mission led approach

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.

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!

Bernadette Behnke

Head of Venture Builder

Bernadette Behnke

Head of Venture Builder

Bernadette is leading the Venture Builder programme at Zinc, supporting founders on their journey to building their start-up. Before joining Zinc, Bernadette was building early–stage ventures across industries for various Tech and R&D companies. Additionally, she has been implementing frameworks and upskilling teams on the approach and best practices of venture building.

Caitlin Scheybeler

Head of Ecosystem

Caitlin Scheybeler

Head of Ecosystem

I come to Zinc with 10 years of experience as a psychotherapist and co-founder coach in early stage startups, and prior to that a 4-year stint working on alumni engagement for Harvard University’s development office. My passion lies in building meaningful relationships and diverse communities, and connecting the right people to one another.

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

Senior Investment Associate (Venture Builder)

Hannah Abdel-Hadi

Senior Investment Associate (Venture Builder)

Hannah has a BASc in Politics, International Studies and Global Sustainable Development from the University of Warwick and a MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management from Imperial College London. After graduating, she wanted to combine her passion for start-ups and sustainability/social impact, and worked in marketing/customer ops for an early stage B2C start-up that sold outdoor plant kits. She joins Zinc with excitement to see a different side of the start-up world.

Luke Charbonnier-Bevan

Deeptech Acceleration Manager

Luke Charbonnier-Bevan

Deeptech Acceleration Manager

Luke has a PhD on Uncertainty in Climate and Energy Systems at UCL, a Masters in Sustainable Energy Futures from Imperial College and an undergrad Physics at Oxford. Luke’s broad experience spans government covid policy/science, climate finance, energy consultancy and R&D investment strategy.

At Zinc, he specialises in Deeptech and the Environment, investing in early-stage mission-driven deep tech companies and supporting their growth.

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.

Baiqu Gonkar

Program Growth Manager, Deeptech Ventures

Baiqu Gonkar

Program Growth Manager, 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 Ventures

Apoorva Srikkanth

Venture Manager, Deeptech Ventures

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!

Magda Posluszny

Venture Partner

Magda Posluszny

Venture Partner

Magda is an ex. operator and investor. She has spent the last 6 years as an investor at the leading VC funds in Europe – most recently, she helped lead fintech investing at Lakestar, a $2bn multi-stage fund investing from seed to series C. Prior to that, she was an investor at Speedinvest, the most active early-stage fund in Europe where she built her expertise in marketplaces and network effects-led businesses. Throughout her journey, she held multiple board-level roles and helped businesses raise over $100M in funding. Before joining the investing side, she gained experience as as a head of growth in travel e-commerce.

Alex Cheswick

Senior Associate

Alex Cheswick

Senior 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.

Lara Pawade

Growth Manager

Lara Pawade

Growth Manager

Lara joined us to help grow Zinc as we achieve our goal of creating healthier people + a healthier planet.

They’re passionate about social impact, creating a more equitable world for future generations.

Artie Rice-Oxley

Talent Associate

Artie Rice-Oxley

Talent Associate

Hey I’m Artie and I am a Talent Associate at Zinc VC. I received a Bachelor’s in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham and I joined the Talent Team at Zinc in October 2023. I work at the intersection of talent acquisition and venture creation. I enjoy connecting mission-driven people with the opportunity to have a major impact in their space. Outside of work you’d most likely find me out on the hockey pitch or catching up with a group of mates over a pint or two, or four. As a young and eager individual, I’m excited to contribute in any way I can to help Zinc achieve its mission.

Kate Hyslop

Marketing Lead

Kate Hyslop

Marketing Lead

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.

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Learn about Zinc’s Vision, Missions, Programmes

Learn about Zinc’s Vision, Missions, Programmes from our team directly at out weekly
Meet & Greet sessions