Technical: Julian Sutherland, head of formal verification at Nethermind and former tech leader at Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, will explore formal verification's role in blockchain security and its broader industry impact.

Entrepreneurial: Edward Sloan, partner at Mills & Reeve, specialises in VC investments and investment round negotiations. He advises investors, funds, and growth companies from seed to late-stage rounds. Notable deals include the £250m Midlands Mindforge investment, Sphere Fluidics' $40m Series A, and various deep tech ventures.

Technical: Petar Veličković is a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. His work has had a profound real-world impact, from improving Google Maps travel-time predictions to guiding mathematicians toward new theorems and conjectures. He also contributed to the first full AI-driven football analytics system and co-developed the first AI-assisted top-percentile result in competitive programming.

Entrepreneurial: Sam Marchant is Partner at AI venture builder Inaugural, after being a seed stage VC investor at Salica Investments. Led by the team behind Shazam, iTunes and Google Play, Inaugural uses AI to build companies across sectors. They've launched 3 AI companies in 12 months, with one reaching $3.2m annual revenue in 7 months.

Technical: Aditi Goswami is a Lead Data Scientist at Boeing. Previously, she worked at Telespazio UK and Microsoft, where she gained extensive AI and Computer Vision experience. She has worked with satellite remote sensing, applying AI to analyse imagery for real-world applications.

Entrepreneurial: Michelangelo Valtancoliwas Principal at seed stage fund Stride.VC ($300m AUM) under the mentorship of Fred Destin. He's now investing as an angel alongside two unicorn founders and focusing on creating a convergence point for young undiscovered talents. 

Technical: Nethermind is a leading blockchain company with expertise in Ethereum, protocol engineering, and DeFi. They provide technology and consulting services, contribute to Ethereum core development, and collaborate with top partners to shape the future of blockchain and decentralised finance.

Entrepreneurial: Dr. Uday Phadkeis CEO of Triple Chasm, specialising in commercializing innovations. With 30+ years experience, he founded Cartezia which has built >100 companies. A former Entrepreneur in Residence at Judge Business School and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), he authored "Camels, Tigers & Unicorns: Rethinking Science and Technology-enabled Innovation" and "The Scale-up Manual: Handbook for Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Teams and Firms".

Technical: Henry Setiawan leads Amazon's "AI Kitchen" team developing Rufus, an AI shopping assistant. Previously at Google and Microsoft Research, he worked on Cloud, YouTube, and Bing projects. He co-founded super.ai and advises AI Singapore and Madrona Venture Labs. He holds a PhD in Computer Science and MBA from MIT.

Entrepreneurial: Ylan Steiner is a partner at Orrick's Technology Companies Group, specialising in VC and PE. With a software background, he advises tech companies and investors across multiple sectors. Recognized in Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners, he serves on Cambridge University's Corporate Law Advisory Board..

Technical: Valeria Cortez, Lead Data Scientist at Monzo Bank, builds ML models and data pipelines to detect fraud and ensure regulatory compliance. She will talk about AI-based methods to detect and prevent financial crime and comply with AML regulatory requirements.

Entrepreneurial: Startups often operate in regulatory grey areas where existing rules don't address their innovations. Maria Riivari, Senior Legal Counsel at Avara, a Web3 startup building blockchain technologies, will share insights on navigating uncertain regulatory landscapes while maintaining business momentum, drawing from her first-hand experience.

Technical: Nethermind is a leading blockchain company with expertise in Ethereum, protocol engineering, and DeFi. They provide technology and consulting services, contribute to Ethereum core development, and collaborate with top partners to shape the future of blockchain and DeFi.

Entrepreneurial: Dennis Harhalak is a Certified Money Coach and Financial Wellbeing educator with 30 years of experience. Through Cambridge Money Coaching he helps people understand their relationship with money and improve financial decision-making. He offers workshops and individual coaching sessions near Cambridge.

Technical: Dr. Layla Hosseini-Gerami leads Ignota Labs as co-founder and Chief Data Science Officer. With degrees from Leeds and Cambridge, she has guided the AI-driven biotech to win the OxBridge AI 2023 and RSC Emerging Technologies Award 2024.

Entrepreneurial: Agata Nowicka manages Visionaries, a Google Cloud-partnered AI incubator for female entrepreneurs. A veteran VC investor and founder, she created Female Foundry—a 6,000+ member network of investors and founders—and authors the Female Innovation Index for European female entrepreneurship.

Join us for the final “Weekly Workshops with Brunches” session of Michaelmas term! Share your feedback, discuss your interests, and learn about future E-Lab opportunities. Refreshments will be provided.

Technical: Nethermind is a leading blockchain company with expertise in Ethereum, protocol engineering, and DeFi. They provide technology and consulting services, contribute to Ethereum core development, and collaborate with top partners to shape the future of blockchain and DeFi.

Entrepreneurial: Sebastian Haire is a digital transformation and AI expert with global experience. He founded two AI startups (one with successful exit) and now leads startup partnerships at Google Cloud UK and Ireland. Previously, he drove AI adoption for major EMEA clients at Google. Seb also has experience at Salesforce and actively invests in tech ventures.

Technical: Maria Minaricova, Director of Business Development at Fetch.ai, leads partnerships in AI, mobility, and decentralized tech. Fetch.ai uses autonomous agent technology to automate supply chains and energy systems. With $61.9M raised, including $40M from DWF Labs, they partner with Bosch, Deutsche Telekom, and Festo. Maria's workshop will cover building AI agents for trading applications.

Entrepreneurial: Gerard Grech, Managing Director of Founders at Cambridge, accelerates tech company growth. As Tech Nation's founding CEO, he boosted UK tech unicorns and digital leadership. After Tech Nation's 2022 acquisition, Gerard now serves on the UK's Digital Economy Council and WEF's Digital Board. His career spans mobile, digital media, and VC, starting in the music industry.

Technical: Nick Jakobi, Director of Product at Cohere, will discuss RAG, tools, and agents. His background spans tech leadership roles at ComplyAdvantage, Culture Trip, and Facebook, with experience at Google and as a CEO. Nick holds degrees in Mathematics, Philosophy, Computer Science, and AI from Cambridge and Sussex.

Entrepreneurial: Philip Winter, Nebia's co-founder and former CEO, led the San Francisco startup in creating water-saving showers. Their products, in over 100,000 homes, saved 500 million gallons. Backed by Tim Cook and Y Combinator, Nebia was acquired by Brondell in 2022.

Technical: Professor Nic Lane—Cambridge University computer science expert leading the Machine Learning Systems lab and co-founder of Flower Labs. Specializes in scalable, robust ML systems with a focus on privacy-preserving AI. Extensive experience includes roles at Samsung AI, Oxford University, and Microsoft Research.

Entrepreneurial: Andrea Castiglione—Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur who has worked with Steve Wozniak. Leads SilentUnicorn venture studio, focusing on disruptive tech in blockchain, digital payments, and cybersecurity. Expertise in product definition and design, applying user research and design thinking to product strategy and company growth.

Web3: Tagus Capital. Gui Silva, CFA, managing partner at Tagus Capital, will present on ClimateTech trends. Tagus Capital is a blockchain-native VC firm focusing on Web3 Deep Tech. They support entrepreneurs combining blockchain with advanced technologies like Quantum Computing and AI.

Compute/Hardware: Youlian Tzanev, Co-Founder and CSO of NexGen Cloud, leads Europe's top GPU-as-a-Service provider. His experience includes $2 billion in real estate sales. NexGen Cloud, NVIDIA's largest European partner, offers sustainable, high-performance computing solutions up to 75% cheaper than traditional providers.

Climate: Jason Kibbey (Worldly founder) and Henrik Jones (Buckhill Capital) will discuss impact in consumer products and sustainable fashion. Buckhill invests in sustainable systems, targeting supply chain upgrades and waste reduction. Worldly, trusted by 40,000+ brands, provides sustainability insights across value chains.

FinTech: VC Landscape Evolution Phoebe Kitchen, VP at Inovia Capital, will present ClimateTech trends. Inovia, managing US$2.2B, partners with founders to build impactful global companies, offering multi-stage support across North America and Europe.

LegalTech: Alexander Samuel Kardos-Nyheim and Jonathan Richard Schwarz will share first-hand experience on legaltech market dynamics and trends. They led their legaltech startup, Safe Sign Technologies, to acquisition by Thomson Reuters in August 2024.

MedTech: Billy Boyle, Cambridge engineering graduate, co-founded Owlstone Inc for FAIMS technology. His wife's cancer diagnosis led to Owlstone Medical, aiming to save 100,000 lives and $1.5B through Breath Biopsy. Partnering with Cleveland Clinic and Astra Zeneca, they've published 100+ papers and raised $150M. Billy, awarded an MBE, is active in Cambridge institutions, cancer research, fundraising, and E-Lab, as entrepreneur-in-residence.