INVITATION ONLY
If you have any questions, please contact Gabriel Moreno, Ecosystem Manager ‑ Climate and Sustainability, Enterprise Hub at [email protected].
To celebrate 10 years of the Enterprise Hub connecting innovation expertise with engineering talent, this event will provide fascinating insights on UK-US opportunities from a diverse range of guest speakers. We hope that you can join us for a fireside chat with tech founders followed by networking drinks.
The panel of speakers include unicorn founders, Sherry Coutu CBE (FTSE 100 Non-Exec Director of Pearson and Raspberry Pi, Chair of Workfinder) and Sam Chaudhary (Co-founder, ClassDojo), joined by Dr John Lazar CBE FREng (Chair of Enza Capital, Raspberry Pi Foundation and the Enterprise Committee). They will be discussing their journeys as founders, investors and advisors, as well as sharing key advice for those looking to land and expand in the USA.
The Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub supports talented entrepreneurs and decision makers to transform breakthrough engineering and scientific innovations into disruptive spinouts, startups and scaleups. GBx Global is a private non-profit community for British founders, tech leaders and investors in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Together we look forward to discussing the UK-US tech ecosystem.
Venue and accessibility
It is very important to the Royal Academy of Engineering that our events are accessible to all. If you have any accessibility requirements, please contact the Events team more than one week in advance of this event so that necessary arrangements can be made. Contact details: [email protected].
Further information about accessibility at Prince Philip House can be found at: https://raeng.org.uk/about-us/accessibility.
Sir John Lazar CBE FREng
Sir John is a software engineer and entrepreneur with experience of building and managing successful global businesses. He is Chair of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which aims to help young people realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies. He is also co-founder, General Partner, and a Limited Partner at Enza Capital, which backs founders and teams using technology to solve large and meaningful problems across Africa. He sits on the boards of multiple African technology companies and previously served as the Chair of What3words. He was awarded a CBE for services to engineering in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2016 and was knighted for services to engineering and technology in the His Majesty The King’s New Year Honours List 2025. Sir John was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011 and chaired the Academy’s Enterprise Committee, which supports startups and scaleups across the UK and globally through the Enterprise Hub. He has also been a member of the Academy’s Education and Skills Committee and played an active role in developing the programme of study for England’s school Computer Science curriculum. Sir John has also been a judge and mentor for the Academy’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, which trains and backs early-stage African engineering companies. He has spent many years working on tech-related non-profit initiatives in Africa, especially building “digital blacksmiths” and maker labs. He has been an active angel investor and technology start-up mentor in the UK and Africa, with more than 40 individual pre-seed/seed investments. He graduated from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar with an MSc in Computation and a DPhil in History, following an undergraduate degree in Computer Science at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Sir John was elected as President of the Royal Academy of Engineering at its 48th AGM in 2024.
Sam Chaudhary
Sam is the Co-founder of ClassDojo, a global community of more than 50 million teachers and families who come together to share kids’ most important learning moments, in school and at home—through photos, videos, messages, and more. The educational unicorn is valued by Tencent at $1.25bn.
Sherry Coutu CBE
Sherry is a serial entrepreneur, investor and non-exec director of companies, charities and universities. At present, she is a senior independent director at Pearson, Raspberry Pi and Workfinder. Sherry has served on the Board of LinkedIn and as non-exec director at The Royal Society, Cambridge University, the London Stock Exchange plc and Zoopla. Previously, Sherry founded the unicorn Interactive Investor (listed and then acquired by LON:ABDN) and was managing director at ISI Emerging Markets (acquired by LON:ERM).