The activity will kick off with a presentation on business and market innovation, to introduce some frameworks and key concepts behind successful development and commercialization of technology driven products and services.

Dr Mark Nicmanis
Mark has a PhD in Chemical Engineering and a MBA (both from the University of Cambridge). He began his career with Unilever in their R&D organization and then as Technology Scout. Mark then joined TTP – Europe’s leading technology consultancy where he has conducted product and market assessments across a broad range of industries including Fuel-cells, Drinks Dispensers and Nano-coatings.

Alex McCracken
Alex has been involved in investing over £40m in technology start-up businesses and, since joining TTP Ventures, he has focused on cleantech, electronics and software related businesses. Prior to TTP Ventures, Alex founded his own venture capital-backed business, which developed electronic security systems for the transport industry. Alex made a successful exit from this business in 2007. Alex also has a background in strategy consultancy, with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Roland Berger. He has a MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge and completed the year long Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies (also at Cambridge).

Lars Lindstedt, Microsoft
Lars heads up the UK Software Economy, Academic and Emerging Business programmes at Microsoft, focusing on how software delivers responsible economic growth and the factors that accelerate that growth, such as skills, innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment. His previous roles have included running the Microsoft Technology Centre for four years, where corporate customers and partners are assisted with evaluating and developing innovative solutions on next-generation Microsoft technologies. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1996, Lars spent 10 years in software development, consultancy and management at the EBRD and Syntek Ltd. He holds a degree in mathematics from University of Cambridge and an International Baccalaureate from the United World College of the Atlantic. Having grown up in Sweden, Lars now lives in Buckinghamshire, UK, and his hobbies include trying to improve both his golf and his culinary skills.

Paola Olivari, Google
Paola joined Google's Strategic Partnerships group in 2008, where her main focus is SME advertising alliances for the Google AdWords Authorised Reseller program. She manages the relationship with many of the Reseller active in EMEA, which today include Yell, SEAT Pagine Gialle, QDQ Media, NRJ and Telegate. Prior to Google and during 6 years Telecommunication industry with Ericsson, Marconi and Vodafone, Paola held a variety roles across R&D, project management and product management. Paola holds a Master in Industrial Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and a Master in Business Administration from Cambridge University. She speaks Italian, English and French.

Paul Beecher, Nokia Research Centre
Paul graduated from University College Cork [UCC] with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2001. He completed his Ph.D. in Microelectronics, also at UCC, in 2004. His postgraduate work was devoted to probing the electrical interfacing of nanoscale devices, especially those consisting of small assemblies of metal nanocrystals. After a brief postdoc at the Tyndall National Institute, investigating the transport properties of nanowires composed of semiconducting polymer material, he joined the EDM group in Cambridge University Engineering Department. From 2005 to 2008, he carried out postdoctoral work directed towards the investigation of materials for fabrication offlexible and transparent electronics, primarily employing techniques compatible with industrial-scale production: ink-jet printing of composite organic based devices, incorporating nanoscale materials such as carbon nanotubes and silicon nanowires, and sputtering of ionic amorphous oxide semiconductors (e.g. zinc oxide) to fabricate transparent devices. Since August 2008, he has been a senior research engineer with Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, where he is largely involved in collaborative work with researchers in the Electrical Engineering Division of Cambridge.

Elisabetta Spigone, Nokia Research Centre
Elisabetta is a research associate at the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge. The NRC is focused on nanotechnology research and works in close collaboration with the University of Cambridge. She is particularly involved in the Nano Sensing project. This research group is focused on the creation and development of novel components and architectures for sensing and signal processing. She joined the group in 2009, having received her PhD for work carried out in the Biological Soft Systems group of the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. The thesis was a study of rheological behaviour and design of mechanical properties of surface films and the 3-dimensional characterisation of gels with micro-rheology and bulk rheology techniques. Before commencing doctorate work in Cambridge, Elisabetta graduated in Biophysics from the University of Rome ‘’La Sapienza’’ in 2005 where she carried out a masters thesis on the interaction between catanionic vesicles and proteins using a wide range of soft matter characterisation techniques.

Temoc Rodriguez, Cambridge Consultants
Temoc obtained a B.Sc. with honours from ITESM, Monterrey, Mexico, in 2000, an M. Eng. from McGill University, Canada, in 2003, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, U.K. in 2006, all in electrical engineering. Between 2004 and 2006 he worked for Enecsys Ltd, a spin out company from the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge. During this time he helped the company secure the first round of investment by building its intellectual property. Since 2007 he has been with Cambridge Consultants as a Senior Engineer, where he has been involved in the design of industrial, scientific, wireless, and consumer products, and supporting business development in the areas of clean technology and consumer electronics. Dr. Rodriguez is the main author of four patents and several conference and journal papers. He is a full member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and he is a Chartered Engineer in the U.K.

Richard Muscat, RedGate
Richard is a designer by profession but he's secretly interested in how design principles can be used to create better start-ups. He studied entrepreneurship at the Edward de Bono Institute in Malta and co-founded a foundation to promote entrepreneurship and creativity in Malta. He now works at Red Gate in Cambridge as a user experience specialist as well as being responsible for ecommerce matters and occasionally sticks his nose in Red Gate's incubator programme: Springboard.

Clifford Dive, Sentec
Clifford has spent a large part of his business life dedicated to what is now called intrapreneurism. He has mostly worked in medium to large companies in roles combining elements of business development, product management and technical management. Until recently Clifford was working at Qualcomm Cambridge in the new “wild-west” at the join between wireless communications and the internet. At the start of this year Clifford moved from the big corporate world to join Sentec in Cambridge as Business Development Manager. Sentec has a formidably clever multidisciplinary team of engineers and scientists who bring their intellect and experience to bear on customers' product innovation as well as developing Sentec's own intellectual property in the area of smart metering.