Our approach empowers the most talented and motivated people in the world to redirect their careers and have a large-scale social impact as entrepreneurs, researchers and intrapreneurs.
Mission-Led Approach
We focus on specific ‘missions’, which we believe unite, mobilise and organise the best talent, knowledge and capital that are needed to break through at scale. Within each of our missions, we run Venture Builder and Academy programmes that help individuals to have impact.
We have 3 criteria for choosing a Zinc mission:
It must tackle one of the great unmet needs in the developed world.
The target addressable market must exceed 100m people in the developed world alone.
There must be lots of unexploited opportunities to disrupt, extend and improve existing services through new technologies; insights from research.
Since we launched in 2017, we have been developing a unique ecosystem of diverse talent across many sectors, disciplines and countries – mobilising people around a common mission and building scalable solutions to social problems.
The Team Behind Zinc
Meet members of our team and learn more about Zinc, our missions and our programmes at our weekly Meet & Greet events.
Paul Kirby
Co-founder, CEO
Paul Kirby
Co-founder, CEO
Paul is a former partner at KPMG and the global head of public services and government. In his career, he has been Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit, as well as working in the media, education, transport and urban regeneration sectors. Paul is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics & Political Science and was a Director of Bethnal Green Ventures and a Non-Executive Director of the Cabinet Office.
Ella Goldner
Co-founder, General Manager
Ella Goldner
Co-founder, General Manager
Ella is a former Strategy Director at IPG Mediabrands, one of the world’s largest media agencies, working with global leading brands. She is the Co-Founder of NewCo UK, which connects the most successful large corporates with the most innovative start-ups in the UK. Ella started her career as an engineer in Tel Aviv’s hi tech aerospace industry, before becoming a consultant to tech firms.
Rachel Carey
Chief Scientist
Rachel Carey
Chief Scientist
Rachel is an Associate Consultant for UCL’s Centre for Behaviour Change and a former Senior Behaviour Change Research Advisor at Bupa. Rachel has a PhD in Psychology, and has worked across a range of settings embedding social science research in tech-enabled businesses.
Julia Ross
Programme Director
Julia Ross
Programme Director
Julia joined Zinc at the very beginning. Since then, she has led the delivery of two company builder programmes. Her role builds on her previous experience in setting-up and scaling start-ups in market research and building design. In her earlier career, Julia worked in TV and international development. She has an MSc from SOAS and a passion for high-impact social innovation.
Eleanor Ford
Academy Director
Eleanor Ford
Academy Director
Eleanor joined Zinc in Oct 2019 to launch the new Zinc Academy. Most recently Eleanor was Director of the Good Lab, a radical innovation collaboration of 12 of the UK’s largest charities, looking to transform how they raise funds through venturing. Eleanor started her career as an anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, before landing in the world of start-ups in 2006, founding a technology company, LikeCube, which was acquired by Oakley Capital Private Equity and the Time Out Group, where she stayed for 5 years as Global Innovation Director.
Will Miller
Chief Marketing Officer
Will Miller
Chief Marketing Officer
Will has spent over 20 years starting a scaling businesses in loyalty, data, property, recruitment and have a particular focus on data driven online community building. He has also spent nearly 5 years accelerating the growth of some of the most successful scale-ups, including over 30% of the UK’s Unicorns. Outside of Zinc, Will loves the sea, and having grown up in Cornwall he is often found surfing, sailing, paddleboarding. He’s also an Ocean Yachtmaster and used to run a watersports centre in the south of France.
Lily Mcfarlane
Chief Operating Officer
Lily Mcfarlane
Chief Operating Officer
Lily started her career at Ernst & Young (‘EY’), where she qualified as an accountant. She gained a wide range of experience working across many different sectors, including working on advisory projects with sporting clients such as World Rugby, Rugby Football Union, as well as working in M&A structuring with large private equity houses.
After EY, Lily joined Entrepreneur First (‘EF’), a talent investor and venture builder, where Lily fell in love with early stage investing. During her time there, Lily was Fund Manager, and funds with >£160m in commitments.
Outside of Zinc, Lily’s main love is being outdoors, walking, running, playing sport, dog walking, and even a spot of gardening!
Francesca Marsden
Senior Associate
Francesca Marsden
Senior Associate
Fran gained her BSc in Geography at the University of Bristol, whilst simultaneously testing out her appetite for social innovation on a programme geared towards improving people’s experiences of later life. She has previously worked with charities focused on supporting homeless people and ending poverty. Her interests lie in sustainability, social innovation and learning.
Lois Uduje
Senior Associate
Lois Uduje
Senior Associate
Lois has spent the last three years in the public relations sector and during lockdown she set out looking for a new role that would allow her to create tangible impact in today’s society. This path resulted in her joining Zinc to support on The Academy and future missions. Lois spent her time before working at The University of Manchester studying for a degree in Philosophy with a focus on logic and semantics. She loves to travel, having completed Rio Carnaval this February and a large chunk of Central America a few years earlier her goal is to eventually cover all of South America.
Rachel Middlemass
Research & Development Partnerships
Rachel Middlemass
Research & Development Partnerships
Before joining Zinc in December 2020, Rachel spent ten years working on knowledge exchange and research impact at the University of East London, University College London and, most recently, the London School of Economics. She is passionate about realising the applied benefits of academic research and loves being part of the process of making that happen. All of this feels, in some ways, like penance for doing her PhD in the almost uniquely un-impactful field of medieval masculinities.
Cara Vaitilingam
Investment Associate (Talent)
Cara Vaitilingam
Investment Associate (Talent)
Cara joined Zinc in an interim position in July 2022 and couldn’t help but come back for more! After graduating from UCL with a first in History with Spanish in 2021, Cara worked at theatre and film production company Khameleon Productions for a year, assistant producing their film and managing their four-month tour of universities all over the US. She founded and produced charity performance initiative Curtain Up In Crisis in 2020, which combined her knack for organising people with her drive to create impact. As well as her work at Zinc, Cara is a theatre director who has worked with the likes of Sir Tim Rice, a performer with venues such as the Bloomsbury Theatre and Camden People’s Theatre under her belt, and a writer. Cara is a proud Bristolian of Sri Lankan/Italian/American descent.
Rosie Webster
Venture Builder Science Lead
Rosie Webster
Venture Builder Science Lead
Rosie has a passion for applying scientific knowledge and methods to the development of digital products, to make them the best they can be. She has a PhD in Health Psychology, and many years experience as a UX researcher and applied behavioural scientist within health tech startups.
Claire McCallum
Research & Development Fellow
Claire McCallum
Research & Development Fellow
Claire is an academic Researcher interested in digital health and multidisciplinarity. After an undergraduate in psychology, her PhD (public health and human computer interaction) explored how we can increase the usefulness and efficiency of evaluations of digital health technologies – for researchers and industry professionals. In her post-doctoral research Claire developed and evaluated a self-management app for an autoimmune condition, and then completed a 1 year lectureship in Digital Health.
Diellza Ramadani
Investment Associate
Diellza Ramadani
Investment Associate
Diellza has a BSc in Psychology from the University of Warwick and a MSc in Global Public Health and Policy from Queen Mary University of London. She joined Zinc to combine her interest in startups with her passion for social science research and golden purpose of creating a positive social impact.
Hannah Abdel-Hadi
Investment Associate (Venture Builder)
Hannah Abdel-Hadi
Investment Associate (Venture Builder)
Luke Bevan
Senior R&D Associate
Luke Bevan
Senior R&D Associate
Luke has a PhD on Uncertainty in Climate and Energy Systems at UCL. Masters in Sustainable Energy Engineering and Economics from Imperial. Undergrad Physics at Oxford.
Luke has worked on a variety of things such as government covid policy/science, climate finance, energy consultancy and R&D investment strategy.
Natalie Pankova
Managing Director, Deeptech Ventures
Natalie Pankova
Managing Director, Deeptech Ventures
Natalie has a PhD in medical science (ophthalmology and inflammation), then biotechnology and healthtech startup operator across Canada, UK, EU and globally, then venture building and investing, culminating in ~15 years of 360 healthcare experience. She can be found sometimes lecturing, advising and consulting for cool and impactful organisations like WHO, European Innovation Council, Hult Prize, and UK Parliament.
Harriet Lester
Senior Researcher Engagement Associate
Harriet Lester
Senior Researcher Engagement Associate
Harriet has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and a BSc in Molecular Genetics from KCL. She is passionate about social impact and regularly volunteers with several refugee charities and has founded a social enterprise that supports refugee nutritional and oral healthcare. She has won several awards for her academic and entrepreneurial achievements including The Layton Science award for the ‘best promise of aptitude and genius for original scientific work’, the Oxford DTP Impact award for Enterprise and Innovation, and UniDays woman of the year award finalist. She aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry to drive innovation in both sectors.
Baiqu Gonkar
Venture Partner, Deeptech Ventures
Baiqu Gonkar
Venture Partner, Deeptech Ventures
Venture builder and investment consultant with a passion for healthtech and social impact. From micropayments to biotech, she has worked across multiple industries and geographies including UK, US, and China to launch products that can make a positive contribution to people’s lives.
Baiqu is also the Founder of Art Represent, a platform dedicated to the social and economic empowerment of artists affected by conflict, launching impact projects with 10,000+ participants across three continents and five cities.
Public speaker and member of Vital Voices, BMW Responsible Leader network, and the Tallberg Foundation fellow.
Hawo Hussein
Talent Manager
Hawo Hussein
Talent Manager
Hawo completed a BA in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, laying a strong foundation for career in public service. After university, she joined the civil service, where she delved into the world of policy-making. She then took on the role of a Talent Acquisitionist at Amazon, where she eagerly sought out and recruited exceptional talent in senior leadership roles.
Motivated by her desire to contribute to the growth and development of both individuals and companies, Hawo later transitioned to Zinc, taking on the position of Talent Manager.
Ed Halliday
Head of Research Acceleration
Ed Halliday
Head of Research Acceleration
Since start out in management consulting, Ed has spent the majority of his career with mission-driven organisations at the intersection between education, entrepreneurship & the world of work.
He has 14 years’ experience building and scaling impact startups as a cofounder (in UK and LatAM), COO, educator, consultant and venture builder. He’s worked with startups at their inception, scale up, and end of life – and seen all kinds of ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey!
Apoorva Srikkanth
Venture Manager, Deeptech
Apoorva Srikkanth
Venture Manager, Deeptech
Apoorva has a BSc in mechanical/industrial engineering, an MSc in entrepreneurship, and an MBA. Her career began in the financial services, specialising in intellectual property valuation and licensing for high-stakes IP disputes. She later shifted her focus to working with early-stage businesses across US, India, Italy, and UK – supporting them with developing commercial and IP strategies.
More recently, she worked as an Innovate UK EDGE Advisor and as a technology transfer manager at UCL Business. Apoorva is a co-founder of advancii, an online platform dedicated to helping SMEs develop effective IP strategies. Apoorva is a mother to a 3-year old – the best role of all!
Alex Cheswick
Venture Acceleration Associate
Alex Cheswick
Venture Acceleration Associate
After working for a travel start-up in Croatia, Alex studied a MSc in Entrepreneurship at UCL alongside co-founding a sustainable fashion platform, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry. The results of a financial feasibility study conducted as part of my master dissertation (amongst a series of mistakes and failures) led Alex to join Seedrs where he worked on their investment team. At Seedrs he worked closely with founders to successfully set up and launch their crowdfunding campaigns, complete due diligence and execute the legal documentation required for investment. As an industry agnostic investor, Seedrs enabled Alex to work with a variety of passionate and driven founders across a variety of sectors including food & beverage, climate tech and fintech which allowed me to realise that he wants to focus on helping build impact-led businesses.
Board Member
Saul Klein
Co-founder
Saul Klein
Co-founder
Saul is a partner at LocalGlobe, a UK-based venture capital firm. His investment career includes being a partner at Index Ventures and he specialises in early-stage tech companies. Saul was co-founder of Seedcamp, the first tech accelerator in Europe.He has been closely involved in the formation of many successful businesses, including Lovefilm, MOO and Kano.
Board Member
Julia Black
Co-founder
Julia Black
Co-founder
Julia is the Pro Director for Research at the LSE, and from 2016-17 served as LSE’s Interim Director. She is on the board of UK Research and Innovation. At the LSE she is a member of the Law Department, with a primary research interest in regulation of Financial Services and Biotechnology. She holds a PhD from Oxford and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2015. She chairs the ASPECT Consortium of LSE, Oxford, Manchester, Sheffield, Sussex universities which is working with Zinc to drive entrepreneurship and commercialisation in the social sciences.
Portfolio Companies
Learn about Zinc’s Vision, Missions, Programmes
Learn about Zinc’s Vision, Missions, Programmes from our team directly at out weekly
Meet & Greet sessions
