Jenny Worthington
Venture Scout at Ada Ventures
Jenny Worthington
Venture Scout at Ada Ventures
United Kingdom
Overview
Work Experience
Venture Scout
2021 - Current
Ada Ventures is the inclusive venture firm. Ada Ventures finds and funds extraordinary talent building breakthrough ideas for the hardest problems we face. Ada Ventures are investing out of their second fund, and invest £250,000 - £1m in UK technology companies across climate, economic empowerment, and healthcare & ageing.
Business Development Manager
2021
Responsible for the development of new strategic partnerships and for identifying, protecting and commercialising innovative new approaches to cancer treatment arising from research at the Institute of Cancer Research. Key Responsibilities & Skills: • Project Management - manage the development and commercialisation of a large portfolio of projects, including several key drug discovery programmes, reporting on project metrics where required. • Analysis & Strategy - conduct detailed analysis of new opportunities to identify those with commercial potential and devise appropriate IP, development and commercialisation strategies consistent with ICR’s mission of achieving maximum patient benefit. • Due Diligence - conduct extensive due diligence, including IP valuation and evaluation of market potential and competitor position, to determine the commercial potential of innovative technologies. Identify potential risks, liabilities and conflicts of interest and mitigate against their impact. • Stakeholder Engagement - manage multi-stakeholder engagements with external partners, including industrial sponsors, funders and VCs, to lead in commercial negotiations whilst working within agreed financial/legal frameworks and ensuring third party obligations are appropriately managed. • Business Development - maintain relevant sector awareness to market innovation projects to external customers and promote partnering with the ICR. Maintain and expand networks to develop strategic relationships. Activities have to date raised significant income.
ICE Academy Business Buddy, Take-Off Launch and Up-Collective Mentor
2020 - 2023
Volunteered in mentoring entrepreneurial refugees in the creation and development of their businesses from initial exploration through to start-up and growth. Provided guidance and support on the business model & plan, registration & compliance, marketing & branding, customer acquisition & sales and financial planning & management. Worked to support an entrepreneur in the launch of her party planning business following a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Innovation Adviser
2020 - 2021
Delivered strategic and tailored business advisory support to client organisations to enable profitable growth through innovation. Key Responsibilities & Skills: • Project Management & Delivery - worked both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team in a high-pressure environment to manage a portfolio of 20 innovative SMEs across multiple programmes to ensure delivery against targets and KPIs. • Analysis & Strategy - conducted detailed analysis of client businesses to gain an in-depth understanding of performance, innovation potential and issues affecting growth and profitability. Worked closely with clients to prioritise actions and to support the development of innovation, marketing and commercialisation strategies. • Organisational transformation - supported client organisations in designing and delivering transformational change including people, process and innovation. • Communication - highly skilled in understanding the complex issues affecting the growth and development of an organisation and in communicating solutions effectively to both mid and senior-level audiences. • Business Development - organised events at regional level to promote sector initiatives. Created and converted leads to build a quality portfolio of clients through the development of professional and effective working relationships. Additional Achievements: • Head of Region for the UK IPO’s IP Audits Plus award which is designed to help SMEs maximise the value of their IP. Designed and implemented a new internal application and selection process and acted as a direct liaison with the IPO to manage 60 awards for the London region. • Worked proactively and inclusively as part of the Social Values Team to implement and measure the social agenda of the ESG framework. Directly contributed to the company-wide decision to allow staff to repurpose some of their paid volunteer days for their mental health and wellbeing.
IP & Licensing Executive
2016 - 2020
Responsible for the evaluation, protection and commercialisation of technology and IP assets arising from the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s College London. Key Responsibilities & Skills: • Project Management - managed a portfolio of over 50 innovative technologies and drove the end-to-end product life cycle from ideation through to commercialisation. • Analysis & Strategy - conducted detailed prior art, freedom-to-operate and market potential analyses of a broad range of novel technologies to determine patentability and commercial potential. Devised and implemented appropriate IP, marketing, funding and exploitation strategies. • Due Diligence - conducted extensive technical due diligence of new opportunities to ensure that all obligations were honoured and potential risks managed. • Stakeholder Engagement - managed multi-stakeholder engagements with external public and private sector partners to draft, negotiate and execute commercial agreements. • Business Development – created strategic partnerships and delivered additional revenue to the university through the successful transition of multiple technologies either by licensing or through the formation of spin-out companies. Additional Achievements: • Designed and managed an internal fund which awarded proof-of-concept funding to promising early-stage technologies and funded training programmes designed to better support King’s translational ecosystem. • Managed an internship project to maximise revenue from King’s Research Tools portfolio by designing and implementing strategies to improve post-deal management and to increase the marketing of materials. • Designed a new strategy to manage and maximise the potential of King’s extensive Clinical Outcome Measures portfolio. • Raised profile of the team by redesigning the website, creating and managing its social media profiles and by organising and delivering seminars on patenting and IP commercialisation.
Interim Enterprise Officer
2015 - 2015
Drafted, reviewed, negotiated and executed material transfer and non-disclosure agreements for research conducted at St George’s University.
Biomedical Sciences and Healthcare IP Management Intern
2015 - 2015
Facilitated the commercialisation of IP arising from Imperial College London and partner NHS trusts. Developed and implemented an internal training programme, which included workshops on market analysis, patent prosecution & litigation, licensing and ventures, that was applied to all subsequent internship programmes.
Research Associate
2011 - 2015
CRUK and Eve Appeal funded project which aimed to identify ovarian cancer serum biomarkers using a combination of proteomic techniques including protein/peptide fractionation, TMT (tandem mass tag) labelling and LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry) technology. Additional responsibilities included project supervision, stakeholder engagement, teaching and laboratory management.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
2007 - 2012
Master's Degree
2006 - 2007
Bachelor's Degree
2003 - 2006