Breakfast of Champions puts pioneering stories in the spotlight

L-R Wendy Tinsley, Oxford Innovation, Philip Campbell, Milton Park, Dr David Kingham, Tokamak Energy, Annelise Vuidepot, Immuncore, Sarah Jermyn, Didcot Railway Centre, Kate Rowley, Verso Biosense and Placi Espejo, Oxfordshire County Council

Oxfordshire Breakfast of Champions puts pioneering stories in the spotlight at Milton Park

Oxfordshire Breakfast of Champions, hosted by Milton Park and organised by Oxfordshire County Council, brought together voices from across Oxfordshire’s innovation economy to explore how ambitious organisations grow, evolve and make pioneering decisions in the region.

Opened by Placi Espejo, Place and Ecosystems Manager at Oxfordshire County Council and facilitated by Wendy Tinsley, Innovation Director, Oxford Innovation, the morning commenced with Philip Campbell, Commercial Director at Milton Park, highlighting Milton Park’s role as a place designed to support companies through every stage of growth – with the infrastructure, flexibility, connectivity, amenities and community needed to help science and technology businesses evolve over time.

He explained how Milton Park is not simply as a collection of buildings, but an environment built to help organisations scale, grow and evolve with confidence, supported by a simplified planning regime, strong transport links, access to talent and continued investment in both workspace and amenity.

Philip said: “The question for growing science and technology businesses isn’t just ‘where next?’ – it’s whether a place can evolve with them. At Milton Park, that’s exactly what we’re designed to do.”
The speaker line-up then brought that story to life.

Annelise Vuidepot, CSTO and UK Site Head at Immunocore, shared the remarkable journey of a company that began as an Oxford University spinout and moved to Milton Park in 2000.
From early work in modest, highly adaptable buildings on the Park, to becoming a listed biotech with a commercialised treatment now reaching patients globally, her presentation showed what it really takes to pioneer a new therapeutic platform over more than two decades.

She also underlined the importance of Oxfordshire’s talent base, international outlook and collaborative ecosystem in helping a science-led business sustain and scale over the long term.
Annelise said: “At the time, nobody else was doing this – we had to pioneer the technology from scratch and prove it could work. From 15 people to hundreds, our journey has depended on access to talent, collaboration and the ability to grow – all of which we’ve found here.”

Dr David Kingham, Executive Vice Chairman and Co-Founder of Tokamak Energy, spoke about building a fusion business in Oxfordshire by combining world-leading regional strengths in fusion research and superconducting magnet technology.

He reflected on Tokamak Energy’s move to Milton Park in 2013 and the way the business has grown from a bold deep-tech idea into a company with significant contracts, expanding capabilities and wider commercial applications beyond fusion. His talk was a reminder that pioneering businesses rarely stand still: they evolve, diversify and create new opportunities as their technologies mature.

Providing a wider community perspective, Sarah Jermyn, Event Coordinator at Didcot Railway Centre, shared the story of an organisation rooted in local heritage but still innovating today.
Her story started in 1961, when four schoolboys set out to buy and preserve their first locomotive which today is the popular Didcot Railway Centre – the largest collection of Great Western Railway memorabilia, locomotives, coaches and wagons in the world.

As a beneficiary of the Didcot Powerhouse Fund – a Milton Park-founded initiative through which businesses pledge support for local organisations and charities – her contribution showed that the story of growth in Oxfordshire is not only about breakthrough science and technology, but also about investing in the wider community that helps places thrive and gives people memorable experiences.
Sarah said: “We started with a group of schoolboys in 1961 and one locomotive – and built something that still connects people and community today.”

Finally, Kate Rowley, CEO of Verso Biosense, offered insight into one of the Park’s newer innovation stories. Verso Biosense is developing a smart device to better understand the uterine environment and improve women’s health outcomes.

Originally developed in Southampton, Verso Biosense has been based at Milton Park since 2019, with ongoing clinical and academic links spanning both Southampton and London.
Her presentation highlighted both the scale of unmet need in women’s health and the challenge of bringing first-of-its-kind medtech to market.

It was a powerful example of a young company at an earlier stage of the journey – using the Oxfordshire ecosystem and Milton Park base to develop technology with potentially significant clinical impact.
Kate Rowley said: “We’re at the start of a journey to unlock what’s never been understood – and build the data that could transform women’s health.”

Across the morning, a consistent theme emerged: Oxfordshire’s strength lies not only in invention, but in its ability to help organisations grow from early ideas into globally significant businesses.

Milton Park’s role in that story is to provide the conditions for that journey to happen – and to keep evolving alongside the companies it supports.