Jelena Angelis, Senior Consultant and Deputy Director of Technopolis Group Baltics, is a qualified economist working in the field of innovation, incl. financing innovation and growth, since early 2002. She started with SQW Consulting and Oxford Innovation (both in the UK) and since 2011 has been working with Technopolis Group.
Jelena brings a breadth of experience outside the consulting world which is linked and is of use to funding of innovation. In 2013 she sat on the 4-strong judging panel of the Parmee Prize for Entrepreneurs and Enterprise competition (Pembroke College, University of Cambridge). During her time at Oxford Innovation Jelena was part of the in-house team helping entrepreneurs structure their investment pitches at investment meetings with business angels. She was also part of the team delivering Innovation Advisory Service in the East of England promoting and using open innovation in assisting businesses in developing and implementing innovation strategies as part of cultural change, which increases their capacity and capability to innovate. She is one of the business advisors under the Global Lithuanian Leaders programme focusing on supporting young innovative Lithuanian companies to grow globally; and is assessing funding applications from innovative SMEs to the EU Research and Innovation programme Horizone2020 SME Instrument programme as well as Swedish innovation agency’s (Vinnova) programmes. In the early days of her career, Jelena worked for the Lithuanian Import and Export Credit Agency looking into the structure and provision of financial guarantees for businesses.
Jelena holds a PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge (Judge Business School); Certificate in Medical Innovation form the University of Oxford; a BA (Honours) and a Master’s degree from Vilnius University, Lithuania. She has published a number of publications, eg “Innovation into Business” (a book chapter in The Innovation Handbook: How to Develop, Manage and Protect Your Most Profitable Ideas); co-authored the ERAWATCH Analytic Report "Funding Research and Innovation in the EU and beyond: trends in 2010-2012" and spoke at a number of events, eg “Incubation and entrepreneurship: The importance of social communities” during the INNO-Views Workshop: Supporting “gazelles” in Europe. Originally from Lithuania, Jelena spent 14 years in the UK and since 2012 has been residing in Sweden.