The Entrepreneurs

The technology entrepreneur is perhaps best known for founding science-driven investment management firm Cantab Capital Partners. Kirk was previously a partner and head of the quantitative strategies group at Goldman Sachs, where he led a 120-strong European team of mathematicians, scientists and statisticians. He tells us why he advocates for commercialising and leveraging technology and science research in business, philanthropy and academia.

The technology entrepreneur is perhaps best known for founding science-driven investment management firm Cantab Capital Partners. Kirk was previously a partner and head of the quantitative strategies group at Goldman Sachs, where he led a 120-strong European team of mathematicians, scientists and statisticians. He tells us why he advocates for commercialising and leveraging technology and science research in business, philanthropy and academia.

Cassandra Stavrou launched the Proper Snacks business in 2011 and has built it into Europe’s largest independent healthy snacks company. Cassandra talks about the journey the brand has been on and how the recent sale of a majority stake in the company has created a true challenger to the established players in the market. Plus: Ballymaloe House head pastry chef JR Ryall talks about his entrepreneurial adventures in food and how they led to the publication of his delicious debut book, ‘Ballymaloe Desserts’.

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Judith McMinn is the founder of Rezon, developers of the Halo protective headband designed specifically to reduce rotational forces transmitted to the brain in impacts in sport. It is this rotation of the brain inside the skull, rather than linear impacts per se, that results in harmful inflammation which can damage the brain. So how did a former director of operations for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change come to identify and fill this gap in the market?

Stefan Ytterborn is the founder of electric-motorbike manufacturer Cake. A seasoned entrepreneur who refined his skills with the creation and development of POC, a brand specialising in protective gear for adventure sports, Ytterborn has led Cake since 2016. Cake’s ground-breaking bikes delight design aficionados while offering a path towards a more sustainable future. Plus: Bob Sheard on the rise of Arc’teryx.

Richard Collier joined the leading provider of premium German-engineered outdoor apparel, footwear and equipment as CEO in 2020, with the small matter of a global pandemic to navigate. Alongside that, he had a more personal challenge to meet: to take the brand back to its roots. Jack Wolfskin was founded by a group of friends around a remote Canadian campfire in 1981 and, as Richard explains, that’s the origin story and the ‘eureka moment’ that he wanted to put back at the heart of the brand experience.

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Richard Collier joined the leading provider of premium German-engineered outdoor apparel, footwear and equipment as CEO in 2020, with the small matter of a global pandemic to navigate. Alongside that, he had a more personal challenge to meet: to take the brand back to its roots. Jack Wolfskin was founded by a group of friends around a remote Canadian campfire in 1981 and, as Richard explains, that’s the origin story and the ‘eureka moment’ that he wanted to put back at the heart of the brand experience.

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Evelyn Webster was running Guardian News & Media’s international operations in New York before taking over as CEO of the global fitness brand in December 2020. For Webster, a committed rider herself, and for its legions of fans, Soulcycle was so much more than an indoor cycling workout. As the company puts it: “The bikes may be stationary but they’ll take you as far as you want to travel.” Webster discusses taking the reins in the midst of a global pandemic and (as if that weren’t enough) with a late-breaking crisis in the brand’s corporate culture to navigate, too.

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Back in 2009 in Dublin, the CEO of Web Summit co-founded what is now one of the world’s largest technology conferences. Its sister event, Toronto’s Collision Conference, is the fastest-growing technology summit in North America and it returned last month, in person for the first time since 2019. Cosgrave looks ahead to Web Summit’s newest addition: a Latin American technology summit to be hosted in Rio de Janeiro in May 2023.

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Héloïse Mercier is the founder and CEO of Lolie, a marketplace featuring the finest brands and products for children. Alongside Lolie’s CCO, Katie Kendrick, she has brought her passions for fashion, design and technology into the business. So why did Mercier, a computer science graduate and a Farfetch alumnus, turn to the children’s market?

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