors and experienced innovators.
Alexandra Huener
Head of Entrepreneurship, Milner Therapeutics Institute