To take a deeper insight into the BfE Team, we are excited to introduce our Growth & Partnership Team, including the introduction of the members, the role of the team within BfE, some challenges they encountered and overcame last year, their feedback of working as BfE members and, of course, their plans for the future!

Here’s what we heard from the team leader of the Growth & Partnership team, Belinda Ng.

How many members are there and who are they?

The team in Cambridge has four members: Belinda, Kai En, Annie, and Mavis. But we also have associates working with us from around the world in Singapore, Berlin, and New York. In particular, the four African G&P Associates, Sola, Joseph, Victor, and Nada have been wonderful new additions from last year that have hugely contributed to G&P’s outreach targets in Africa by working in their respective countries.

What is the role of the Growth & Partnership team within BfE?

The G&P team has two main roles. Regarding the “Growth” aspect of our role, we work to promote the organisation to incubators, start-ups, universities, and new networks in target regions as part of our larger marketing and outreach programme.  As for the “Partnership” aspect, we are working to recruit new mentors, companies, and organisations to work with us to improve the quality of our incubation services, whether it may be through expanding our mentor network or hosting more training sessions for associates. Moreover, we work as a source of communication between the different divisions of BfE across the world to coordinate our efforts of outreach, almost like a “bridge” within the organisation itself.

What were some of last term’s highlights or challenges for the team?

Last term’s highlight was the completion of the recruitment of our African G&P associates from Nigeria, Uganda, Egypt, and Tanzania, as well as the recruitment of new members within the Cambridge division. We were able to lay out clear goals for what we wanted to do, which meant that this term we could really begin to work towards these goals. With the recruitment of three more new members this term, it was useful to have new input from them about what sort of tasks G&P could work on within the organisation.

Has there been a particularly challenging engagement or period for the team? How did you overcome this?

Communicating and working with the African associates has been challenging because of frequent problems with network connectivity. But the African associates have been very accommodating, and we have tried to schedule calls when they are in places where there is a better network.

What do you enjoy the most about being part of BfE, and the Growth & Partnership team in particular? 

I enjoy the dynamic and varied nature of the tasks we are working on. Since we are filling in any gaps within BfE that need to be addressed, we are working closely with many different branches, which is a great experience. Also, the cross-continental collaborations between the New York, African, London, and Singaporean associates is particularly enjoyable.

What are the plans for the Growth & Partnership team for the next few months? 

Currently, we are working to recruit more start-ups within Africa, and are working closely with the Cambridge Startup Recruitment team and Global Outreach team to do so. We are also looking to recruit more legal mentors from the African region in the process. In the long run, we are also hoping to partner with more companies to offer more training for associates in BfE.