Nicholas Jennett

Nick is an economist with some forty years’ experience spanning academia, government service, consultancy and investment banking. He worked for twenty years in Luxembourg and Athens with the European Investment Bank (EIB), an institution of the European Union and the world’s largest bank by lending volume. He was ultimately appointed Deputy Director General in the Directorate for Lending Operations and became a member of the Bank’s senior cadre.

At the Bank he led a team of financial engineers and was responsible inter alia for a EUR 1bn+ portfolio of infrastructure fund investments and developing the Bank’s lending in high yield (equity type) debt for innovative SMEs. This high-risk lending was supported by the European Union’s Horizon programme.

Since leaving the Bank, he has pursued his interest in funds for early-stage startups. He led structuring work for a Greek based venture capital fund which secured a significant cornerstone commitment from the Greek development bank. He has also undertaken due diligence on behalf potential investors in a range of other funds. He is currently working with colleagues to develop an early-stage MedTech fund.

Nick was a regular mentor of early career executives at the EIB and is currently a mentor for the University’s Postdoc Academy. The mentees he supports are predominantly interested in transitioning from academic to private sector roles. He works particularly on leadership capacity, helping mentees to appreciate better the relevance and transferability of skills they have developed in their academic positions.

Nick is a member of the governing body of the Castle Special School in Cambridge and a director of Frontline Referrals Limited, a not-for-profit SAAS company which facilitates mutual referrals and collaborative working between health, social care and voluntary sector service providers.