Meet our Founders at the University of Cambridge team
Founders at the University of Cambridge is our new strategic initiative building on University expertise and unparalleled advantages to bring technical and social innovation to life through new business creation; from solving climate change to finding cures to deadly diseases.
Our mission is to empower entrepreneurial minds at the University of Cambridge with expertise, capital and community so they can thrive and have a global impact.
Founders at the University of Cambridge provides deep and extensive support to founders as they take ideas and companies forward, through pre-seed and seed capital investment, intensive mentoring and programmatic support. They will also have curated access to university alum and non-alum global network of technology experts in their fields from artificial intelligence to life sciences, so they can learn from the best — as well as targeted partnerships to help them engage with potential customers.
Gerard Grech
Managing Director, Founders at the University of Cambridge
Gerard Grech is the Managing Director of Founders at the University of Cambridge, a new strategic initiative focused on accelerating the formation and scaling of new technology companies. He is the former founding Chief Executive of Tech Nation, a pioneering UK Government-backed initiative that shaped Europe’s most productive digital ecosystem. Tech Nation fuelled a 5x increase in the number of UK cities with a tech unicorn or more and secured the UK’s digital leadership position in Europe. Tech Nation was the 9th fastest growing technology company in the UK public sector in 2022 before being acquired by the Founders Forum Group.
Gerard is also a member of the UK Government’s Digital Economy Council and the World Economic Forum’s Digital Board. Previously, he worked at the intersection of mobile, digital media and venture capital in New York, London and Paris in senior leadership roles at Orange, France Telecom, Nokia and Nokia Growth Partners, among others. He started his career in the music business.
Dr Anne Dobrée
Director of Programming
Formerly leading our Seed Funds team, and now working with the Founders at the University of Cambridge team on future projects and planning, Anne has previously overseen strong growth in our investment activities.
Whilst in the Seed Funds team, Anne oversaw more than 210 investments in over 110 companies, totalling in excess of £30m investment. Anne was also instrumental in establishing the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund with Parkwalk Advisors and spinning out Cambridge Innovation Capital from the University of Cambridge. She was a founding member of Praxis Auril, which supports knowledge exchange commercialisation in the UK.
Anne’s early career includes experience in technology transfer at Imperial College Innovations Limited, in pharmaceutical development at Evans Medical, and in pharmaceutical product training at Information Transfer. Anne holds a BSc in Medical Microbiology and a PhD in Immunology.
Anne has been part of technology commercialisation at the University of Cambridge since 2001, and has held multiple roles during her time in the ecosystem.
Mark Lazar
Programme Director
Mark is Programme Director for Founders at the University of Cambridge, building out the programme to support businesses who will have a high impact on the world.
Mark has spent over 10 years in the startup world. Most recently, he spent 5 years at PUBLIC, joining as the first FTE and leaving with 100+ people in the organisation. He led innovation programmes for over ten UK and Danish government departments and built and delivered GovTech specific startup accelerators. Previously he was at Techstars, where he delivered five startup accelerator programmes and opened an office in Tel Aviv.
Mark joined Cambridge Enterprise in October 2023.
Anca Belu
Global Community Lead
Anca is the Global Community Lead in Founders at University of Cambridge, where she will be responsible for leading and engaging our expert community, made up of alum and non-alum founders, investors and senior executives through curated content, events and programme engagement.
Anca has been working in the start up world for over 10 years in different roles that had community building at its core. With a genuine passion for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship her projects took her to Spain, Manchester, and London.
In 2016 she has moved to Cambridge where she played a key role in the opening of The Bradfield Centre and after that she was part of the team that created and delivered the first genomics and biodata entrepreneurship programme at The Wellcome Genome Campus.
Anca joined Cambridge Enterprise in January 2024.
Alena Protasova
Programme Associate
Alena holds the role of Programme Associate in Founders at the University of Cambridge, where she focuses on building and managing educational programs for a cohort of entrepreneurs in high-impact areas, such as deep-tech, sustainable development, life sciences, med-tech, etc.
She led a research agency for start-ups, assisting entrepreneurs in market growth and development. Alena conducted over 120 research projects across various business sectors. Additionally, she served as a methodologist and a lecturer for the master’s program in Technological Entrepreneurship at a Russian IT university.
Alena joined the team in November 2023.