Board

Ajay has 25 years' start-up venture experience, building disruptive new digital businesses in a wide range of industries. He has particular expertise in mobile, e-commerce, digital media, data analytics, digital retail and government. He also has strong functional expertise in sales, strategy development, product development and fund raising. Selected to be part of the Asian Power 100 - the 100 most influential and powerful Asians in the UK - Ajay won Dealmaker of the Year 2015 award from M&A Magazine, is one of the Top 100 Asian tech stars and was selected as one of 2016's Sunday Times top 100 BAME business leaders in the UK.

Ajay is currently a Partner and Global Chief Client Officer at BCG Digital Ventures. Prior to this, he was CEO of Seatwave, a European online ticketing marketplace that was sold to Ticketmaster. Before that, he was CEO of ComQi, a global omni-channel retail technology company before which he co-founded IDG Ventures Europe (IDGVE), a $100m European venture capital fund. At IDGVE he was the founder investor and Chairman of Shazam, a $1bn mobile audio recognition company and also invested in and served on the board of Lionhead, a games developer which was sold to Microsoft.

Prior to IDGVE, he was CEO of LineOne – a joint venture between United News and Media and British Telecom – which he grew into one of the UK’s largest portals and ISP’s. At UNM Ajay was founder and Managing Director of its internet division, before which he was a manager at Bain & Company.

Ajay has an MBA from Wharton and serves on the board of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Significant Roles

• Partner and Managing Director, BCG Digital Ventures
• Board member, Department of Culture, Media and Sport
• Board member, Historic Royal Palaces
• Board member, Arts Council, London
• CEO of Seatwave
• CEO of ComQi, a global omni-channel retail technology company. Ran a JV in China putting digital media into 100 CapitaL and Malls
• Co-founded IDG Ventures Europe
• CEO of LineOne
• European President and CEO of NBC internet
• MD New Media, United Business media
• Manager Bain & Co
• Non-Executive Director FairFX PLC – mobile foreign exchange provider

Diarmuid comes to Cambridge Enterprise from his role as Chief Innovation & Enterprise Officer at Trinity College Dublin, where he had overall responsibility for the development and enhancement of the college’s innovation and enterprise strategy. 

Prior to this, Diarmuid was Director of Trinity Research and Innovation with responsibility for both the Research Development Office and the Office of Corporate Partnership and Knowledge Exchange. In that role he led the establishment of the University Bridge venture fund, which is ranked in the world’s top five collaborative university funds, according to Global University Venturing.

While at Trinity, Diarmuid was also the Executive Director of CRANN, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for nanotechnology and materials science research.

He has held senior management roles in several university-founded start-up companies, including NTera, Xoliox, and Deerac Fluidics.

Diarmuid was a Research Fellow at Princeton University. He has a PhD in Physics from the University of Sheffield and a degree in Materials Science from Trinity College Dublin. He joined Cambridge Enterprise in August 2021.

Paul is Deputy Director of Cambridge Enterprise. He is responsible for implementing a five year strategy that aims to enhance our customer service so that we can help more academics, researchers, companies and investors to create a positive impact on society. A cornerstone of the strategy is the introduction of a new IT system that will enable customers to access data as well as driving greater efficiency within the business.

Paul was previously Head of Consultancy Services for six years, during which period he doubled the team’s turnover. He is a Board member and Director of three University of Cambridge subsidiary companies: Cambridge Enterprise Limited, Cambridge University Technical Services (CUTS) Limited and Institute for Manufacturing Education and Consultancy Services Limited.

Paul has considerable experience of technology transfer in both the biotech and medtech sectors. He was previously Head of Business Development at Health Enterprise East, where he was instrumental in building a successful technology transfer and consultancy organisation for the NHS. Before that, he was a Technology Manager at Cambridge Enterprise for more than three years and led its Life Sciences team. Paul also spent five years as a Senior Scientist with a Cambridge biotech company that had spun out of the University, helping it to develop its medtech business.

Paul has a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Chemistry from Manchester. After his PhD, he became a post-doctoral researcher for the Medical Research Council and then later for the University of Cambridge.

Paul first joined Cambridge Enterprise in 2001 and returned after he completed his time with Health Enterprise East in 2009.

Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith is the current Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research (since 2020) and International Partnerships (from 2021) at the University of Cambridge.

She is the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics (since 2015). Formerly, she was the University’s Head of the Department of Genetics until December 2020. She became the President of the Genetics Society in 2021, and is a member of the UKRI BBSRC Council.

She is a mammalian developmental geneticist and epigeneticist. An expert on genomic imprinting, her team studies the epigenetic control of genome function with particular emphasis on epigenetic inheritance. Her group is made up of both experimental and computational scientists and current research focuses on three themes: (i) Stem cells and the epigenetic programme, (ii) Functional genomics and epigenomics, and (iii) the interaction between the environment and development, health & disease within and across generations.

She was elected to EMBO in 2006, to the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the Society of Biology in 2012 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2017. In 2014 she was as awarded the Women in Science Heirloom Award for contributions to life sciences, In 2019 she was awarded the Feldberg Prize and in 2021 the Buchanan Medal. .

She is a Fellow of Darwin College, University of Cambridge.

As the University’s Chief Financial Officer, Anthony has oversight of all the institution’s assets, including Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Assessment, the Cambridge University Endowment Fund and the University’s technology transfer through Cambridge Enterprise. He also plays a leading role in developing new and existing areas of commercial activity, as well as the University’s long term strategic and financial plan.

For the past six years Anthony, who is an alumnus of Gonville & Caius College, has held a senior position in the oversight and management of the UK Government’s corporate and financial holdings and investments, playing a key role in the Government’s position as a shareholder in a number of its assets as well as in its commercial dealings with large companies and investors.

Prior to that, Anthony had a 20-year career in investment banking spanning project finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and corporate restructuring. This culminated in the role of Global Co-head of the Restructuring Advisory Group at Deutsche Bank – helping the bank’s clients manage the fallout of the financial crisis.

Prof Laura Diaz Anadon holds the chaired Professorship of Climate Change Policy at the University of Cambridge. She is also Director of the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (CEENRG) and Fellow of St. John’s College, where she is the Director of Studies for Land Economy. She is also a Board Member of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute (UCCRI) and a long-standing Affiliate at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) at Harvard University, where she was a Visiting Scholar for 2021–2022.

Prof Diaz Anadon joined the Department of Land Economy in September 2017 after a year as a faculty member in the Department in Politics and International Studies, also at the University of Cambridge. Before Cambridge she was an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School between July 2013 and September 2016. At HKS she held various posts, including Associate Director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy (STPP) program, Director of the Investigator of the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group and Member of the Board of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.Prof Diaz Anadon is a Lead Author in the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III on Climate Change Mitigation. She is a member of the Economics of Decarbonization Advisory Group for the UK Treasury’s Net Zero Review, the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Independent Commission on Climate and the Board of Directors of Cambridge Enterprise Ltd. In March 2022 she was selected as one of the 15 founding members of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate. She was later voted as Vice-Chair of the Board.

She has received numerous awards and recognition for her research. In June 2018 she was awarded the XVII Fundacion Banco Sabadell Prize for Economic Research for the best young Spanish economics researcher, and in 2021 she was awarded a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Tsinghua University. She has given numerous international invited seminars, plenary talks and keynotes.

Prof Diaz Anadon holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Magnetic Resonance and Catalysis Group at the University of Cambridge, a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Masters in Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester. During her undergraduate degree she also studied at the University of Stuttgart.

Patrick is Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge.  

As a clinician scientist, he has been centrally involved in a series of discoveries that have revealed how changes in oxygenation are sensed, and how genetic alterations cause kidney disease.

Patrick is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the Academy of Medical Sciences, Director of Cambridge University Health Partners and a Non-Executive Director of Cambridge University Hospitals, Cambridge Enterprise, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and the International Biotechnology Turst.  

Róisín is Professor of Bioelectronics at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. She received her BA in Natural Sciences (Mod. Biochemistry) at Trinity College Dublin, and her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Southampton University. She carried out two postdoc fellowships at Cornell University, on host-pathogen interactions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the dept. of Microbiology and Immunology with Professor David Russell, and on rhinovirus therapeutics in the dept. of Biomedical Engineering with Professor Moonsoo Jin. From 2009-2017 she was a group leader in the dept. of bioelectronics at Ecole des Mines de St. Etienne, on the microelectronics campus in Provence. Her current research centres on application of organic electronic materials for monitoring biological systems in vitro, with a specific interest in studying the gut-brain-microbiome axis.

Róisín has received several awards including the European Research Council starting (2011), proof of concept grant (2014) and consolidator (2016) grants, a Marie Curie fellowship, and an EMBO fellowship. From 2014, she was principal editor for biomaterials for MRS communications (Cambridge University Press), and she serves on the advisory board of Advanced BioSystems and Journal of Applied Polymer Science (Wiley). She became Scientific Editor of Materials Horizons (Royal Society of Chemistry) in 2020 and is a 2019 laureate of the Suffrage Science Award. She is author of 80+ publications.

Annalisa Gigante has been an award winning innovator for 30 years, with a track record of commercial success, launching and building multi-billion new businesses across different industries from life sciences and chemicals to services and digital technologies.

She served as CTO of LafargeHolcim, and was an Executive Committee member at Adecco Group as Chief Business Development and Marketing Officer, both global leaders in their respective industries.

Annalisa started her career in consulting at Bain & Co in the consumer and retail practice. Her executive career includes international roles in innovation, business management, strategy and marketing for Monsanto, Manpower and Royal DSM. Her key focus areas are sustainability, digital technologies including AI and IoT, new business models, and building high performing teams. She has been the subject of two Masters’ theses on women top executives, and a recent monograph on Innomaniacs.

Annalisa is an advisor and conference speaker on innovation, leadership and corporate governance. She is Chair of Foundations for Learning, co-Chair of Women Corporate Directors in Switzerland, as well as Non-Executive Director at Katalyst Networks (USA) and RemCo member at Jagex, the Cambridge-based games studio.

She is Italian, and an alumnus of Queens’ in Natural Sciences (bio), with an MBA from Bocconi.

Dave is Executive Director of the Michigan State University Research Foundation, a non-profit research foundation which promotes and funds many facets related to the commercialization of intellectual property. In this role, he oversees the Foundation’s endowment and serves as President of its subsidiaries Spartan Innovations, Red Cedar Ventures, and Michigan Rise Pre-Seed III Fund. The Foundation also invests in and holds select real estate assets and manages the University Health Park, a 110 acre campus in Lansing.

Dave joined MSU from the University of Tennessee Research Foundation, where he served as President and CEO. Previously, Dave led the software commercialisation practice at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2001 to 2011. Dave was an entrepreneur and involved in business development for a number of high-growth software startup companies such as Wolfram Research, InstallShield Software Corporation (acquired by Macrovision), and Kuck & Associates (acquired by Intel). He holds the CLP designation from the Licensing Executives Society and received a BA and MBA from the Gies College of Business at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Debu Purkayastha is the Managing Partner at 3rd Eye, a Venture Capital and Private Equity firm investing globally in the technology, media and telecoms sectors.

Debu was formerly the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Octopus Investments (AUM $8B+), a global investment firm focusing on early stage technology venture capital investments.

Previously, he spent almost six years with Google, spearheading their global Mergers & Acquisitions and investment efforts, which included several landmark acquisitions in the US and Europe. Prior to Google, he headed Sabre’s Corporate Development team and was a Technology/Media/Telecomms M&A banker with Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup in Wall Street, Silicon Valley and London.

Debu is a founding member of Google ‘Campus’, a co-working space for start-ups in London – an initiative that led to the formation of the ‘Google for Entrepreneurs’ program.

Sitting on the boards of University Hospitals Birmingham (largest NHS hospital trust in the UK), MercyCorps (global NGO) and Tadaweb (Cyber), he also sits on the advisory boards of Unilever, London Business School, Sadara Ventures and Tech London Advocates. Additionally, Debu is a Senior Advisor to EQT (global private equity firm – AUM $30B+).

Previous board directorships or advisory boards include Veon, DataFlow, Fon, Mobile Planet, Reevoo and HTL/Scandic Hotels, among others.

Debu spends much of his personal time working with leading NGOs and governmental institutions in several politically-sensitive conflict zones including Palestine, Iraq, Syria and Kashmir, focusing on economic development initiatives aimed primarily on helping fund and build small businesses.

Debu has a MBA from London Business School and is a Chartered Accountant.

As Chief Financial Officer, Sam manages the finance department and has overall responsibility for quarterly reporting, compliance, budgeting and statutory reporting. In addition, Sam is heavily involved in the long-term strategic positioning and reporting for Cambridge Enterprise, and is Company Secretary for both Cambridge Enterprise and Cambridge University Technical Services. 

Before joining Cambridge Enterprise in January 2023, Sam worked for Cambridge University Press and Assessment as the Finance Director for their Academic Publishing division. Prior to that Sam worked in the Entrepreneurial Business department of a large professional services firm providing accounting, audit and tax services to owner managed businesses.  

Sam is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA).