Team

LJ Silverman

LJ leads LSE Generate, having built this award-winning hub from scratch in 2018. She manages the entrepreneurship centre in London and its 20 international chapters across the globe. LJ developed a unique mentorship programme that is focused on regenerative education and now extends to support secondary and primary school entrepreneurial minds all over the world. She’s passionate about inclusivity and mental health, which are reflected in the awards Generate has won over the years.

Kinga Zackowska

Kinga runs Generate’s administration and operations, supporting with diary management, staff recruitment and HR. In her spare time she loves dancing, and is obsessed with exploring the world, with a particular emphasis on Spanish-speaking countries where she can practise her language skills.

Alice Eddie

Alice leads our Schools Programmes, working with young people across the country to create social enterprise and tackle real-world problems. Alice is also a professional clarinettist, playing with BBC Concert & Symphony Orchestras at the Proms, Royal Albert Hall, and West End Shows.

Sian Kincade

Sian leads on our Events and Communications at Generate, managing all our operations and logistics for events and overseeing our communications channels. She’s passionate about ensuring that student experience is more than just time spent in a lecture theatre. When she’s not busy doing that, she’s hunting out bottomless brunch places or planning her next holiday. 

Livia Denis 

Livia manages Generate’s finances process, and oversees our co-working space, The GenDen. She makes sure all the budgets are aligned and invoices are paid. She previously worked in the city as an international trader, and then switched careers to work with neurodivergent primary school students.

Joanna Hamer

Joanna manages the core entrepreneurial support programmes at Generate, which is good because she loves designing and delivering learning and training programmes for founders. She previously ran a social enterprise shoemaking company, and helped build a video game to support young people’s mental health. 

Emma Higson

Emma supports across Generate’s entire range of programmes, from the flagship accelerator programme, to mentorship, and international programmes. She’s an LSE Geography graduate with experience in sustainable finance and in the London and Southeast Asian startup ecosystems. 

Laura Ross

Laura leads on developing and delivering Generate’s international strategy, which sees her working with our International Chapters to galvanise the School’s entrepreneurial communities around the world. She’s been at LSE since 2017, previously part of the Executive Office as the President’s Executive Assistant and before that, she was with a health-tech charity dedicated to pre and post-natal advice for underserved audiences.

Taylor Wong

Taylor runs our International Chapters, supporting alumni founders across the world and giving them a warm welcome to every overseas Generate event. Aside from planning her next trip destination, she is really into the Ed Tech space and is working with Girls in Charge to digitalise their offerings and empower more women in entrepreneurship.

Paroma Bhattacharya

Paroma leads on social innovation at Generate, overseeing research and programme delivery. She’s also affiliated with the LSE Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (FLIA), LSE Department of Management, and LSE Social Innovation Lab. Paroma has a PhD in Management and her research interests include social business model innovation in emerging economies, social venture teams and social innovation ecosystems. She has taught courses in social entrepreneurship at LSE, the Indian School of Design and Innovation Parsons, Mumbai. She’s also a researcher-in-residence at a menstrual hygiene social enterprise in Kenya.

Meenakshi Ajith

Meenakshi is the Community Officer at Generate, focusing on community engagement, communications, and data. She holds an MSc degree from LSE, graduating in 2023. Her diverse background spans clinical settings before transitioning into the startup world. She is passionate about research, data, and understanding human experiences, and is also a trained classical singer.

Mallka Kumar

Mallika contributes towards the planning and execution of special projects and international events. Her career began in advertising, where she honed her expertise in copywriting and branding. From her movie reviews, daily task lists and a distinction-graded thesis on protest music; it is safe to assume that she is a big fan of structure, research, analysis and writing. 

Cathy Walker

Cathy oversees the strategic development and growth of the LSE Generate Schools' Programme in the UK and globally, building and strengthening partnerships that will empower young people with the skills and entrepreneurial mindset to be future leaders and changemakers. She has 25 years of experience in education and schools as a former languages teacher and Head of Sixth Form and has a Masters in Education and Psychology. When she’s not at work, she’s gardening, cooking, reading or dancing.

Lisa Portz

Lisa is our startup acceleration and pitch coaching mastermind, supporting LSE founders with strategy and pitching. She has a PhD in Entrepreneurship, and has seen startup accelerators inside and out, from participating, to being an entrepreneur-in-residence, to designing and running them. When she’s not deconstructing a business case, she’s learning another language or doing a photoshoot.

Tim Deeson

Tim is one of our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, supporting our entrepreneurs to success 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. He has founded companies that have gone from kitchen table to successful acquisition, as well as a few others that didn’t work out along the way. When he’s not immersed in startup world he’s usually aiming to be happily staring at the lasers at a music festival.

Ruben Portz

Ruben is our growth expert in residence, supporting our later-stage founders with customer acquisition and scaling. He has helped founders go from pre-revenue to 8-figure exit, and loves supporting founders to make real progress. When he’s not demystifying the hectic world of startup growth you can find him enjoying the calmness of Battersea Park.

Nisha Ramisetty

Nisha facilitates our Food and Beverage Vertical at Generate, creating events for our many F&B founders to start and scale their F&B businesses. She is the co-founder of Naksha Collections, and has built and developed a portfolio of events, programmes and campaigns.

April Stephenson

April facilitates our Female Founders Programme at Generate. She loves to create space for entrepreneurs to explore and define their own approach to leadership and culture. She is the founder of Simba Technologies, and previously spent a decade in tech at Venmo, PayPal and Amazon. She has a MSc in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship from LSE, and she's interested in geopolitics, art, and the outdoors.