How should we measure success in the place trying to scale Britain's best science?

In this Oxford+ in Brief, Dr Ceri Morgan takes on the same four quick-fire questions every guest faces. She reflects on what success would mean after two decades spent at arm's length in investment banking, the advice she would give anyone entering the Oxford ecosystem, and what the city does brilliantly yet struggles with: it brings you face to face with astonishing, modest people, but connects them far too rarely.

Looking ahead to 2050, Ceri wants Oxford closer to the Boston benchmark, with more companies scaling outside the university and acquirers reinvesting locally rather than draining talent abroad. Her timing is apt: UK university spin-outs have nearly tripled in value to £49 billion since 2020, with activity now spreading beyond the golden triangle. From mentorship and the Lamb and Flag to a magic-wand investor database, this is a short, candid window into how a natural connector thinks.

Ceri Morgan: Dr Ceri Morgan is a Partner at Dalloway Partners, the advisory firm founded in 2025 by Vanessa Colomar and Helen James to help foundational science and first-time founders scale at speed. A medical doctor by training, she practised in cardiology and trauma medicine before moving into the City, where she spent more than two decades in healthcare and life sciences investment banking, building and leading top-ranked life science teams at firms including KBC Peel Hunt and Deutsche Bank and advising companies such as Oxford Nanopore and IP Group. Most recently she was Head of Late Stage Portfolio at Oxford Science Enterprises, and she is a Senior Advisor to LifeScience ORG. Based in Oxford, she also sits on a London hospital patient advisory group, drawing on her own experience as a cancer patient to push for stronger patient advocacy.

Connect with Ceri on LinkedIn

Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital.

Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content

Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston.

Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

How should we value a healthcare system that frustrates the very innovators trying to improve it?

In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Dr Ceri Morgan, a doctor turned healthcare investment banker turned patient, about her three careers and what they reveal about UK life sciences. Ceri explains why, for years, companies pitching an NHS-first strategy were handed close to a zero valuation, and why the UK's thin life sciences public market has pushed founders towards private capital and trade sales.

Her move to Dalloway Partners marks a third act focused on the non-scientific side of scaling: mentoring founders, opening up investor networks and building Oxford's ecosystem. The timing matters. After UK biotech raised just £1.8 billion in 2025, early 2026 figures show venture funding rebounding, with £516 million raised in the first quarter. From recycling capital and talent to being your own patient advocate, this is a candid conversation about fixing the structures around brilliant British science.

• (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+
• (01:23) - A Doctor's Path into the City
• (03:34) - Building a Life Sciences Banking Team
• (06:31) - Twenty Years Advising Science Companies
• (08:35) - A Third Career and a New Mission
• (10:24) - Why the NHS Earns a Zero Valuation
• (11:53) - The Shrinking Life Sciences Public Market
• (14:50) - Inside Dalloway Partners
• (16:48) - The Non-Scientific Side of Scaling
• (21:53) - Treating Oxford as One Ecosystem
• (25:54) - Female Health, Storytelling and Open Networks
• (32:06) - Being Your Own Patient Advocate

Ceri Morgan: Dr Ceri Morgan is a Partner at Dalloway Partners, the advisory firm founded in 2025 by Vanessa Colomar and Helen James to help foundational science and first-time founders scale at speed. A medical doctor by training, she practised in cardiology and trauma medicine before moving into the City, where she spent more than two decades in healthcare and life sciences investment banking, building and leading top-ranked life science teams at firms including KBC Peel Hunt and Deutsche Bank and advising companies such as Oxford Nanopore and IP Group. Most recently she was Head of Late Stage Portfolio at Oxford Science Enterprises, and she is a Senior Advisor to LifeScience ORG. Based in Oxford, she also sits on a London hospital patient advisory group, drawing on her own experience as a cancer patient to push for stronger patient advocacy.

Connect with Ceri on LinkedIn

Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital.

Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content

Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston.

Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

What does success really look like when we get hiring right?

In this Oxford+ in Brief, Susannah de Jager puts forward four questions to Riham Satti, co-founder and CEO of MeVitae. Riham describes success as a workplace where people feel they belong, feel empowered, and stay because their work feels like a career worth building. She offers candid advice for anyone entering the Oxford ecosystem, reflects on what the city does brilliantly and where it could connect its specialised pockets more effectively, and imagines what Oxford might look like by 2050. With a recent large-scale study finding that AI hiring tools can systematically reject qualified candidates (Stanford HAI, May 2026), her closing wish, a magic wand for fairness at work, could not feel more timely.

Riham Satti: Riham Satti is the co-founder and CEO of MeVitae, an award-winning people intelligence platform that combines neuroscience, behavioural economics, and responsible AI to help organisations make fairer, faster, and fully explainable workforce decisions. A neuroscientist by training, Riham studied medical engineering at Imperial College London before completing her research at Oxford, where she developed a deep fascination with how the brain makes decisions. Through the Oxford University Innovation incubator, she co-founded MeVitae with computer scientist Vivek Doraiswamy to tackle bias and inefficiency in hiring. MeVitae now works with global enterprise clients including Transport for London, HS2, and Taylor Wessing, delivering up to 90% time and cost savings while reducing employee turnover by 25%. The company has been honoured with the Norrsken Impact/100 Award, nominated by Microsoft, and was selected by the UK Information Commissioner's Office to co-develop the national AI Data Protection Audit. Riham is a TEDx and keynote speaker and sits on the TechUK Council, advising on the responsible use of AI in business.

Connect with Riham on LinkedIn

Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital.

Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content

Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston.

Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.