Get inspired by experienced entrepreneurs

Join a vibrant community of innovators at the Bettany Centre Entrepreneurship Speaker Series, where knowledge sharing and storytelling take centre stage.

Hear the personal journeys of seasoned entrepreneurs as they share not only their successes, but the lessons learned from their challenges.

This series offers a unique space for authentic conversations, where you can ask questions and gain deeper insights into the real stories behind thriving businesses.

More than just listening, you’ll have the chance to connect with fellow entrepreneurs, building a network of like-minded individuals who share your passion for growth and innovation.

Each series includes a weekly panel or keynote, with the Autumn Series in November and the Spring Series in February.

Register for our next session and be part of the conversation!

The Entrepreneurship Speaker Series is part of the Venture Programme, an extracurricular programme designed to unlock the entrepreneurial spirit of every Cranfield student hosted by the university’s entrepreneurial hub, the Bettany Centre.

Who should attend?

This is a free and public event series aimed to engage our entrepreneurial ecosystem of students, alumni, staff as well as local businesses and investors.

Location & travel details

Sessions are typically delivered online and on campus. Please see upcoming events below for details.

Upcoming sessions

Speakers

    • 20 Nov 2025
    • 27 Nov 2025

Professor Krzysztof Koziol – Thursday 20 November 2025

Professor Krzysztof Koziol

Since 2017, Krzysztof holds a Chair in Composites Engineering at ֱ. He is the head of the Centre for Materials, leading a team of over 40 scientists and engineers, overseeing numerous projects across advanced materials design & development, materials science, polymer chemistry, composites materials, composites manufacture, process control and material/structure performance. Krzysztof’s career spanning polymer science, materials and nanotechnology, with first-class engineering and master’s degree in Chemistry from Silesian University of Technology in Poland and PhD in Materials Science from University of Cambridge in United Kingdom.

Back in Cambridge, in 2008, Krzysztof was awarded the Royal Society University Research Fellowship and Oppenheimer Research Fellow to pursue his passion for science, focusing on nanomaterials – specifically carbon nanotubes and graphene, their molecular design, production methods and their effective implementation into large scale applications.

In 2008, he became the head of Electric Carbon Nanomaterials Research Laboratory at the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge as well as the Fellow and director of studies at Pembroke College in Cambridge.

In 2009, he was awarded the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) starting grant to lead the development of new generation, lightweight, high-performance electric wires based on carbon nanotubes, poised to replace materials like copper and aluminium in the next 20-30 years, to enable transformation of the world of power transmission and electric machines. In 2013, he became a project coordinator of Ultrawire EU FP7 project, to lead a consortium of 11 industrial partners and 3 academic partners for industrial exploration of carbon nanomaterials-based metal matrix composites.

Krzysztof is a serial entrepreneur. He enabled several successful technology transfers from his laboratory into the real consumer world, with some of the successes highlighted in the latest Royal Society career pathway tracker report.

Krzysztof is the co-founder of Levidian Nanosystems, a company with its headquarters in Cambridge and co-creator of a new process, based on atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma, transforming greenhouse gases like methane to hydrogen, a clean energy source, and net zero graphene, a material reshaping the world we live in. Levidian is rolling out this technology using a concept of a mobile autonomous shipping container – factory in a box – with a trademark called “LOOP”, in a major global decarbonisation effort, to transform fugitive greenhouse gases to graphene and hydrogen and accelerate the world’s transition to net zero.

Krzysztof published over 180 peer reviewed papers and over 18 patents. H-index: 53.


Panel Discussion with Alan Wilson, Professor Ana Soares, Dr Filomeno Martina – Thursday 27 November 2025

Alan WilsonAlan Wilson

Alan Wilson is a tech entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience founding, scaling, and exiting high-growth ventures across e-commerce, fintech, and climate tech.

His career began in the early 2000s in technology and e-commerce, working across the UK, USA, and Turkey to deliver pioneering projects, including the first live shopping television channel in Turkey. He went on to play a pivotal role in building one of the world’s first challenger banks, delivering innovative mobile banking via SMS, before joining Bankable as employee number two to develop its cutting-edge Banking-as-a-Service platforms.

In 2013, Alan founded Expandly, a multi-channel e-commerce platform that grew from idea to global adoption by thousands of companies, including household brands such as Wilkinson Sword and Hawaiian Tropic, before being acquired by GEE in 2021.

He then co-founded MoreTrees in 2020, a climate tech start-up with the ambition of planting a billion trees by helping businesses offset their carbon footprints. Bootstrapped during the pandemic, MoreTrees secured over 1,000 customers within months and was acquired by The Hut Group just six months after founding. As Managing Director, Alan integrated the business and drove growth to over 7 million trees planted by over 600,000 individuals and companies, including Barbour, MyProtein, and Pernod Ricard.

After taking a year to travel the world with his young family, visiting eighteen countries across six continents, Alan co-founded TrackZero in 2023, a carbon accounting platform helping large businesses decarbonise their SME supply chains by providing SME suppliers with simple sustainability tools.

AnaProfessor Ana Soares

Professor Ana Soares is the Founder and CTO of Pazul, a start-up dedicated to solving phosphorus pollution. Pazul’s first commercial product is a phosphate sensing and chemical dosing system designed for water utilities, helping them optimise treatment while protecting the environment.

Alongside her entrepreneurial role, Ana is a Professor of Biotechnology Engineering at ֱ’s Water Science Institute, where she leads research on wastewater treatment and resource recovery. Her work focuses on how microbial communities can be harnessed under dynamic conditions to create innovative, practical solutions for industry and utilities.

Ana is also a Fellow of the International Water Association (IWA) and serves as chair of its Resource Recovery Cluster, helping to shape global dialogue on sustainable water management. She has been widely recognised for bridging science and application, most notably receiving the OFWAT Discovery Challenge Award for her breakthrough work on phosphorus removal and recovery.

Dr Filomeno Martina

Dr Filomeno Martina is the COO of Masara, a global firm organising premium music events and experiences. Previously, he was the founding CEO of WAAM3D Ltd, a spin-out company of ֱ commercialising the Wire+Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) process. Historically, he has looked after operations, finance, legal, and marketing.

Prior his current role, he was Senior Lecturer in Additive Manufacturing at the Welding Engineering and Laser Processing Centre, ֱ, where he was the course director of the first MSc on Metal Additive Manufacturing in Europe. He is the winner of the 2022 FAME Jr award, and has received further awards from BAE Systems (2010, 2018), Royal Aeronautical Society (2013), European Space Agency (2015), and The Welding Institute (2018).

He has held also non-executive director positions.

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Past sessions