Professor Nicki Thomas

Professor of Kidney Care, London South Bank University

Nicki Thomas is a registered kidney nurse and Professor combining experience across clinical practice, education, quality improvement and research and was the first nurse to be awarded a professorship specifically for kidney care. 

Her particular research interest is the care and management of early kidney disease in primary care, especially self-management. She has worked in partnership with many voluntary and charitable organisations to help people know their risk of kidney disease and high blood pressure.

Dr Rishi Das Gupta

CEO, Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London

Dr Rishi Das-Gupta is the Chief Executive of the Health Innovation Network (HIN South London. He has worked to improve healthcare, patient experience and outcomes for over 20 years in a variety of roles focused on shaping and implementing government policy, working with health and care providers and redesigning services. He is passionate about the use of technology to enable clinical and operational change and to empower patients to manage their own conditions. Rishi’s experience spans UK and US healthcare systems and he is a fellow of the Sciana programme collaborating with German and Swiss healthcare leaders.

Before this role, he held executive roles at NHS trusts as CITO, Director of Innovation and Director of Operations and worked as a medical doctor. Rishi also has experience working as a strategy consultant at Oliver Wyman and McKinsey and Company. In addition to his primary medical qualification (M.B., B.S.). Rishi holds an M.A. in Law (University of Cambridge) and an M.B.A. (London Business School).

Deborah Bowen

Director of Croydon Campus, London South Bank University

With more than 25 years of experience within higher education settings, Deborah started her career delivering pastoral care and academic guidance to undergraduate students. She then went on to manage student support teams and has since developed and delivered expertise in change management within centralised and decentralised student support and professional services teams within university settings. 

Deborah was part of a team that delivered a new postgraduate campus on the Olympic Park, with responsibility for the delivery of all professional services and for embedding a quality control process. Most recently, Deborah joined LSBU as Director of the Croydon campus with a remit to develop and deliver a new vision to take the campus to its new phase of growth.

Rui Barros Silva

Entrepreneur Manager, South Bank Innovation

Rui Barros Silva is the Entrepreneurship Manager at South Bank Innovation, part of London South Bank University. 

With nearly a decade of experience in enterprise education, Rui is dedicated to championing entrepreneurship and supporting early-stage entrepreneurs and startups. His extensive expertise is complemented by a strong passion for fostering innovative thinking and entrepreneurial skills.

Lotus Qi

Head of MedTech, Capital Enterprise

Lotus Qi is the Head of MedTech at Capital Enterprise, where she heads the Cancer Tech Accelerator. CTA is a Cancer Research UK-funded specialist program that supports innovative cancer tech spin-outs and startups by providing training, mentorship, grant funding, and connections to investors and industry to accelerate their development. The MedTech team at Capital Enterprise have over 200 health tech founders in their community and frequently facilitates introductions to VCs focused on early-stage health tech businesses through investor events. Previously, Lotus worked at Post Urban Ventures, a deep-tech venture builder that creates and invests in AI startups.