oxford-physics
(5)
Aurelian Lis
Aurelian Lis is the Global CEO of Dermalogica, the professional skin-care brand owned by Unilever Prestige. A self-described 'nerdy physicist with a love for cosmetics,' he took the top job in January 2016 after quadrupling Benefit Cosmetics' Americas business to roughly $500 million as its general manager. Trained in physics at Oxford and business at INSEAD, Lis built and sold his own customized skincare company before bringing a science-meets-emotion philosophy and a habit of relentless iteration to one of the world's leading professional skincare houses.
Matthew Wilson
Matthew Wilson is the co-founder and CEO of Jack & Jill, a London-based startup building two conversational AI recruiters - Jack for job seekers and Jill for employers - to replace the resume-and-keyword model of hiring. An Oxford-trained theoretical physicist turned serial founder, he previously co-founded Veratrak and scaled the global-employment company Omnipresent to a roughly $600M valuation in three years before its acquisition by Deel. In October 2025, six months after starting Jack & Jill, he raised a $20M seed round led by Creandum with backing from over 75 angels including Nico Rosberg.
Paul Taylor
Paul Taylor is a laser physicist turned manufacturer who founded Laser Wire Solutions, a Pontypridd, Wales company that designs and builds machines using light instead of blades to strip insulation from hair-fine wires. After an Oxford physics PhD spent trapping a single ytterbium atom to build a next-generation atomic clock, he carried that obsession with lasers into industry and, in 2011, started a two-man operation in a Merthyr Tydfil garage. It grew into one of the UK's fastest-growing manufacturers, exporting roughly 99% of its output, supplying mission-critical kit to the medical device, aerospace, data centre and electric-vehicle industries, and winning a Queen's Award for International Trade.
Rohan Doctor
Rohan Doctor is the founder and CEO of Louisa AI, a New York relationship-intelligence platform that spun out of Goldman Sachs in 2023. After 17 years at Goldman, where he ran the Bank Solutions business and closed a record cross-border trade he chalked up to a chance hallway encounter, he set out to answer one question: what if you could systematize serendipity with data? Louisa maps who-knows-who and who-knows-what inside an organization, then proactively nudges colleagues toward deals and warm introductions. The company raised a $5M seed in March 2024 backed by angels and Oxford University, and counts Goldman Sachs among its blue-chip financial-services customers.
Nicholas Ling
Nicholas Ling is the co-founder and CEO of Pattern Brands, a New York house of direct-to-consumer home goods brands. A physics graduate turned consultant turned brand builder, he ran the branding agency Gin Lane, which helped launch the likes of Harry's, Hims and Stadium Goods, before closing it in 2019 to build and acquire his own portfolio of brands including Open Spaces, Equal Parts, GIR, Yield, Letterfolk and Poketo. He pairs analytical rigor with a mission rooted in helping people enjoy time at home.