Megan Morys-Carter

Director, TheHill

Megan is Director of TheHill, a digital transformation catalyst dedicated to empowering health and care with digital technology. TheHill supports innovators through the Market Access Accelerator programme and 1:1 support; engages clinical and non-clinical staff through needs workshops, digital skills training and the Digital Innovation Ambassadors programme; and brings together an ecosystem of partners to accelerate digital health and care.

Megan has a long career history in entrepreneurship and innovation, including running the University of Oxford’s Entrepreneurship Centre at the Said Business School, helping to plan and launch the Oxford Foundry including running the precursor Launchpad space, and managing ecosystem development and inward investment as Head of Innovation at Harwell. She is particularly passionate about building ecosystems and communities, and creating the right environment for innovation to flourish.

Megan currently sits on the Board of The Oxford Trust, an independent charitable trust working across enterprise and innovation; science education; and public engagement with science. She has also held voluntary roles with the angel network OION, Oxford Startups and St John Ambulance and continues to teach entrepreneurship through her social enterprise OxLaunch.

Speaker sessions

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14:45 - 15:45

Creating an ecosystem for start-ups to thrive

Pickavance Lecture Theatre | Main Stage

Oxfordshire has a vibrant community of young and early stage companies, with many new ones created each year. Many of these are spin-outs from Oxford’s two Universities and benefit greatly from the support of their parent institutions. However, many companies start without the backing of Oxfordshire’s universities or decide to locate within the Oxfordshire region to grow and develop their innovation. This panel will look at the ecosystem for start-ups, considering how companies gain support and grow, and will examine the strengths and weaknesses of Oxfordshire as a place for start-ups to scale and succeed.

Panellists: Mark Evans – Adaptix, Jon Rees – MitoRx Therapeutics, Nicki Campling – Barclays Eagle Labs, Oxford, Jens Tholstrup – OION, Megan Morys-Carter – TheHill and Gillian McLaren – British Business Bank.

Chaired by Nicola McConville – Taylor Vinters.

Sponsored by British Business Bank, James Cowper Kreston and Taylor Vinters.

VIEW THE FULL PROGRAMME