WE ACE is a programme of workshops dedicated to women entrepreneurs in health and life sciences, with a focus on leadership and negotiation. The inaugural cohort of the programme ran in the Summer of 2020 to great success.

What is the WE ACE programme?

Meet co-instructor  Milly Sinclair, who will share what excited her about co-leading the programme with Ellen J. K.

Ellen J. K. also co-developed and instructed WE ACE. She describes the programme as: 

“WE ACE focusses founders on the skills they need at the individual, firm, and market levels to negotiate and create high-impact deals to fund and grow their ventures. It is a highly applied programme which teaches entrepreneurs through individual development and real-time simulations of how to prepare for and confidently negotiate deals that are complex, fast-paced, and high-value.
 
Each WE ACE session combines lectures, simulations, reflection, and practice. We focus on developing each entrepreneur personally and professionally. Founders learn by “doing”. Founders learn to craft deals involving high-stakes approaches, complex relationships, novel technology, and market uncertainty. Following the WE ACE 2020 programme alumnae have negotiated novel agreements with major global partners, venture capitalists, and co-founders.”

The History of WE ACE

In 2018 Innovation Forum Oxford (IFO) created ACE (Awareness, Connectivity, Exchange) Saturdays–a series of workshops aimed at nurturing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst academic and clinical researchers in the sciences at the University of Oxford. Feedback from participants and experts in previous workshops highlighted a particular need for more women-focussed training and initiatives to address the unequal representation of women entrepreneurs. As a call to action, IFO collaborated with two experts, Milly Sinclair and Ellen J. K. to create WE ACE (Women Entrepreneurs ACE). Thanks to the generous support of the University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division we were able to offer this world-class programme to participants free of charge.

Want to Take Part?

We are currently recruiting participants for a new cohort of the programme to run in the 20/21 academic year. If you are a female entrepreneur in the health and life sciences with a connection to Oxford please email [email protected] with the following details:

1. Name and Job Title/Affiliation

2. A brief bio (100 words)

3. A brief description of how you think you would benefit from the WE ACE programme. (100 words)

Participants of WE ACE