Hybrid Speakers

Immunologist Professor Robin Shattock gave a lecture in 2019, letting his audience know what needed to be done to prepare for an inevitable global pandemic – without knowing that it would arrive so soon. Head of Mucosal Infection and Immunity with the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College, London. He’s worked on vaccine projects on HIV, Ebola, rabies viruses, and has been at the centre of the search for a Covid vaccine from the start.

At Hybrid, Robin will talk about the extraordinary events of the last 18 months, his aims for what he and his colleagues will do next, and his aspirations for how we can benefit from the knowledge gained. 

Sanjay Lobo caught the start-up bug working as an in-house lawyer for lastminute.com. What started out as a career he didn’t seek out in law, led to a series of senior roles across Europe at corporates experiencing rapid change.

Fast forward to 2019, and he came across the now award-winning onHand, a tech platform helping vulnerable people get the help they need. It was an answer to some of society’s most difficult problems – and some of his own. His father was onHand’s first customer, and Sanjay is now their CEO.

But in response to the pandemic, Sanjay made a huge change to their business model, setting the company on a new route altogether.

Sanjay has drawn on his wide-ranging experience across many sectors to grow his three-year start-up to where it is today. He’ll be sharing the secrets of where he gets his work ethic, learning not to fear change and the power of being able to influence.

‘If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.’ (Sheryl Sandberg)

Rachel started her company from scratch in 2007, and now Tiny Box Company is the UK’s largest online gift packaging e-commerce company, with over 700 products and over 120,000 customers - ranging from one-person start-ups to international corporations.

Trauma in her personal life prepared Rachel for the struggles of business.

Rachel spent her formative years in care after a traumatic early childhood. Whilst working in Sierra Leone during the military coup, the extreme poverty she witnessed drove her vision for a Fairtrade business. This began as a jewellery company, but her struggle to find recycled and environmentally friendly packaging sparked the idea for Tiny Box Company, supplying businesses with attractive, ethical packaging. Against a backdrop of difficulties including cancer, fire, flooding, an IT hack, and now Covid-19, she has grown Tiny Box to a thriving company of 90 employees.

Rachel is Dragon’s Den’s most successful female ‘dragon’ to date. The two original investors Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones can congratulate themselves on backing a business worth in excess of 10 million pounds.

And if that wasn’t enough, there is something new to talk about for 2022.

Kathy Caton is the founder and Managing Director of Brighton's first distillery, making the multiple award-winning Brighton Gin. She's a Brighton obsessive with a passion for good food, booze, arts, culture and community – and on a mission to take the Spirit of Brighton to the world. When not making gin and waxing lyrical about it she can be found broadcasting and podcasting with a weekly arts, community and culture show on BBC Radio Sussex & BBC Radio Surrey and producing and presenting the drinks-focused podcast The Sipping Forecast.