Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, DBE, FMedSci is President of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UCL’s Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience, a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a governor on the Wellcome board (one of the largest biomedical sciences research charities in the world), a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Council, as well as Chief Scientific Officer of Nanomerics Ltd, a company she co-founded.  

Uchegbu is an inventor.  Her company, Nanomerics Ltd. is developing medicines that address sight threatening illnesses and one of these medicines is in clinical trials.  Nanomerics has also out licensed medicines developed in her laboratory to a US pharmaceutical company.  Technologies developed in Uchegbu’s laboratory have won prizes from the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.  Nanomerics Ltd. won the King’s Award for Enterprise 2024 in the Innovation category.  The King’s Award for Enterprise is the most UK’s most prestigious business award. 

Uchegbu has served as Chair of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Scientific Secretary of the Controlled Release Society and she is the immediate past UCL Provost’s Envoy for Race Equality, a role in which she led on race equality work at UCL.  Her work led to the removal of the names of prominent eugenicists from all of UCL’s buildings in 2020. Uchegbu has also presented to the UK House of Commons on the educational racial disparities that lead to a lack of ethnic minority representation in scientific research.  

Jenny left her career as a lawyer to establish OVUM, following her own frustrating experiences with the fertility industry. Jenny understands how vulnerable trying to conceive can make you feel, which is why she's so protective of others in the same boat. Her mission is to provide evidence-based advice to every person on their individual conception journey. Outside of work, Jenny is an endurance sports athlete - you'll find her doing ultramarathons, tackling big mountains or cross-country skiing.

Andrea Winders is the Head of Inward Investment for Life Sciences and Healthcare at MIDAS, Greater Manchester's Inward Investment Agency. In her role, she focuses on promoting Greater Manchester as a leading location for life sciences and healthcare investments, working closely with international partners, businesses, and governments to understand the drivers to attract and retain growing life science organisations.

A creative Manchester-based entrepreneur and expert in tech, infrastructure, smart cities, and keen advocate for women.

Most famously, in 2005, Andrea founded Pink Ladies, a no-cash, innovative digital female-led taxi service to provide a solution with reduced risks for passengers and drivers, resulting in several national awards in recognition of services for the safety of women, including 42-under-42 for Innovation, Woman of the Year finalist, Start-up of the Year finalist, Big Difference Award, and culminating in a meeting with HRH Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of services to women’s safety.

More recently, Andrea has been working on a project to create a globally-leading innovation support hub for female health and FemTech in Manchester, to help start-ups, solve some of the many outstanding women’s health issues, and once again make Manchester the centre for revolutionary change for women.

With 13 years as a corporate lawyer, Carly advises businesses, managers, shareholders, founders, investors and legal teams on a range of corporate strategic transactions and day-to-day legal solutions. With a keen focus on digital, Carly has experience in working with fast growing businesses in this space. Her primary expertise is in M&A for private companies, fundraises and private equity transactions, in each case, in financial services.