Meet your tutors

Dr Paul Seabright

Deputy Director of Cambridge Enterprise

Dr Amanda Zeffman

Head of Consultancy Services

Paul 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. 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. Consultancy Services is a fast-growing service dedicated to generating both societal and economic impact from academic research by facilitating consultancy between University academics from across all disciplines within the University and external organisations. The Consultancy Services team has supported almost 400 consultancy projects this past year of which many arose from Arts, Humanities or Social Science disciplines. In 2017-18, Amanda’s team saw a 63% increase in the number of new consultants with deals signed for 165 academics and 234 clients in that period. Amanda periodically delivers training to technology transfer professionals for PraxisAuril, the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and the European Association for Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP), and is on the Board of Directors for ASTP as VP for Professional Development.

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Dr Iain Thomas

Head of Life Sciences at Cambridge Enterprise

Iain is responsible for a team that is working across the life sciences sector from human health therapeutics to agritech and research tools. Iain has a PhD in Organic Chemistry (Sydney) and MBA (Cambridge). The team has spun-out companies including X01 Therapeutics, Apcintex (now a Centessa company), DIOSynVax, NoBACZ Healthcare, Predictimmune Limited, PhoreMost, Z-factor and Cambridge Epigenetix. Iain, with colleagues from partner universities founded Apollo Therapeutics, a £40 million fund in early stage drug development and launched the Ceres Agritech Knowledge Exchange Partnership. Iain also led discussions with GSK in respect of the University of Cambridge-GSK open innovation drug discovery initiative based at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst.

Dr Marcio Siqueira

Head of Physical Sciences

Marcio works to help researchers commercialise technologies from across the whole range of the Schools of Physical Sciences and Technology. Prior to joining Cambridge Enterprise, Marcio was with Imperial College London in a similar role for close to two years. Before that, Marcio enjoyed working in his own company in the field of scientific instrumentation for high pressure research, from where he exited in 2018, after 16 years. At the time of his exit the company had offices in the UK, US, Belgium and China. Previous to this, he worked for a medical devices company with full new product development and introduction responsibilities. His scientific background is in physics, with a PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London. He also has an MBA from the University of Surrey and is a Certified Licensing Professional.

Dr Christine Martin

Head of Life Science investment

Christine has a focus on drug discovery with a broad portfolio of technologies, including University of Cambridge spin-outs Carrick, STORM, Z-factor, PhoreMost, Qkine and PolyProX. Christine was featured in BioBeat’s 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2018.

Previously, Christine worked for six years in the Life Sciences Tech Transfer team managing licensing of University IP, including licences to Cambridge spin-outs Carrick, Storm and CEGX and managing the formation of the spin-out Z-factor. Christine also managed the University of Cambridge-GSK open innovation drug discovery initiative based at the SBC, working closely with academics to gain funding to develop translational projects. Christine has an MA and DPhil from the University of Oxford. She is the author of over 20 peer reviewed journal articles and over 20 patents. She was also the recipient of the Arthur E. Schwarting award for the best article published in the Journal of Natural Products in 2006. Caroline helps other universities and governments to learn from Cambridge Enterprise’s experience and expertise to develop and enhance their own commercialisation activities. By helping to improve technology transfer and commercialisation skills in other countries, we seek to enable other universities to deliver effective research impact and solutions to world issues. In this role, Caroline oversees our International Open Programme as well as working with a number of talented and experienced Associates to deliver bespoke programmes and projects internationally. Caroline joins from her previous role as CEO for Allia Future Business Centres Ltd where she established an initial innovation and incubation centre for social ventures and ‘tech for good’ companies and built out a network of four centres operating across Cambridge, London and Peterborough. Caroline has spent over 20 years working with entrepreneurship and innovation in and around Cambridge and is well networked in the Cambridge ecosystem. She brings this, as well as previous experience working in a research, development and commercialisation department of a UK University, to ensure that international partners benefit from the richest experience of engagement. Caroline is a Fellow of the RSA.

Caroline Hyde

Head of International Relations & Outreach