Mentoring can range from a quick response to a careers question to a zoom call or a meet-up over a coffee to learn from your mentor’s experience – it’s really up to you!
To reach out to a mentor, simply email Lily Rivers at development@sid.cam.ac.uk with a short message of introduction and your preferred contact email, and she will pass this information on to your mentor, who will make contact.
Chief Scientist at the Environment Agency (Public Sector, Sustainability)
After graduating in Plant Sciences, I did a PhD and post-doctoral research at the John Innes Centre in crop genetics and ecology. I then joined the Civil Service as a Scientific Liaison Officer at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Over twenty years at Defra, I held a variety of science, strategy and policy roles, culminating in the post of Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser. I then moved to become the Environment Agency's Chief Scientist, putting robust science at the heart of the EA's work to create a better place for people and wildlife, and support sustainable development.
Education Consultant (Education)
Since leaving Sidney, I worked briefly at the Bank of England. I then gained a trilingual MA in International Business before working in France as a tour operator. In the mid-90s, I returned to the UK and my education roots to become a languages teacher. My career was forged in different state secondary schools from Staffordshire to Berkshire. This led me to become a Headteacher and then CEO of Maiden Erlegh Trust in Berkshire. I now work with school and trust leaders on school improvement and providing coaching and mentoring.
Chief Product Officer at Hassell Inclusion (Consulting, Technology, Business & Management)
I studied Engineering at Cambridge and enjoyed problem solving in technology and with business. This led me to join Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) on their graduate scheme. My consulting career has given me the opportunity to work in the UK, Europe, Africa and the USA, across multiple disciplines from Human Resources and Marketing to IT Strategy, from start-ups to multinationals. I now help CEOs do more with their products - my main focus is ensuring digital technology works well for people with disabilities.
Freelance Composer (Creative Arts)
Described in The Guardian as “one of today’s leading composers for the voice”, Joanna Marsh is an Ivors Composer award-winning British composer. She has lived in Dubai since 2007 and her location has led to many unique musical opportunities including writing an orchestral work to celebrate the building of the Burj Khalifa, a commission for the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the BBC Proms in Dubai, and a fanfare for the Queen’s visit to Abu Dhabi. Her first opera, a collaboration with librettist David Pountney entitled My Beautiful Camel, was also inspired by Dubai life.
Recent commissions have included the groups Tenebrae, BBC Singers, I Fagiolini and United Strings of Europe. Joanna was Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from 2015 through to 2020.
Consultant (Consulting, Public Sector, Business & Management)
Living and working in Jamaica, Keith qualified as a Management Accountant. Director of Resources for the Metropolitan Police Service (Scotland Yard), then to the Foreign Office as Director General (Finance & Resources), and Serco as Divisional FD, COO, UK Commercial Director (Board role). Keith left Serco for Mace Ltd (an international construction company) where he was Strategic Commercial Director developing Defence business, leaving when his wife accepted a job overseas.
Co-Programme Director for National Implementation at VERTIC (The Verification Research, Training and Information Centre) (Not-for-Profit, Law)
At VERTIC, Yasemin oversees projects on the legislative implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, Biological Weapons Convention, UN Security Council Resolution 1540 and agreements related to nuclear security. Yasemin formerly worked as a Legal Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the private legal sector in London, and as a policy officer at Cordaid, an international development NGO in The Hague.
Treasurer, Business Angel, Entrepreneur & Technologist (Consulting, Technology, Financial Management)
Anthony (Tony) Harris is an experienced treasurer, business angel, exited entrepreneur, and technologist. He co-founded Software 2000/Software Imaging in 1989 and the company’s OEM software revolutionised colour desktop inkjet and digital copier printing worldwide. After exiting in 2007, he completed an MA (Oxon), an MA(Res) at Reading, and a PhD (Cantab) at Sidney Sussex.
Tony is Treasurer of Regent’s Park College (Oxford), sits on the finance committees of Kellogg College (Oxford) and Clare Hall (Cambridge), and is a non-executive director of various Cambridge companies including Cambridge Angels (Treasurer). He mentors on intellectual property for the University of Cambridge Judge Business School ‘Accelerate’ and ‘Deep Tech Labs’.
Director of Advocacy, Marketing & Communications at United Nations Development Programme (Journalism, Communications, International Development)
Anjali Kwatra is the Director of Advocacy, Marketing and Communications at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She started her career as a journalist, working for the Press Association, and the Guardian among others, covering politics, home and foreign affairs, health and the royal family. Following that she was based in New Delhi as South Asia Editor for Agence-France Presse, reporting from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bhutan. She covered the 2004 Tsunami, the 2008 cyclone in Myanmar, the Pakistan earthquake and has reported from around the world, including Haiti, Rwanda, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She joined the United Nations in 2015 and lives in New York with her husband and son.
Director at the Freud Museum London (Arts & Heritage, Curating)
Following my PhD at Sidney, I completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Edinburgh University's Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. I later decided to pursue a career in museums and cultural heritage and enrolled on a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies by distance learning with Leicester University. I worked for a number of organisations in the UK before moving to Italy to take up the post of Curator and Director of the Keats-Shelley Memorial House in Rome, where I remained for ten and a half years. I have been Director of the Freud Museum London since July 2022.
Director at HJA Africa (Not-for-Profit, International Development)
Post Cambridge, I worked in community development in South London, mainly with persons with learning disabilities. I have been working to support self-Advocacy and run training for over 20 years. I have worked in small companies, local government, NGOs and now own a company. I have spent the last 8 years using my skills, my faith and my life experience to work cross culturally in voluntary development work in Ghana, where I live and help run our Organic Fertiliser start-up company.
Director of Strategy at Avid Technology (Consulting, Media, Business & Management)
I am a career management consultant and strategist, specialising in the media and education sectors, who has worked for consultancies, system integrators and product companies. I currently work for a media technology company, as a strategist and consultant, working globally with clients in the broadcasting and film sectors. I am also an independent governor on the Board of the University for the Creative Arts.
Founder and Lead Educator, Mind the Test Tutoring (Education, Entrepreneurship)
Anna is the founder of Mind the Test Tutoring, a tutoring company that empowers teens by teaching them how the brain learns.
After graduating from the University of Chicago with a BA in Linguistics in 2014, she earned a certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and spent five years teaching English and test prep while traveling the world. After two years as a full-time test preparation instructor and college consultant in Thailand, helping Thai students gain admission to American universities, she decided to pursue her passion for the science of learning at the University of Cambridge, where her MPhil thesis research focused on improving educational equity via linguistic dialect-sensitivity on the SAT. Upon graduating, she returned to the United States to found Mind the Test Tutoring.
Chief Technical Officer at MoyaApp (Entrepreneurship, Technology, Consulting, Business & Management)
Since graduating from Sidney in 2006 I have worked with start-ups in the tech industry for over 15 years in the UK, Turkey, South Africa and USA. I have extensive experience of building and managing cross-cultural teams, and scaling an initial idea into a fully-fledged product that can be used by millions of users. Additionally I run a consulting business helping start-ups build high-performance, highly resilient tech platforms.