Expert Team Building for Deep Tech Startups and Scaleups
Deep Tech companies are the greatest hope in solving some of humanity’s biggest challenges, with innovations that have the potential to make the world cleaner, healthier and more intelligent. But building and scaling a Deep Tech company is hard. The feats of scientific discovery, engineering, financing, management, and leadership required are immense. This is where we come in.
Deep Tech Company Expertise
Deep Tech Leaders exists to increase the chance of these critical innovations making it to market. We do this by supporting innovators with the board and leadership talent and insight required to deliver their novel solutions from the Lab to the Market. Our team is made up of seasoned professionals, each with more than 25 years of experience working within the science, technology and engineering industries. In addition to backgrounds in executive search, members of our team have worked in startups, corporates and venture funds, giving us first-hand insight into the challenges building of leadership teams and boards.
We believe this mix of experience gives us the depth and context to offer higher-quality advice to our clients and investor partners.
Our Spinout and Startup Clients
We work with spinouts from the world’s leading universities and research institutes, as well as startups backed by the world’s leading venture funds. These companies build breakthrough technologies and solutions across the Advanced Computing, Industrial and Medical domains. Through the recruitment of board and C-level talent and our expertise, we help them navigate their Lab to Market journey, secure product-market-fit and deliver a scalable business that adds significant value to its stakeholders.
Headquartered in London, we operate across the UK and European markets and are fortunate to work with most of the leading Deep Tech investors across these regions. Our network of talent is global.
Chris Reichhelm, CEO
Chris is the founder and CEO of Deep Tech Leaders and host of the ‘Lab to Market Leadership’ podcast. He has been advising and recruiting for science, technology and engineering companies for more than 25 years, focused on appointing boards and executive teams. Over the past 12 years, he has worked with more than 120 Deep Tech startups & scaleups across the Industrial, Life Science and advanced Computing domains, helping them along their Lab to Market journeys. He works extensively with leading investors and regularly advises institutions and universities on leadership within Deep Tech businesses.
Chris is also the founder & CEO of Deep Tech Jobs, an online job platform that aims to connect the world's leading scientists and engineers with the most deeply technical science and engineering jobs.
Early in his career, Chris worked for Heidrick & Struggles. He later helped establish two London-based, technology-focused executive search firms. In 2011, he founded Peloton - now Deep Tech Leaders.
American by background, Chris graduated from Muhlenberg College, USA, and has lived in the UK for more than 30 years.
John Kelly, Consultant
John leads projects for Deep Tech Leaders and advises clients on board and executive appointments across the Industrial, Life Science and Computing domains. Recently, he has worked across Digital Biology, Additive Manufacturing, Medical Diagnostics and Energy Storage.
He is a strategic HR, organisation and recruitment leader for advanced technology organisations. He has supported startups, scaleups and mature businesses in organisational design, culture, performance and recruitment.
For 10 years, John worked with a leading mobile services group, eventually as COO, where he led the scaling of the organisation from 50 - 1000, and established offices around the world. More recently, he has supported tech start-ups & Medical groups as Global Head of HR.
John has a degree in Public Policy Administration and has completed extensive coursework at Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He lives in south-west London with his wife, Paula, and their dog, Peggy.
Siân James, Consultant
Siân leads projects for Deep Tech Leaders and advises clients on board and executive appointments across the Industrial and Medical domains. She has a background in leadership and innovation across a variety of engineering sectors including office equipment, domestic appliances, facilities management, construction and bridging, ophthalmic optics and additive manufacturing. She has built and led teams and major cross-functional programmes responsible for business and process change, product delivery, operations and supply chain, digital and IT strategy, quality management, health and safety, and HR. Her business experience ranges from multi-national corporations, small-to-large owner led businesses to technology startups.
Siân holds an MEng in Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. She lives in the Cotswolds with her husband and two cats.
Catherine Tubb, Head of Research
An experienced analyst and director of research, Catherine leads the development of our Lab-to-Market Leadership Model, a framework designed to help more Deep Tech companies successfully navigate the lab-to-market journey and bring their innovations to market.
She brings a wealth of experience in equity research, valuation, financial analysis and disruption economics. Her expertise has been instrumental in supporting business development across these diverse settings and she has led teams across a variety of sectors including NGOs, not-for-profits, venture capital, and corporate environments.
An esteemed thought leader and author, her pioneering book, 'Rethinking Food and Agriculture 2020-2030: The Second Domestication of Plants and Animals, the Disruption of the Cow, and the Collapse of the Industrial Livestock Industry,' offers profound insights into the impact of disruptive technologies on major industries. The book highlights the revolution in precision biology and the transformative ‘Food-as-Software’ model, predicting a future where these breakthroughs revolutionise food systems, making them more efficient, resilient, and cost-effective by 2030.
Catherine earned her PhD in Chemistry from Cambridge University, where she developed the foundation for her rigorous analytical skills and innovative thinking. She lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband, daughter and two cats, and likes to dabble in CrossFit in her free time.
Jez Bhatti, Finance & Legal
Jez leads finance and legal for Deep Tech Leaders. He has worked with the team since 2015 and is a director of the company.
For the past 15-years, Jez has worked with small and mid-sized owner-led businesses throughout London, supporting their growth and advising on finance and exit strategies. He is also the chair and co-founder of the London Whisky Club.
Jez is a chartered accountant who lives in Surrey with his wife, Bian, and their 2 boys.