A Generate Welcome

LJ Silverman
Head of Generate 

I get to spend my waking hours alongside the best and brightest socially driven entrepreneurs at LSE, leading the entrepreneurship centre at the School here in London as well as our global start-up hubs. I manage LSE Generate which is a community of innovators who can engage with our programme, seek mentorship, funding and a home where they can be equipped to go out and solve some of society's most pressing problems.

Prior to LSE I ran my own careers and recruitment consultancy focussed on climate change and before that I worked in TV. Many moons ago, I studied languages at Cambridge Uni. I am passionate about parent-tech, and any innovation that clearly contributes to a better tomorrow. I also quite like my kids, spider plants before they got cool, mulled wine in a mug and Liverpudlians.

Emma Davies
Deputy Manager

Emma is the Deputy Manager at Generate and is great person to head to if you can’t get LJ…. She also knows a thing or two about the wider world of LSE as she came to us via the Directorate (altogether now; oooOOOoooooo!!). Emma is often found in the GenDen coworking space, singing along to Billy Bragg.  She’s usually checking you guys aren’t working too hard and persuading all to have a glass of fizzy pop (or something stronger) and then she whips out something delicious she’s baked while making sure the Generate machine is ticking along perfectly and that LJ's diary hasn't imploded. Emma is an all-rounder, she has her nose in most things Generate and she loves hearing all about your business ideas on a brightly coloured bean-bag. Come and meet her… tell her I sent you. She also wants me to let you know, she once made a souffle in the back of a campervan.

Alice Eddie
Global Engagement Lead

I can always guarantee that on turning on my phone in the morning, there'll be a WhatsApp from my dad, a student apologising for a missed clinic and ALICE EDDIE. I challenge you to find a more efficient, hard working and all-round incredible human.

Alice joined us as the lead on our Comms, Marketing, and Events strategy about 1.3 seconds before the global pandemic graced us with its presence which meant that her job was even more essential to the smooth running of the Generate machine. She bosses the social media platforms and her specialist subject is events, making Glasto look like your nan's village fete. Our brand new Generate SOS programme is thanks to this little whizz.

Her background is as a professional clarinetist - playing with BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Proms, for Disney at the Royal Albert Hall, with Earth Wind & Fire in front of 30,000 peeps, and in West End shows such as Les Mis & War Horse along with freelance Orchestral Management roles, coaching for National Youth Concert Band and some teaching on the side - give her an aperol spritz and she'll recite Joesph backwards to you. Beat that.

Lisa Portz
Head of Programme Design & Acceleration

Earlier in her career and life, Lisa really struggled to specialise.. Until she realised there was no need to as she found there’s a perfect place for her shockingly diverse skillset - running her own companies. With the first business, she got into a startup accelerator, and two things happened: she learnt the best ways to validate a business and she fell in love with accelerators. Years later, she’s still doing both - designing and running startup programmes to help founders learn about validating their business ideas. Her work includes our GAP program and Validation Workshop Series.On the rare occasion when she’s not deconstructing another business case (in five years in London, she’s even estimated the profit margin of her local burger stand - they seem to be doing really well), she’s learning yet another language or doing some photo-shoots.

Yael Nevo
Gender Consultant

Yael Nevo is an LSE Alumna, award-winning Gender Consultant and Founding Director of Gender Rise - working with Companies, Startups and VCs to create a unique and bespoke gender-responsive code of conduct that integrates strategy, policy and training to hold leaders accountable and committed to change. Yael has 19 years of gender work and study, collaborating with industry leaders such as Amnesty International, GIZ, UNDP, Virgin Group, and LSE. Her strong human Rights and International Development background allows her to see the private sector through a non-traditional lens and generate impactful ‘outside the box’ solutions that allow all gender to thrive.

Ramona Liberoff
Entrepreneur-in-Residence 2021

Meet Ramona, our Entrepreneur-in-Residence for 2021! Ramona works at the intersection of investment, innovation, and impact - (It's Friday, it's still Lockdown, we're entitled to an alliteration-fest, right?!).

Our first meeting with Ramona involved the words "That is SO up our street!" so many times that we knew straight off that she was the one for the job! Right, breathe in; here are her best bits: Ramona is the former Chief Operating Officer of the Innogy Innovation Hub, which invested in businesses working in the future of renewable energy. She was formerly CEO of SPRING Accelerator in East Africa and South Asia.  She is long-term early stage investor in impact and technology start-ups as well as a several-time founder, most recently of an inclusive transport start-up (Ride Tandem, with another LSE alum!). Exciting, huh?!

Ramona is currently supporting two investment funds with their thesis and impact, working extensively with civic tech company Civocracy on better democratic and Citizen Engagement, working to remove barriers to bringing investment capital into sustainable ag tech in Africa (through an accelerator with GIZ, the German development cooperative), and designing an inclusive agritech fund.

She holds master's degrees from the LSE (Social and Organisational Psychology '02) and Yale University (Pre-Columbian studies, 1993) as well as a first degree from Williams College.

Ramona's superpower - by the looks of that list above - is to bend time. And so, she's agreed to spend some of it with our gang and start working alongside you lot and help drive your brilliant businesses forward. I know you'll make her welcome! 2021 just got good!

Yogesh Patel
Accountant-in-Residence

Yogesh is our go to person for all things accounting and tax for our budding entrepreneurs. He has been working with us from day dot of LSE Generate and passionate about working with socially driven entrepreneurs. 

He is a  Chartered Tax Adviser and FCCA accountant drawing over 15 years of advisory experience, including 7 years’ experience at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has worked with clients from all walks of life, companies of all shapes and sizes, and absolutely loves tackling the wide range of complex business challenges entrepreneurs face.  

He also won the 2021 ACCA Advocate of the year for all his work within the accounting profession.

Emma Mirams
University Ecosystem Manager

Emma has the herculean task of mapping entrepreneurial activities and opportunities across Universities across the UK – it's exhausting just typing this but Emma takes this and everything else in her stride. She also has entrepreneurial blood in her as the Co-Founder of an amazing nutrition business. No donuts were involved in the making of this university ecosystem project!

Emma is based with us but liaises a lot with our friends at Oxford which we won't hold against her! Emma lives in the country and we aren't at all envious of that fresh air, countryside cycling and dog walking adventures! She's such an excellent addition to our team and we wish we had her for longer!

Tim Deeson
Startup Advisor

Tim has plenty of hands on founder experience and the scars to show it. He has founded companies that have gone from kitchen table to successful acquisition by a public company, as well as a few others that didn’t quite work out along the way.

He’s (embarrassingly) enthusiastic about helping our entrepreneurs succeed in whatever way he can. Whether that’s moral support on life as a founder (he’s a qualified executive coach) or tactical advice on closing your first sale with a customer.

Tim works directly with our entrepreneurs ranging from our accelerators to drop-in business clinics. When he’s not immersed in startup world he’s usually aiming to be happily staring at the lasers at a music festival.