Senior Member
Fiona Reid
Deputy Director of Oxford Science Enterprise Centre (OXSEC)
Fiona got the ball rolling. She moved from the enterprise centre at Imperial College, London, to join the newly formed OxSEC and was surprised to find that Oxford had no student society for entrepreneurs. In June 2002 she distributed an email and started networking with the students to encourage a group to start such a society. The first meeting happened with five volunteers later that month and during the summer they prepared a stall for Freshers’ Fair.
Under Fiona’s guidance the Society has quickly flourished and now provides a valuable asset to the enterprise scene at Oxford and a complementary partner to OxSEC. Fiona has significant experience in higher education enterprise in both London and Oxford. She is an excellent ambassador for OE both internally and externally. As senior member of faculty said to us in a recent meeting, ‘Fiona is one of the few people at the University who manages to be liked and respected by everyone!’
www.science-enterprise.ox.ac.uk
President
president@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk
Alasdair Bell, British
MEng Engineering Science, The Queen’s College
Alasdair became actively involved in OE when he helped start and market Boso.co.uk through the Start a Company scheme. Upon joining the committee in 2006 as Student Enterprise Officer, he led the Start A Company scheme. Of the array of companies who came out of that, Miomi.com managed to secure major investment directly from the Idea Idol judges. Alasdair also helped co-ordinate and develop the EnternshipsTM scheme. This gives bright, motivated students valuable experience entrepreneurial companies.
In 2007, Alasdair produced the Queen’s College Ball, which involved him obsessively planning it beforehand and not shutting up about how much fun it was afterwards. Also for his 4th year engineering project he developed an innovative rocket propulsion system for micro-satellite orbit transfer, this won an award for technical innovation.
From business ideas to technological spin outs, events to social enterprise, Oxford is buzzing with start-ups. This year Alasdair hopes to delve further into this world and help students at the grass root level. He also hopes that a greater presence of enterprise at Oxford will convince some people that the Milkround isn’t always the next step forwards after university, and encourage them that they can run with their own ideas.
Vice President
Andy Young, British
BA Computer Science, St John’s College
Andy joined the Oxford Entrepreneurs team in spring 2006 and became Vice President in April 2007. In November 2007 he deferred studies for his degree in Computer Science in order to work full-time on the company he co-founded in February 2006, developing GroupSpaces.com - an online service for clubs and societies.
Andy has spent recent years developing to become an experienced web developer and internet entrepreneur. Given his first computer aged 7, he turned it on to be presented with nothing but a blinking cursor - this was 1992. Forced to learn to program it in order to create his own games, he grew up alongside the rise of the personal computer and was bugging his parents to let him connect his computer to online services via the telephone years before the Internet came along. By age 16 he had already created several accounting and database programs for his parents and family friends, and soon discovered building websites for local businesses to be far more lucrative than working as a waiter in the local hotel.
Before coming to Oxford, Andy had already latched onto the idea that creating something once in order to sell it repeatedly was better business than being paid by the hour, not to mention the discovery that working for himself could be far more challenging and rewarding. It was therefore natural that he joined OE. Having been inspired by talks from Sir Alan Sugar and Brent Hoberman he joined the committee in spring 2006.
Andy spent 2 years working for a web design agency where his work spanned development, project management and consultancy in e-commerce, real estate and the public sector. He was responsible for the online marketing and e-commerce strategy at WearFair, an Oxford-based company retailing fair trade jewellery imported from Chile, and built ClickUni.com - the Homepage for Students. He holds a Certificate of Higher Education in Music and Sound Recording from the University of Surrey and won a scholarship from St John’s College, Oxford for academic achievement in the first year of his degree.
In the immediate future, Andy’s plans are to build GroupSpaces into a successful web service used by millions of people, which should see the necessity to grow the team and future rounds of investment funding. Always ready for a challenge, for Andy these are exciting times..
Special Relations Officer
Rajeeb Dey, British
BA Economics & Management, Jesus College
Raj was the sabbatical President of Oxford Entrepreneurs from 2006-7 and has been the longest serving President of the society to date. During his Presidency, Raj helped to double the number of members to nearly 3000, oversaw the development of a new business competition (The Varsity Pitch) and co-led the expansion of Idea Idol – the society’s flagship event. In his time at Oxford Entrepreneurs he has invited and hosted entrepreneurs such as the late Dame Anita Roddick, Peter Jones, Theo Paphitis, Martha Lane Fox, Dame Stephanie Shirley, Lord Bilimoria and many others. Raj now has the role of Special Relations which involves connecting the society with high profile entrepreneurs, sponsors and ensuring the society retains its profile as being at the forefront of student enterprise.
Raj’s entrepreneurial background stems from being the Founder and Chairman of the English Secondary Students’ Association (ESSA), an organisation which is working to become the NUS equivalent for secondary students aged 11-19. ESSA is the first of its kind in the UK, which has led to it receiving widespread support, and international media coverage ranging from BBC Radio 4 to ABC News in Australia. He has also been interviewed by numerous newspapers including the Guardian and the Times, about his work in developing ESSA.
Raj has received an award from UnLTD - the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, a Wavemakers award from Sir John Major, a Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award and a Channel 4 “Bedroom Britain Award” (an award recognising young entrepreneurial talent in Britain). He is the Bank of England’s Windsor Fellow (a leadership development programme), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), which he was presented for being the winner of an RSA Young Leaders Award.
His latest venture is Enternships™ - a scheme to provide students with entrepreneurial internships by connecting students to start-ups and SMEs (www.enternships.com).
Marketing Officer
marketing@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk
Alex Zhao, Chinese
MEng Engineering Science, Christ Church
Alex joined OE as Marketing Officer in Nov 06. His role is to co-ordinate marketing campaigns to increase awareness of the society, particularly for the promotion of our flagship business competition: “Idea Idol� (www.ideaidol.com). The number of entries rose 3 times to over 200 this year. He is looking forward to spread OE’s image widely across the country.
Before joining the committee, Alex had varies different positions in other society’s committees, including: APS, EngSoc, Future Flyer, Stop AIDS and ULC, organized company visits to Rolls Royce and P&G, Boat party in London for 500 people, recruited sponsors like BP and Accenture. It let him to bring his experiences and contacts to OE. As an engineer, Alex had a strong interest in entrepreneurship from the technology innovation. He is willing to start his own business after graduate or after a few years career in consulting.
Alex enjoys different sports, plays violin and Go (oriental mind sport) at spare time. He was the 2nd under-18 player at British Go Championship 2005.
Secretary and Science Enterprise Officer
secretary@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk
Jon Krohn, Canadian
DPhil Neuroscience ‘11, Magdalen College
Jon has been with Oxford Entrepreneurs since February 2008. His responsibility as Secretary is to administrate the student society and its weekly meetings. As Science Enterprise Officer, Jon bridges students’ scientific ideas with the marketplace.
Academically, Jon is studying as a Wellcome Trust Scholar in the interdisciplinary field of neuroscience. He is researching how an individual’s genetics and living environment influence psychiatric disorders, as well as how pharmaceuticals alleviate symptoms of psychiatric disease.
While an undergraduate at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, Jon founded a mentorship programme in which senior students smooth the transition of freshmen into university life. The mentorship programme was well-received by students and faculty alike, has continuously increasing enrollment, and is now monitored by the local department of education. In addition to his research, teaching, and committee responsibilities, Jon was the Editor-in-Chief of a science publication for a lay audience (”The Cellulae”), as well as the Executive Producer of a student theatre company selected as the university’s Campus Club of the Year.
Jon enjoys guitar, skiing, and books by Kurt Vonnegut.
Membership Officer
membership@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk
Ting Chen, Chinese
Engineering, Economics and Management, New college
Ting joined Oxford Entrepreneurs in spring 2007 as the membership officer. She’s the first person to contact if members have any requests or suggestions.
Ting has lived in China, Australia and the UK and want to bring entrepreneurs all over the world to interact with each other. She believes that everyone has the potential to become a great entrepreneur and encourages members to come to OE events and get inspired.
Ting also welcomes everyone to her home town Hangzhou in China and wants everyone to care about the environment, development and cultural understanding.
Personnel Officer
personnel@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk
Aniket Tavare
BMBCh Medical Sciences, St John’s College
Aniket joined Oxford Entrepreneurs in spring 2007 as the Personnel Officer. His role is to help ensure the committee runs smoothly, as well identifying and recruiting new talent for the OE committee. Entering his fifth year at Oxford, Aniket feels he has acquired a reasonable idea of how Oxford works, and a result hopes he can boost OE’s involvement with his medical and graduate peers. Aniket’s interest in entrepreneurship was sparked by his role as a Student Associate for Medical Futures, where he was responsible for sourcing innovations in healthcare throughout the country.
When he isn’t busy saving lives and healing the sick, Aniket teaches local schoolchildren Basic Life Support, as well as the occasional tutorial at St. John’s College (where he also controls the finances as the MCR Treasurer). He thoroughly believes in the “healthy body-healthy mind” connection so you can usually find him in the gym, squash court or on the hockey pitch.
Treasurer
treasurer@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk
Ran Wei, British
BA Mathematics and Statistics, Wadham College
Ran got involved in Oxford Entrepreneurs in Spring 2007, after being
impressed by Idea Idol and Varsity Pitch. His role is to audit the
society accounts and help pitch to our sponsors. This year, he will also
be helping Sheena in organizing Idea Idol. Ran’s interest in
entrepreneurship means he will be working for GroupSpaces (formerly
ClickUni) as the company aims to expand in this academic year. Before
joining the OE Committee, Ran was involved in a variety of other
organizations in Oxford, including Oxford Student Publications Ltd
(publishers of Cherwell & ISIS) and Oxford Investment Club.
In between studying, Ran has gained substantial work experience in
finance, including three internships at banks in the UK and China. In
his spare time, he enjoys football, tennis, going to the gym and
watching TV. Ran was born in China and moved to the UK when he was
seven. He is a massive fan of both cultures, especially the culinary
delights of the former.
Creative Director
creative@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk
Robert Jones, British
BA Physics, Hertford College
Rob joined the OE committee in spring 2007. He is responsible for the advertising and branding materials for the society. After getting involved in the Start a Company scheme and doing well in Idea Idol 2007 he decided to join the committee.
Previously Rob setup a small web design business, founded a student design group for commercial graphic design and had a stab at student holiday storage in Durham. He was also president of the Hertford Ball Committee 2007 and is a proud member and ex-president of the Tanner Society. He cut his teeth on the Oxford design scene working as a Creative Director for The Isis with one issue winning a Guardian Student Media Award in the ‘Best Magazine’ category. He’s also part of the founding team of ‘Bang!’, the Oxford undergraduate science magazine which sees its debut issue released mid-Michaelmas term 2007.
Rob enjoys running and cycling and has just bought himself a unicycle!
Public Relations Officer
Duncan Turnbull, British
PPE, Brasenose College
Duncan joined OE in Michaelmas Term 2007 as a fresher and is in charge of PR. His role is to liase with student newspapers and also the national press and thereby publicise OE’s events and raise awareness of student enterpreneurship in Oxford.
He started out in business aged 12 when he reared ducks and prepared them for the table. Realising this was not ever going to be a huge success, he changed to rearing pedigree Oxford Sandy and Black and in 2000 launched the nationwide adopt-a-pig scheme, a scheme allowing the discerning public to choose a pig, name their pig, visit their pig and eventually eat their pig. Hate-mail from vegetarians and vegans aside, the scheme has proved a massive success and in 2004 took a team of mates out to Turin to the world’s largest food festival on a Department of Trade and Industry Grant. Since then business rocketed and the launch of eatbabe.co.uk in 2007 has kept media interest in the company, thus allowing growth.
Duncan also enjoys skiing, travelling and real ales.
MBA Officer
Jitin Dhanani
MBA, ChristChurch College
Jitin joined OE in Michaelmas Term 2007 as a fresher while he was here for his Masters in Business Admnistration and is the MBA officer. His is a role which was created to help bridge the gap between the MBA/MFE students at Said Business school and OE so that both these groups can leverage each others networks and events Said Business School is one of the best Entrepreneurshp Schools in the world.
In his time here he has initiated the MBA Entrepreneurship Project - OE intern program — which provides a platform for OE members to be part of an actual formal MBA business plan creation event over the Hillary term as an intern while it gives the MBA students another entrepreneur on their team! He also helps with any other events which would benefit from participation of the MBA community!
Before coming to Oxford, Jitin was in San francisco and Los Angeles for the last 7 years. He has a Masters in Computer Science from University of Southern California and has worked with start up to mid sized companies in the Silcon valley. He has also had experience setting up an engineering unit in Beijing, China and has a bachelors degree in Engineering from India. He aspires to start an internet based company after his MBA based out of India or USA.
Jitin enjoys theatre and does some improv himself. Loves cricket and reading.
