Our mentors
The people who do the job teach the job.
Everyone on this page does the work for a living. Every one of them is cleared through the Disclosure and Barring Service before they meet a student.
Founder
Aaron Emmett
Aaron spent years running one of the UK's largest under-18s event operations, including the MTV Hits under-18s nights and the Dance2k events, and was part of the production team for Capital FM's Party in the Park in Hyde Park.
Alongside that he produced corporate events for Xerox, Deutsche Bank, HBOS and Audi. He ran the first Marmalade JAMS pilot at Cressex Community College in 2010, and brings each mentor into the programme himself.
Mentor
Danny Gray
Founder, War Paint for Men and JAAQ
Danny founded War Paint for Men, which became the world's leading men's make-up brand, and JAAQ, a free mental health platform that has answered over a million questions. He built both from an idea to venture-backed businesses, and pitched War Paint on Dragons' Den, winning interest from all five Dragons.
Mentor
Gemma Pond
Founder, Nuva — now OWater
In the summer of 2014 Gemma was a property developer with no contacts in the drinks industry and one frustration: she couldn’t find anything to drink that wasn’t plain water and didn’t hide sugar or sweeteners. So she made it. She brought in a former Evian marketing director, toured the UK and Europe until she found a spring in France that could produce it, and talked her way in front of supermarket buyers. Nuva launched in 2015 into Boots, Waitrose and Ocado, won industry awards, raised £1 million, and took the case for healthier soft drinks to a debate at the House of Commons. The business was sold to SHS Group, owners of Shloer and WKD.
“If you have something unique — follow your gut and get hounding!”
Mentor with us
We’re looking for mentors.
Mentors give two or three hours across the programme. Their sessions are recorded, so what they teach stays with the programme for every cohort that follows, with the occasional request for a live visit.
A finance lead explaining margin to a fifteen-year-old who is about to price a ticket is worth more than the slide. If that could be you, or someone on your team, talk to us.