Speakers

Host: Professor Lisa Roberts

Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive.

Lisa Roberts took up her post on 1 September 2020. Prior to this Professor Roberts was Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at the University of Leeds, where she led on the development of the University’s research and innovation strategy. During this time she led significant increases in the income, quality and impact of research at Leeds. She also led a major step change in how the University worked with business, from start-ups to large corporates, launching a new innovation hub and leading a city-wide team of senior city stakeholders through the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP).

Before joining Leeds, Lisa was Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Surrey, leading the Schools of Bioscience and Medicine, Psychology and Health Sciences. During this time she also developed and launched only the 8th School of Veterinary Medicine in the UK and developed a successful One Health Strategy with external partnerships being key to its success.

Professor Roberts is a Professor of Virology, having studied for her PhD at the BBSRC Institute for Animal Health (now the Pirbright Institute) and the University of Kent. Earlier in her career, she worked as a Product Development Manager for Procter and Gamble in the UK and Belgium.

She is a Board member of the Russell Group, a Board member of Jisc, and will be taking up the role of Board member of Universities UK on 1 August 2022. Regionally, she is a Board member of both the Heart of the South West and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnerships, Chair of the GW4 Council, and Member of the Liveable Exeter Place Board. In May 2022, Lisa was appointed by the Minister of State for Further and Higher Education to chair a working group dedicated to tackling the issue of spiking attacks against students, bringing together vice-chancellors, police, campaigners and victims to produce plans for practical action to help keep students safe.

Keynote Speaker: Luke Lang

Luke Lang is a founder, chairman, NED, advisor and mentor. He co-founded Crowdcube, a pioneer of equity crowdfunding, which has raised over £1 billion for high growth European businesses such as Monzo, Revolut, BrewDog, Pod Point and Mindful Chef.

He was named by Debrett’s as one of Britain’s 500 most influential people, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year for London and the South and was selected as one of The Sunday Times ‘Maserati 100’ game-changing entrepreneurs.

Luke is passionate about purpose-led businesses who are on a mission to make a difference and is Entrepreneur In Residence for SETsquared Exeter where he advises Devon-based businesses as part of the Accelerator programme.