Organising Team

Charles Cotton is an experienced director of public companies listed on the London, Nasdaq, Euronext Amsterdam, and Frankfurt stock exchanges and private companies in the USA and Europe.

During his career he has lived and worked in the UK, USA and Germany and has experience conducting business in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North America and Africa. He has advised the UK government on the development of entrepreneurial businesses and the commercialization of science and technology. In addition, he is an adviser to and investor in venture capital firms, an angel investor and mentor.

He is a director of Solarflare, the semiconductor company; Veebeam, the consumer electronics company; and two other companies in California. His UK directorships include Cambridge Phenomenon Ltd, semiconductor company XMOS and Cambridge Enterprise Ltd the organization within the University of Cambridge responsible for spin-outs, licensing and consulting activities.

Prior to its acquisition by TomTom, in June 2008, he was a Supervisory Board member of Tele Atlas, the Euronext Amsterdam and Frankfurt Exchange listed supplier of digital maps. Previously, he was Executive Chairman of GlobespanVirata Inc. the NASDAQ listed, New Jersey based, semiconductor company. Before the merger with GlobeSpan, he was CEO of Virata which he took public on NASDAQ in 1999 to became one of Cambridge’s $Billion companies. He completed five acquisitions and established and ran a venture fund.

Previously, he was CEO of Shandwick Europe; President of Boston Mass. based Thermal Scientific Inc, and a Director of London Stock Exchange listed Thermal Scientific Ltd. Prior to that he was Sales and Marketing Director at Sinclair Research Ltd. and held senior Operations, Finance, Marketing and Product Planning positions at British Leyland and Ford.

He has a BA Hons in Physics from Oxford University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Chris has in-depth experience of nearly all issues facing small businesses and has been involved in acquisitions, exits, restructurings, financing, debt, equity funding, managing global teams across multiple geographies and international growth.

Chris is now the founder and Managing Director of mybusinessFD, an expanding group of commercial Finance Directors who are passionate about helping growth businesses and enabling those entrepreneurs to access top level FD experience on a part time basis. MybusinessFD helps to get businesses investment ready; advising on business planning, strategy and constructing robust financial models, as well as making introductions to secure investment and then continuing in a part time advisory capacity to help ensure those plans are achieved. Chris is non-executive Director or Board adviser to many of those client technology businesses that he supports, including Proxama, Brightpearl and On Demand Technology.

Theo is pursuing his PhD on Schizophrenia biomarkers discovery at the Institute of Biotechnology, Cambridge University. He is currently the Chairman of the Cambridge University Technology & Enterprise Club (CUTEC) and a member of the Board of Directors at Cambridge Phenomenon Ltd. His first leadership role dates back to 1998, being a military police officer for 2 years in the Cyprus National Guard. In 2003, he completed his Biotechnology BSc at Imperial College, London. For the 5 subsequent years he acquired experience in diverse biomedical technologies through his employment at the White Shark Research Institute in Cape Town, South Africa, and Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, USA. He holds both a USA permanent residency and a EU citizenship. His involvement in international competitive rowing and cycling as well as in the arts is noteworthy.

Prior to this appointment, Joelle was Director of Development at King's College, Cambridge, and has previously held the positions of Director of Alumni Relations and MBA Admissions Manager at INSEAD in France. She was the Chairman of the CASE Europe annual Conference in 2009 and served as a member of the CASE Europe Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2009. Among her professional experiences, Joelle lived in Ghana and worked as a consultant in West Africa developing projects for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, ran her own company specialised in equestrian sports and rode horses professionally in Europe and the USA. Joelle attended the Advanced Management Programme at the Wharton School of Business in 2005 and she has an MBA from INSEAD.

In 1962 he joined McKinsey & Co. Inc. , management consultants, leaving in 1966, so he could return to Torvac full time, to accelerate its growth. He was Chairman 1970 - 1985, when he and his partners sold to a plc. He had also co founded and chaired Tecvac Ltd, providing wear resistant coatings for machine parts, and sold it in 1989.

Other past directorships include Boosey and Hawkes Ltd, Guinness Flight VCT pIc, Techne Corporation and Gooda Walker Run-Off Ltd. Now he is a director of TQ Scientific Ltd., specialists in scintillation technology, and a Trustee of Cicely Saunders International, whose mission is research in palliative care. For many years he conducted a choir of business angels, and besides Torvac and Tecvac has invested in a further 21 unquoted companies, mostly in or around Cambridge. 16 have been sold or closed, 5 companies are still operating. He was Chairman of the Eastern region of the Association of MBAs and a member of the National committee for 9 years, a rowing coach for 25 years, and founder Chairman of the Cambridge Enterprise Conferences. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in Cambridge a few years ago.

Jeff graduated from London University with a Ph.D. in chemical and biochemical engineering and subsequently worked on the development of fermentation processes and installation and commissioning of antibiotic fermenters. He spent a year at the State University of New York undertaking research and lecturing on biochemical engineering.

During his 12 years at PA Technology he led product development and strategic technical consulting projects for companies such as Wellcome, Roche and Gist Brocades as well as a range of international biotech companies. Prior to his involvement with ERBI he was programme manager of Anglian Water's research and development projects and left to lead the Eastern Region Biotechnology Initiative; a publically funded project focused on the development of networking and communications within the Cambridge and East of England bio-community.

In April 2000 after the end of this public funding he became a founder of ERBI Ltd, an independent private company, and became its full time Chief Executive growing the organization to become Europe’s preeminent regional association assisting the growth of the regional industry and their service providers. In 2009 he stood down from ERBI and now he is the Chairman of the Council for European Bioregions, a Non-Executive Director of MyelomaUK and The Cambridge Phenomenon Ltd and Non Executive Advisor for PiR Interims/BioScienceNEDs whilst still undertaking a small amount of advisory work for national and local organisations in biotech and healthcare.

Teri joined Cambridge Enterprise (CE) as Chief Executive in 2006. Prior to CE, Teri was a Managing Partner of ARCH Development Partners (ADP), a seed and early stage venture fund focused on university and corporate spin-outs. Teri, a founder of ADP, participated as a Director on portfolio company, community and venture capital Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards, as a University of Notre Dame Business School Adjunct Professor and continues as an Advisor to ADP. Prior to the start of ADP, Teri was Vice President of Start-ups at ARCH Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the University of Chicago, which commercialised technology from the University and Argonne National Laboratory. Her experience includes technology transfer roles at Northwestern University, Purdue University and in industry. Teri has been an advisor to policy makers, universities and companies and is a past President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). Teri is a Bye-Fellow of Christ’s College and a Senior Member of Hughes Hall.

After graduating in Law and French, Jeanette gained a Diploma in European Export Marketing from the University of Louvain in Belgium. She has since worked in a variety of international business development roles including seven years as Business Development Director of ERBI, and as Project Manager for the East of England Stem Cell Network under the chairmanship of Mary Archer and Hermann Hauser. Jeanette’s event management experience includes international biotech and stem cell conferences as well as two major charity balls.

In August 2009 Jeanette established lets cell it.com limited, a company specialising in the development of web portals for the life sciences sector. Her first portal, www.biopharmamarket.com, which was launched last November, showcases the expertise of UK-based organisations involved in the discovery and development of medicines. Her second initiative, www.univercellmarket.com, is the most comprehensive source of information available today about the global stem cell and regenerative medicine sector.

In her free time Jeanette developed mi-colours.com, a portal where people can upload their photo and “try on” different colours to assess which shades suit them best. When she isn’t developing websites, Jeanette enjoys spoiling her 4 young godchildren, gardening, reading Christian philosophy and French cinema.

A computer scientist, audio engineer and graphic designer by training, James has founded two successful creative agencies and has played leading and senior roles on hundreds of successful multi-media campaigns for organisations ranging from local businesses to FTSE100 companies.

Simon’s company SGA has been supporting local, national and international organisations and brands for over twenty years. Their core services are BtoB video, presentations and business event production. Clients appreciate their approach of digging deep into the needs of communications challenges and delivering reliable and effective creative content. With a track record among life sciences and a broad brush of East of England clients SGA are privileged to be part of the Cambridge Phenomenon team. SGA are always receptive to offering advice and recommendations on conference and video production – as well as the great opportunities for video online.