Portfolio

Andrew Williamson is the Managing Partner of CIC and focuses on technology investments.

Andrew’s background combines R&D, start-up formation and technology investing. Before joining CIC he spent ten years in venture investing at Physic Ventures in San Francisco and True North Venture Partners in Chicago. Before moving into Venture Capital, Andrew led a research group applying High Performance Computing to materials science at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Andrew has an MA and PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Andrew manages CIC's investments in Pragmatic, NStream (formerly SWIM) and Riverlane.

Dr Michael Anstey is a Partner specialising in life sciences investments.

Before joining CIC he was a Principal in the Healthcare Practice Area at The Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Toronto office. Michael has experience in advising multinational businesses across North America, Europe, India, and Japan.

Michael was also co-founder of an early stage biotechnology company focused on developing small molecule drugs that target protein-protein interactions implicated in disease. Prior to BCG, Michael was an Investment Analyst at Oxford Capital Partners.

Michael earned his DPhil in Zoology in the field of neurobiology from the University of Oxford.

Michael manages CIC's investments in Bicycle Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BCYC), Congenica, Epitopea, Storm Therapeutics, Immutrin, PredictImmune, Sense Bio and Start Codon. He is also on the board of Cambridge&, an organisation dedicated to attracting the highest quality individuals and organisations from around the globe into the Cambridge ecosystem.

Eva is Executive Assistant to the investment team.  Prior to CIC, Eva worked in Financial Services and has experience of working in administrative and clerical roles.  Eva grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa but now lives in Cambridge with her family and has been in the UK for over 25 years.

Damian Crowther is Entrepreneur in Residence with the Life Sciences team.

Having trained in Cambridge, then Oxford, as a clinician-scientist (PhD FRCP), Damian practiced clinical neurology in Nottingham and Cambridge before leading a basic neuroscience research group at the University of Cambridge for 10 years.  He completed the Golden Triangle with an honorary appointment at UCL.  Since leaving academia he has gained commercial and entrepreneurial experience as a head of early drug discovery at AstraZeneca Neuroscience and co-founder of the HealthTech startup GP Notebook. 

Prior to joining CIC, Damian was EiR at Oxford Science Enterprises where he championed and built neuroscience biotechs including EndLyz Inc, focused on Parkinson’s disease therapies, and Human Centric Drug Discovery, which has a platform approach to pain and Parkinson’s disease drug discovery.

Tori is Investor Relations Manager working across the CIC funds.

She has 10 years’ professional experience gained in a variety of corporate finance advisory and investment management roles.  She has worked for both small privately owned investment managers as well as global public companies; Jones Lang LaSalle and Lazard. In this time Tori has worked in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, transacting or funding circa £1 billion of assets. Before joining CIC she had a career break to pursue charitable work and raise a family.

Tori holds a PG Diploma in Real Estate from LSBU and an MA in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford.

Anne Horgan is a Partner focusing on biotech and biopharma investments.

Prior to joining CIC Anne was a Partner at Advent France Biotechnology (now AdBio Partners), a Paris-based venture capital firm specialising in Life Sciences seed investments and company creation, and Senior Associate at Sofinnova Partners.

Anne brings over 20 years’ experience in the field of Life Sciences innovation, acquired as a Business Development Executive at Cancer Research Technology (now Cancer Research Horizons) and Senior Medicinal Chemist at Cambridge Biotechnology Ltd (now part of Benevolent AI). Anne’s experience includes equity financing (seed and series A), technology transfer and scouting, business development, drug discovery and biotech R&D.

Anne carried out postdoctoral research at Yale University after her PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Bristol. She holds a diplôme d’ingénieur (Chemistry) from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rouen, authored several peer-reviewed papers and is an inventor on eight patent families.

Ed is an Associate specialising in technology investments.

Ed joined CIC from Williams Advanced Engineering where he was an Investment Manager focused on investing in hardware and industrial software startups through the Foresight Williams Technology investment funds. Over four years he helped to build the fund’s first portfolio of thirty companies across semiconductors, robotics and AI. Previously he was an Investment Analyst at Oxford Technology Management, an early-stage deep tech fund.

Ed holds a PhD in Biomaterials from the University of Cambridge and an MEng in Materials Science from the University of Oxford.

Ed manages CIC's investment in Origami Energy. 

Ian is a Board observer for CIC’s investments in a number of our portfolio companies.

Ian is a technology and life sciences investor and entrepreneur. He shares his time between managing his private investment portfolio and assisting CIC companies through critical growth stages.

Following university, Ian was the lead in the world beating team that invented the first optical fibre amplifier, a key enabler for the internet. He has worked in analysis and consultancy, eventually heading up a business division for Siemens AG. Subsequently he initiated tech businesses, acquired others and grew them internationally, leading to multiple exits.

Ian has a BA in Natural Sciences from Oxford, a PhD from Southampton University and is a Chartered Director.

Michelle is Head of Corporate Affairs and manages CIC’s ESG and Impact strategy, marketing strategy, and is a communications advisor/mentor to CIC’s portfolio companies.

She has 20 years experience of international leadership in strategic communications and business across a range of public and privately owned organisations.
Michelle has been a board member for Byte Night (Action for Children), a trustee for Citizen’s Advice and is currently an Advisory Panel member of LSX Female Founders and a mentor for the Aspire Foundation.

She has a BSc (Hons) in chemistry and a post graduate diploma in marketing.

Ian Lane is a Partner and focuses on technology investments.

Before joining CIC Ian was a Director at Unilever Ventures in London, where he led all B2B/Technology investments. Over 11 years he was responsible for numerous transactions across Europe and North America, including investments into Olapic (acquired by Monotype Inc), Mirakl, Aera Technology, Skupos, WeGift, Celtra (acquired by STG), CreatorIQ, Mirriad (Listed on AIM) and Blis Global (acquired by LDC). Prior to Unilever Ventures, Ian worked at L.E.K. Consulting in London and Australia, working on strategy consulting and private equity due-diligence projects.

Ian has PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Cambridge and Msci in Chemistry from Bristol University.

Ian manages CIC's investment in Seldon, Cambridge GaN Devices, Salience Labs, Unlikely AI, AudioTelligence and Secondmind.

Dipesh is an Operating Partner and focuses on technology investments.

Before joining CIC Dipesh was at Arm for 25 years. Dipesh was a member of the Executive Committee at Arm since 2013 and held a number of general and technical management roles during his time at Arm. His most recent role was as CTO for Arm where responsible for the Research and Digital IT functions. Prior to this, Dipesh was the President of the IoT Services Group and led the creation of a new software and services business to capture the market opportunities in the Internet of Things. He has a broad experience covering transistor technology to chip design to cloud platforms.

Dipesh has a PhD and a BSc in Electronics from Loughborough University. He also completed the Executive program from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Nick has over 15 years’ experience advising institutional, corporate and individual investors and the companies they invest into, especially in the technology and life sciences sectors.

Nick qualified into the private equity team of a Magic Circle law firm and has been seconded to the legal department of Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining CIC, Nick was a senior associate at an international law firm.

Nick attended the College of Law and BPP Law School in London and holds an MA in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford. He is a solicitor admitted to practise in England and Wales.

Rob has more than 25 years of professional and commercial experience providing strategic, financial and corporate finance advice to boards and shareholders, especially in the life science, technology and technology consulting industries.

His previous roles have included CFO of Altacor, an ophthalmic specialty pharmaceutical company, CFO of Warwick Ventures, the Technology Transfer Office of Warwick University, CFO of an AIM listed drug development company and Senior Manager, Corporate Finance at PwC. Rob was also a consultant to Lumora, a molecular diagnostics company spun-out from the University of Cambridge.  Rob manages CIC's investments in Geospock and Imagen. 

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Vivien joined CIC in 2022 as Receptionist 

Vivien has more than six years of hospitality experience. She worked at Trinity College Cambridge and, prior to that, Queens' College.
Vivien studied nursing at the University of Debrecen in Hungary and was an active member of the Hungarian Red Cross for many years. Although she chose a different path to healthcare, she really enjoys assisting people. Vivien grew up in Hungary however she has lived in Cambridge for over seven years.

Sylwia joined CIC as the Finance Manager in 2019.

Sylwia has more than 12 years’ accountancy experience, and previously worked in a busy accountancy practice in Cambridge. She has a BSc in Marketing and Management and an MSc in Marketing from the University of Nicolas Copernicus in Poland. Having grown up in Poland, Sylwia has lived and worked in Cambridge for over 18 years. Sylwia is a Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

After seven years working in hospital medicine, Robert worked in development and regulatory roles at Sanofi, the MHRA and Roche. Robert then spent a decade at early stage biotech companies including Arakis (sold to Sosei Inc), founder and CEO at Treague, founding CEO of the University of Copenhagen spin -out Avilex Pharma and part of the founding management team of KalVista (Nasdaq: KALV). Robert qualified in medicine from UCL. He is a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and has an MBA from London Business School and an M.Phil in Biostatistics from the University of Cambridge. Robert manages CIC's investments in Carrick Therapeutics, Centessa, CMR Surgical, Exvastat, Gyroscope, Inivata, Microbiotica, PetMedix, Pretzel Therapeutics.

Chris is a Senior Associate specialising in life science investments.

Prior to joining CIC, Chris worked at C4X Discovery, an AIM-listed drug discovery biotechnology company, as part of the Corporate Strategy and Development team, where he focused on identifying and sourcing opportunities for in-licensing, collaboration and internal development. Chris also brings a background in strategy consulting and due diligence support, working in L.E.K. Consulting’s Life Sciences practice across the UK and US. Chris holds an MA in Medical Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Chris currently acts as Board Observer on behalf of CIC for: Carrick Therapeutics, Epitopea, Exvastat and Microbiotica.

Ellie is Assistant to the senior team and manages the office.

She has extensive knowledge of Cambridge, having spent over 3 years at Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm, providing administrative support to the Consultancy Team. Prior to that Ellie worked at Xtravirt Ltd and Savills plc.

Mihriban Tuna is Entrepreneur in Residence with the Life Sciences team.

She brings 20 years’ experience in biologics drug development across biotech and pharma. Prior to joining CIC, Mihriban was Chief Scientific Officer at Adaptate Biotherapeutics (acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company), Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery, at F-star Therapeutics (NASDAQ:FSTX) and an early employee at Domantis Ltd. (acquired by GSK). She has authored several peer-reviewed papers and is an inventor on 15 patent families.

Mihriban holds a BSc in Biology from Middle East Technical University, a PhD in Biochemistry from University of Sussex and an MBA from University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Victoria is Head of Business Support at CIC. As well as managing the administrative team, Victoria coordinates CIC's strategic initiatives and supports the Managing Partner, CFO and Chairman.

Victoria specialises in project management and business development and has more than 25 years’ experience. Prior to CIC, Victoria most recently worked for PA Consulting, OC&C Strategy Consultants and Tyndall AM, which is now Nikko Asset Management.