Oxford+

Susannah de Jager
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Welcome to Oxford+, the podcast series that explores the myths and truths of the Oxford investing landscape hosted by Susannah de Jager. Since moving to Oxford, Susannah has collaborated with experts, entrepreneurs, and government to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Oxford+ aims to inform, inspire, and connect. We'll talk to Founders, investors, academics, politicians, and facilitators and explore how Oxford is open for business.

  1. Ethics & Innovation: The Social Media Ban, Sovereign AI, and the Race We Can't Stop

    5d ago

    Ethics & Innovation: The Social Media Ban, Sovereign AI, and the Race We Can't Stop

    Can democracies capture the economic benefits of AI while protecting citizens from the unintended consequences? In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Lord Lionel Tarassenko, founding President of Reuben College and a pioneer of machine learning in safety-critical systems, about why the race to build ever more powerful models increasingly resembles an arms race. They explore whether the UK's long focus on ethical AI has become a competitive advantage, how Britain should position itself between the United States, Europe and China, and why sovereign AI and sovereign data assets matter for defending national values. The conversation lands at a pivotal moment. Days after the UK government announced a ban on social media use by under-16s modelled on Australia's, Lionel explains why he changed his mind and now sees a ban as the only real leverage over platforms that have resisted safety by design for a decade. From AI literacy in schools to the case for putting the AI Security Institute on a statutory footing, this is a clear-eyed look at governing a technology moving faster than policy. Lord Lionel Tarassenko: Lionel Tarassenko, Baron Tarassenko CBE FREng FMedSci, is the founding President of Reuben College, Oxford, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Research Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. A world-leading expert in the application of signal processing and machine learning to healthcare, he was among the first to apply machine learning to real-world, safety-critical systems, from Rolls-Royce jet-engine health monitoring to NHS patient monitoring. The critical-care system he designed was the first machine learning system to gain FDA approval, in 2008. He founded four University spin-out companies, directed the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and edited the 2019 Topol Review of NHS technology and the workforce. He was appointed a non-party-political life peer in 2024 and sits on the crossbenches, where he speaks on AI, healthcare and digital policy. Connect with Lionel on LinkedIn Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Equinox Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

    36 min
  2. Introducing the Ethics & Innovation Miniseries

    Episode 1 Trailer

    Introducing the Ethics & Innovation Miniseries

    How do we ensure technology serves society rather than society becoming subject to technology? And perhaps most importantly, what does progress actually mean? In this special Oxford+ Miniseries, we're going to speak to leading academics, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and practitioners working at the intersection of ethics, technology, and society. Together, we're going to explore questions including how should we govern powerful new technologies? What does human flourishing look like in the age of AI? How is technology shaping childhood, relationships, and mental health? And how can innovation ecosystems ensure that prosperity is shared more broadly? The aim of this miniseries is not to provide definitive answers, rather to help all of us ask better questions. Because the future is not something that simply happens to us, it's something we can choose to build. Ethics and Innovation is proudly sponsored by Equinox, Equitable Innovation Oxford. Equinox brings together leaders from across business, academia, local government, and civil society to ensure that the benefits of Oxford's remarkable innovation ecosystem are shared more widely across communities helping to create more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable future for the region. Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content The Ethics & Innovation Miniseries is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Equinox. Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

    2 min

  3. Jun 23 ·  Bonus

    Season Four Wrap and a Look Ahead to Ethics, AI and Season Five

    What changes when an innovation ecosystem stops talking about problems and starts talking about solutions? In this wrap of Season Four, Oxford+ host Susannah de Jager reflects on a clear shift in rhetoric across the series, from missing pieces of the puzzle to a real sense of momentum in Oxford and the wider UK. She points to initiatives like Equinox, Equitable Innovation Oxford, and the inaugural Oxford Tech Week as signs of an ecosystem finally galvanising itself and becoming easier to engage with. The timing fits a buoyant national picture: UK startup funding reached $7.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 60 per cent year on year, the strongest start to a year since 2022, according to HSBC Innovation Banking and Dealroom. Susannah also looks ahead, previewing a summer Ethics and Innovation miniseries on how AI should be shaped for societies, children and workforces, and a Season Five from September featuring names including Gordon Sanghera and Hermann Hauser. Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston. Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

    2 min

  4. Jun 16 ·  Bonus

    Oxford+ in Brief with Ceri Morgan, Partner at Dalloway Partners

    How should we measure success in the place trying to scale Britain's best science? In this Oxford+ in Brief, Dr Ceri Morgan takes on the same four quick-fire questions every guest faces. She reflects on what success would mean after two decades spent at arm's length in investment banking, the advice she would give anyone entering the Oxford ecosystem, and what the city does brilliantly yet struggles with: it brings you face to face with astonishing, modest people, but connects them far too rarely. Looking ahead to 2050, Ceri wants Oxford closer to the Boston benchmark, with more companies scaling outside the university and acquirers reinvesting locally rather than draining talent abroad. Her timing is apt: UK university spin-outs have nearly tripled in value to £49 billion since 2020, with activity now spreading beyond the golden triangle. From mentorship and the Lamb and Flag to a magic-wand investor database, this is a short, candid window into how a natural connector thinks. Ceri Morgan: Dr Ceri Morgan is a Partner at Dalloway Partners, the advisory firm founded in 2025 by Vanessa Colomar and Helen James to help foundational science and first-time founders scale at speed. A medical doctor by training, she practised in cardiology and trauma medicine before moving into the City, where she spent more than two decades in healthcare and life sciences investment banking, building and leading top-ranked life science teams at firms including KBC Peel Hunt and Deutsche Bank and advising companies such as Oxford Nanopore and IP Group. Most recently she was Head of Late Stage Portfolio at Oxford Science Enterprises, and she is a Senior Advisor to LifeScience ORG. Based in Oxford, she also sits on a London hospital patient advisory group, drawing on her own experience as a cancer patient to push for stronger patient advocacy. Connect with Ceri on LinkedIn Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston. Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

    7 min

  5. Jun 9

    Recycling Capital and Talent in Oxford's Innovation Economy

    How should we value a healthcare system that frustrates the very innovators trying to improve it? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Dr Ceri Morgan, a doctor turned healthcare investment banker turned patient, about her three careers and what they reveal about UK life sciences. Ceri explains why, for years, companies pitching an NHS-first strategy were handed close to a zero valuation, and why the UK's thin life sciences public market has pushed founders towards private capital and trade sales. Her move to Dalloway Partners marks a third act focused on the non-scientific side of scaling: mentoring founders, opening up investor networks and building Oxford's ecosystem. The timing matters. After UK biotech raised just £1.8 billion in 2025, early 2026 figures show venture funding rebounding, with £516 million raised in the first quarter. From recycling capital and talent to being your own patient advocate, this is a candid conversation about fixing the structures around brilliant British science. (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+ (01:23) - A Doctor's Path into the City (03:34) - Building a Life Sciences Banking Team (06:31) - Twenty Years Advising Science Companies (08:35) - A Third Career and a New Mission (10:24) - Why the NHS Earns a Zero Valuation (11:53) - The Shrinking Life Sciences Public Market (14:50) - Inside Dalloway Partners (16:48) - The Non-Scientific Side of Scaling (21:53) - Treating Oxford as One Ecosystem (25:54) - Female Health, Storytelling and Open Networks (32:06) - Being Your Own Patient Advocate Ceri Morgan: Dr Ceri Morgan is a Partner at Dalloway Partners, the advisory firm founded in 2025 by Vanessa Colomar and Helen James to help foundational science and first-time founders scale at speed. A medical doctor by training, she practised in cardiology and trauma medicine before moving into the City, where she spent more than two decades in healthcare and life sciences investment banking, building and leading top-ranked life science teams at firms including KBC Peel Hunt and Deutsche Bank and advising companies such as Oxford Nanopore and IP Group. Most recently she was Head of Late Stage Portfolio at Oxford Science Enterprises, and she is a Senior Advisor to LifeScience ORG. Based in Oxford, she also sits on a London hospital patient advisory group, drawing on her own experience as a cancer patient to push for stronger patient advocacy. Connect with Ceri on LinkedIn Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston. Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

    38 min

  6. Jun 2 ·  Bonus

    Oxford+ in Brief with Riham Satti, co-founder and CEO of MeVitae

    What does success really look like when we get hiring right? In this Oxford+ in Brief, Susannah de Jager puts forward four questions to Riham Satti, co-founder and CEO of MeVitae. Riham describes success as a workplace where people feel they belong, feel empowered, and stay because their work feels like a career worth building. She offers candid advice for anyone entering the Oxford ecosystem, reflects on what the city does brilliantly and where it could connect its specialised pockets more effectively, and imagines what Oxford might look like by 2050. With a recent large-scale study finding that AI hiring tools can systematically reject qualified candidates (Stanford HAI, May 2026), her closing wish, a magic wand for fairness at work, could not feel more timely.  Riham Satti: Riham Satti is the co-founder and CEO of MeVitae, an award-winning people intelligence platform that combines neuroscience, behavioural economics, and responsible AI to help organisations make fairer, faster, and fully explainable workforce decisions. A neuroscientist by training, Riham studied medical engineering at Imperial College London before completing her research at Oxford, where she developed a deep fascination with how the brain makes decisions. Through the Oxford University Innovation incubator, she co-founded MeVitae with computer scientist Vivek Doraiswamy to tackle bias and inefficiency in hiring. MeVitae now works with global enterprise clients including Transport for London, HS2, and Taylor Wessing, delivering up to 90% time and cost savings while reducing employee turnover by 25%. The company has been honoured with the Norrsken Impact/100 Award, nominated by Microsoft, and was selected by the UK Information Commissioner's Office to co-develop the national AI Data Protection Audit. Riham is a TEDx and keynote speaker and sits on the TechUK Council, advising on the responsible use of AI in business. Connect with Riham on LinkedIn Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston. Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

    5 min

  7. May 26

    Unconscious Bias, Responsible AI, and the Future of Workforce Decisions

    What if the key to fairer hiring lies not in better policies, but in understanding how our brains actually make decisions? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Riham Satti, co-founder and CEO of MeVitae, about her journey from studying neuroscience at Oxford to building an AI-driven platform that transforms workforce decision-making. They explore how cognitive biases shape recruitment, why ten seconds of CV screening can derail a hiring process, and how organisations can use data and responsible AI to make fairer, faster, and smarter people decisions. With recent research showing that recruiters using biased AI tools mirror those inequitable choices up to 90% of the time, the conversation could not be more timely. Riham explains how MeVitae integrates neuroscience, anonymised recruiting, and transparent algorithms to help organisations identify hidden risks, improve candidate experience, and build genuinely inclusive workplaces. From bootstrapping with grant funding to working with global enterprise clients, her story is a blueprint for turning academic curiosity into commercial impact. (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford Plus (01:42) - The Academic Path to Entrepreneurship (03:12) - Stumbling into the World of Startups (04:21) - From a CV App to Uncovering a Broken Industry (06:37) - Funding the Early Days with Grants and Grit (09:20) - How MeVitae Evolved from B2C to Enterprise AI (13:19) - Neuroscience in Action: Eye Tracking and Hiring Bias (15:16) - Practical Steps to Reduce Unconscious Bias (21:37) - The Benefits Beyond Efficiency: Candidate Experience (25:56) - Connecting HR Data to Uncover Hidden Risks (30:20) - Company Retreats and Building Team Culture (35:09) - The Future of MeVitae and Responsible AI Riham Satti: Riham Satti is the co-founder and CEO of MeVitae, an award-winning people intelligence platform that combines neuroscience, behavioural economics, and responsible AI to help organisations make fairer, faster, and fully explainable workforce decisions. A neuroscientist by training, Riham studied medical engineering at Imperial College London before completing her research at Oxford, where she developed a deep fascination with how the brain makes decisions. Through the Oxford University Innovation incubator, she co-founded MeVitae with computer scientist Vivek Doraiswamy to tackle bias and inefficiency in hiring. MeVitae now works with global enterprise clients including Transport for London, HS2, and Taylor Wessing, delivering up to 90% time and cost savings while reducing employee turnover by 25%. The company has been honoured with the Norrsken Impact/100 Award, nominated by Microsoft, and was selected by the UK Information Commissioner's Office to co-develop the national AI Data Protection Audit. Riham is a TEDx and keynote speaker and sits on the TechUK Council, advising on the responsible use of AI in business.Connect with Riham on LinkedIn Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston. Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

    39 min

  8. May 19 ·  Bonus

    Oxford+ in Brief with Dr Holly Reeve, co-founder and CEO of HydRegen

    What would it take for Oxford to truly unlock its potential as a global innovation hub and what keeps getting in the way? In this Oxford+ In Brief mini episode, host Susannah de Jager puts four quick-fire questions to Dr Holly Reeve, co-founder and CEO of HydRegen. Holly shares what success looks like if Hydregen reaches commercial scale manufacturing, why Oxford's chemistry department has become a breeding ground for spin-outs, and why she wishes the barriers between universities and startups were far lower than they are today. With a new super cluster board forming across the Oxford–Cambridge arc and initiatives like Equinox and OX Tech Week working to connect the ecosystem, Holly argues the direction of travel is encouraging. But she is clear that the real bottleneck is not facilities or funding structures: it is the failure to invest strategically in the people behind the science.  Dr Holly Reeve: Holly Reeve is the co-founder and CEO of HydRegen, an Oxford University spin-out developing bio-based catalysts to replace precious metals in chemical manufacturing. She holds a MChem and DPhil in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, where she worked on the HydRegen technologies from inception in Professor Kylie Vincent's research group. Holly has raised over £1.3 million in early-stage funding from Innovate UK and investors, secured a further £2.6 million led by Clean Growth Fund, and grown the company to 15 people. She is a Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technology prize winner and a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub's Shott Scale Up Accelerator. In June 2025, HydRegen announced a strategic collaboration with James Robinson Speciality Ingredients to implement its Bio2Amine™ biocatalyst technology in commercial manufacturing. Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston. Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

    10 min
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Trailers

About

Welcome to Oxford+, the podcast series that explores the myths and truths of the Oxford investing landscape hosted by Susannah de Jager. Since moving to Oxford, Susannah has collaborated with experts, entrepreneurs, and government to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Oxford+ aims to inform, inspire, and connect. We'll talk to Founders, investors, academics, politicians, and facilitators and explore how Oxford is open for business.

Information

  • Creator
    Susannah de Jager
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    60
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Susannah de Jager
  • Show Website
    Oxford+

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