Name

Monika

Position

Non-Executive Director / Board Advisor / Mentor

Location

Gloucestershire

Big Business Experience

Cognizant

Small Business Experience

SETsquared

Plexal

Summary

Monika is an award-winning senior innovation executive who has helped hundreds of technology & science SMEs to scale. Over the past five years she has led SETsquared Bristol incubator accelerating start-ups in the South West across all sectors. She has helped to collectively secure £150m+ of growth funding (angel, VC, grants), supporting the founders to expand their businesses. She specialises in Team Leadership, Strategy and Business Development, Go-to-market Strategies, Fundraising, as well as Diversity and Inclusion.

Qualifications

• MSc Business Innovation from Birkbeck College, University of London
• BA Business Management with Finance (1st Class) from University of Westminster
• The role of the Board and Directors, Institute of Directors

Key Areas of Expertise

• Innovation
• Start-up Investment
• Growth Strategies
• Strategy & Business Planning
• Programme Design & Delivery
• Senior Operational Leadership
• Team Leadership
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Business Development
• Media and Press engagement
• Incubation & Acceleration Programmes

Experience

Monika is currently Centre Director at SETsquared Bristol, a University of Bristol-owned business centre supporting science and tech start-ups. She runs the incubator and grows the service range and client numbers, with SETsquared ranked No1 by UBI against 350+ other incubators globally in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Over the past 5 years, Monika has helped member companies collectively raise £394m in investment. She drives the fundraising by organizing regular investment showcases; as well as working directly with angels, crowdfunders, grant funders and VCs. Monika also sits on the EPSCR Impact Acceleration Award investment panel which offers £5m to early-stage science and technology businesses associated with University of Bristol.

Other recent roles include: Senior Programme Lead at ENTIQ, an innovation consultancy, delivering an innovative blockchain project to a Financial Services client; EMEA Partner Manager at Entrepreneur Country Global, a partner network delivering innovation projects and start-up scouting services to corporates; and European Lead – Market Development at Cognizant, before becoming a founding team member of their Global Innovation Ecosystem. Currently, Monika is also Chair of the Business Acceleration Group at SETsquared Partnership.