Meet the Team
Lorna Green
Lorna was director of enterprise and growth at the Innovation Agency (NWC AHSN) and joined LYVA Labs in 2021 as founding CEO. Lorna started her career in the NHS, before working in a variety of commercial private sector roles in MedTech companies. After 10 years in sales, marketing and business development, Lorna joined Alliance Fund Managers as healthcare business consultant for the £27m Liverpool Seed Fund and went on to work for several of the businesses the Fund invested in.
CEO
Steve Stuart
Steve is an experienced Chairman who sits on a range of boards in public and private sectors. A corporate financier by profession, Steve has a detailed knowledge of working with start-ups/SMEs. Earlier in his career he was the original financial engineer to MSIF, which has invested over £200m into local SMEs. He was adviser of The Funding Corporation in Chester, which was the largest start up at the time in Financial Services, raising £150m at the outset.
Chairman
Akshay Bhatnagar
Akshay leads the investment team for LYVA Labs. Overseeing deployment and management of our Pre-Seed Challenge Fund for health & life science and deep tech start-ups, whilst supporting our portfolio companies to develop and grow.
Head of Investments
Ivo Kerkhof
Ivo works closely with the CEO and executive team to develop and implement strategies and business support programmes that align with our goals and ambitions. Ivo has built and led a variety of consultancy teams executing R&D and digital projects that bring economic growth for businesses and regions.
Chief Operating Officer
Farhad Ahmed
Farhad joins from a Government regulator where he held managerial roles in strategy and corporate stakeholder engagement, and currently serves as a public sector Non-Executive Director. He has prior experience within innovation as entrepreneurship lead for a North West University with an award winning business incubation programme. At LYVA Labs he lead on identifying and shaping transformational innovation opportunities based on large scale collaborations.
Head of Strategic Partnerships
Rachel Lawless
Rachel has +10 years’ experience in health and life sciences within academia and RTOs, having achieved a MRes and PhD at the University of Liverpool. She has helped many SMEs across the country having been involved in raising over £11million for UK SMEs. At LYVA Labs, Rachel supports the growth and scale-up of our Innovation Zone clients, helping local companies secure follow-on investment and funding for product development and commercialisation.
Business Growth Manager
Joe Cooke
Joe joined LYVA Labs having spent 9 years at Unilever as a project leader in Design, R&D and Marketing roles. At LYVA Labs Joe oversees delivery and client account management of our Innovation Zone programmes including our incubator for early-stage founders developing new technologies and business propositions.
Client Delivery Manager
Harry Chrimes
Harry joins LYVA Labs from Lockton Risk Investors, with economics degrees from Glasgow and Sheffield Universities. Harry is part of the investment team for LYVA Labs supporting the health & life science and deep tech challenge funds and helping our portfolio companies to develop and grow.
Investment Manager
Ike Cooke
Ike supports scale-ups to build sales pipelines and secure enterprise deals. She previously founded a deep tech startup, gaining first-hand experience of securing pilot projects and commercial deals. Before that, Ike worked as an oil & gas banker at HSBC Investment Bank and managed Start Up Loan funding at Virgin Startup. Ike holds degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Sheffield, and a Master’s in Innovation Design from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art.
Business Growth Manager
Charlotte Corke
Charlotte is an experienced innovation facilitator, supporting the development of new products and services with businesses of all sizes, from startups to corporates, in the medtech, biomed, AI and utilities sectors, for over a decade. She works with businesses in key growth sectors to identify innovation opportunities and connect with the right partners to develop ideas into commercial propositions.
Innovation Partner
Daniel Walker
Daniel joins the LYVA Labs team as a graduate from the University of Cambridge’s Bioscience Enterprise MPhil. Having spent 18 months working as a chemist within Liverpool-based start-ups and spinouts, Dan now works with the team to deliver our incubators and support promising start-ups in the Liverpool City Region.
Growth Associate
Anaz Abbas
Anaz joins LYVA Labs as an Innovation Analyst. A Business Analytics postgraduate from the University of Liverpool, he has a background in engineering and management. He supports the Innovation Zone project team with identification of collaborative R&D or large-scale consortia opportunities, cluster mapping, and impact reporting.
Innovation Analyst
Vijay Curthan
Vijay joins LYVA Labs as a Portfolio Investment Director, supporting healthcare and life sciences companies. He began his career in investment banking at Citigroup in London and New York, before holding strategic roles at GSK and Deloitte. Vijay has also worked with investment funds across Dubai, Oman, and Mauritius, and most recently was based in Manchester with Catapult Ventures.
Outside of LYVA Labs, he serves as a director of the Beatson Cancer Charity and Moor Park House, a specialist care home for individuals with complex needs. Vijay holds degrees in Economics and Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and in Law from the University of London.
Investment Portfolio Director
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Elaine Loukes
Investment Portfolio Director
Sophie Duke
Sophie joins LYVA Labs as a Business Administrator. She supports the day-to-day operations of the office, including organising meetings, maintaining a safe and tidy workspace, and ensuring supplies are fully stocked. Sophie is currently completing a Business Administration apprenticeship and is aiming to progress into a management role in the future.
Business Administrator
Holly Brown
Holly joins LYVA Labs following over six years at Alder Hey Innovation. She leads on the development of the newly established Health Innovation Ecosystem Forum in the Liverpool City Region and supports industry–NHS collaboration through a new programme aimed at tackling some of the region’s most pressing health challenges. Holly’s role demonstrates the value of working as a connected ecosystem and the impact joined-up support can offer to industry partners.
Programme Manager of Healthcare Partnerships
Megan Sanchez
Megan joins LYVA Labs as a Digital Marketing Executive, supporting the promotion of the organisation and its programmes across web, social media, blog content, and PR.
She holds a Master’s degree in Digital Marketing and a Bachelor’s degree in International Tourism Management. Before joining LYVA Labs, Megan worked as a Marketing Assistant where she led on marketing activity and content creation.
Digital Marketing Executive
Kate McDermott
Kate previously worked as an Investment Executive at Growth Platform supporting companies considering establishing a physical presence in Liverpool City Region. At LYVA Labs, Kate manages all operational and reporting aspects of our Innovation Zone programme.
Programme & Reporting Manager
Adil Ghafoor
Adil supports financial management for LYVA Labs alongside financial control of the programmes we lead.