Careers Toolkit 3: Careers Outside Academia (in person)
Are you studying for a postgraduate degree, but thinking about embarking on a non-academic career? Then come along to this event to hear from Homerton alumni whose postgraduate qualifications have opened the door to careers outside academia.
We will have a different panel of alumni speakers at the in-person and online events, so make sure you put both in your calendar!
Confirmed Speakers
Tarquin Bennett-Coles
Tarquin is a Director at Compass Carter Osborne, where he supports the global life sciences, techbio and convergent industries with C-suite, and executive leadership appointments.
Deeply networked in these ecosystems, Tarquin has handled hundreds of complex senior assignments across biotech, pharmaceutical, medtech, and techbio companies – ranging from investor backed (private equity and VC); service businesses; start-ups; and healthcare consultancies. Tarquin has held senior roles in life science boutique search firms and he has successfully supported AstraZeneca as a Global Talent Scout and last year was contracted for six months as the Director of Talent of CellCentric a scaling biotech company in the UK and US.
Tarquin has a BEd (Hons) degree from Homerton College. He is an accomplished communicator who chairs industry panels on talent, EDI and career paths, including speaking at the inaugural Cambs Tech Week on talent attraction, retention and neurodiversity. He has also been a regular guest on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society careers podcast and written articles and blogs for several industry publications.
Tarquin is a parent, avid blood donor, EDI advocate, advisor to Gynii Me and the Judge Business School and a volunteer for the charities Beacon for Life Sciences, Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre, East Anglian Air Ambulance and the school age STEM charity Form the Future.
David Hawkins
David Hawkins graduated Homerton College in 2004, completing a History BA followed by a PGCE. After a very positive year as HUS Sabattical President in 2004-2005, he spent sixteen years working as a class teacher, area leader and assistant principal. David left teaching to take on the role of Programme Manager with Form the Future, and explore opportunities in supporting regional businesses to deliver on their Corporate Social Responsibility obligations through a wide range of outreach programmes, with a focus on STEM.
Johanna Jim
Dr Johanna Jim earned her Bachelor's degree in Molecular Biotechnology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received the prestigious Wellcome Trust Four-Year PhD Science Studentship and completed her PhD in Molecular Biology at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, affiliated with the University of Cambridge. Following her graduation, she worked as a researcher at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton before transitioning into the pharmaceutical industry, where she focused on enhancing healthcare and addressing treatment gaps and unmet medical needs.
With over 16 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector, Johanna has held various roles at local, regional, and global levels within Medical Affairs at leading companies, including AbbVie, GSK, Gilead, and most recently, Novartis in Global Medical Information. Her work revolves around delivering balanced and current scientific information on new medications to healthcare professionals worldwide, supporting their medical education and clinical decision-making needs. As a trusted leader, Johanna fosters innovation and excellence while promoting career development among team members from diverse cultural backgrounds.
In her spare time, Johanna enjoys baking for family and friends and practicing Japanese Pastel Nagomi art. She is a certified Associate Instructor and Advanced Instructor with the Japan Pastel Hope Art Association (JPHAA). Additionally, she loves to travel and explore different cultures, having journeyed across Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America.
James Lee
James studied an MPhil in Translational Biomedical Research at Homerton, going down in 2020. Following this he took a job with the NIHR, the UK funder of health and care research, on their graduate scheme, before moving into healthcare consulting. For the next three years he focussed on helping the world's largest pharmaceutical companies bring their new and innovative treatments to market globally. He now works at a UK-specific healthcare expert advisory firm, run by leading health system figures including a former Lord's Minister, NHS Chief Commercial Officer, and No.10 health policy advisors. Here he works to ensure new medicines are available to the NHS for the benefit of the manufacturers, patients, and system.
Callum Stewart
Callum is an Investment Principal at Bullhound Capital. He joined the firm after finishing his PhD at Homerton, his research involved developing 2d semiconductor materials that could one-day underpin the quantum internet. Topics covered in his academic career were varied and broad, ranging from quantum and battery materials to data science and photonics. He’s published many high impact papers, receiving >150 citations and speaking at a host of the leading academic conference in his field.
At Bullhound Capital Callum leads deep tech investing and has led significant investments into growth stage frontier technology companies such as $120m into Q-CTRL (Quantum Infrastructure Software), $275m into d-Matrix (New in-memory computing silicon chips optimised for AI inference), $220m into Multiverse Computing (Quantum Inspired Tensor Networks for AI Model compression), and $100m into Quantum Systems (Autonomous drone technologies).
Xinyue Li
Xinyue is a Research Associate at Cambridge University Press & Assessment. She specialises in the effective use of artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and extended reality (XR) in mathematics, science, and wider STEM education; she has published a range of papers and book chapters in these areas. She led the research component of several national and international mathematics curriculum review projects and contributed to the design of games and teaching materials for Minecraft Education: Ratio Riddles.
Booking
No booking required, but if you're a postgraduate student, don't forget to book into Postgraduate Formal afterwards, for a chance to continue the discussion with our speakers.
All members of College are welcome to attend this event.
Other Career Planning Toolkit Events
This event is part of a series:
- Careers Service Drop-in (4th Feb, 2-4pm) (open to undergraduates, postgraduates, and postdocs)
- CV Clinic (Academic and Non-Academic) (12th Feb, 3:30-6pm) (open to undergraduates, postgraduates, and postdocs)
- Careers Outside Academia (in person) (13th March, Fellows Auditorium) all welcome)
- Careers Outside Academia (online) (20th March) (all welcome)