About

Catharina James PhD, MBA, MSc, FRSA

Dr Catharina James is an entrepreneur, start-up coach and established innovation expert.

Industries

Lead by Catharina, DRCJ Consulting works in a number of industries. We are best known for materials engineering, focussing on nanomaterials and particularly 2D materials. Example projects focussed on ink and sensor development for electronics and semiconductor industries.

We help clients create value from waste and with circular process design. Our particular interest lies in generating renewable energy from industrial processes and in waste management.

Experience

Catharina’s entrepreneurial experience spans commercialisation of ground-breaking technologies, product|ion standardisation and innovation road mapping.

Identifying projects and securing private and public funding lead her to successfully manage 10+ projects (budgets up to $1M, on target). She employed her technology expertise most recently to develop a pioneering, $150M circular economy plant for an emerging economy.

She successfully built and managed teams, growing her venture from the founding team to 25 at her exit.

She has been coaching 30+ start-ups on business model, IP strategy and fund-raising for those selected to the highly prestigious Accelerate program of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Education

She most recently completed an Executive MBA (Finance, Data Analysis) and has a background in chemistry (MSc) and materials science (PhD, University of Cambridge).

Honours

Catharina’s role in previous ventures earned her the title of “The First Lady of Graphene” [The Telegraph] and one of the eight “Business leaders to watch” in 2015 by UK media. She was name a Face of a Vibrant Economy [Grant Thornton] and her work was recognised globally by media and in museum exhibitions.

She has been awarded Fellowship of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in recognition of her role in the design of novel manufacturing systems.