Profile

Born in Reading UK, 1982, Chris strives to be a positive influence in the entrepreneurial and innovation community – inspiring talented creators to ‘think big’ and break free from traditional models. Spending his early years as a professional music producer while studying for a Ph.D in Computational Physics, Chris’ passion for empowering talented innovators to break free from traditional gatekeepers was sown upon becoming a semi-successful singer-songwriter himself in 2007.

However, Chris learned his core strength was to harness creativity, big-data, and social-psychology to go back-stage and empower talented people to succeed by creating platforms for self-made success. In 2010, he took a position as Research Affiliate at MIT creating algorithms that understand the influence others have on helping young people consider careers in STEM. This led to him becoming the Head Teaching Fellow of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts & Science in 2011.

After leading a successful high-profile experiment with the celebrated Prof. Richard Wiseman and being reported on by the BBC, Chris and his co-founder, Richard Hawthorn, formally established Libboo in 2011 – a multi-million dollar venture-backed company creating technologies that help talented authors succeed without traditional publishers. Libboo won multiple awards and positions within the world-renowned MassChallenge and Techstars business accelerators.

Chris exited Libboo end of 2013 to bring his philosophy of breaking molds back to the UK as MassChallenge’s first Managing Director and established the MassChallenge brand within the UK by connecting the country’s most promising entrepreneurs with Europe’s leading change-makers – from top-level government to the country’s most successful executives.

Chris now continues to support MassChallenge and advise, mentor, or judge at organizations such as Techstars, Hult International Business School, MIT, Startup Institute, Ben’s Lighthouse, and Founders for Schools.