Our story & about us
Our story
Powered by a team of neuroscientists, biochemists, computer scientists and bio-engineers, we have come together to work out how technology and data science can help improve mental health and human flourishing, on a scale not previously seen before.
Our starting point, is de-coding and treating stress, using our BreathTaking Science to help you get to a place where you can be the most amazing version of yourself, every day.
And behind the scenes we are building a wearable earpiece that collects and analyses special bio-markers from heart rate and brain waves patterns. These, combined with a view of how you are feeling will give a more accurate picture of your stress & performance, which will then allow us to recommend a personalised protocol through the stimulation of your vagus nerve in the outer ear, using a tiny electrical current.
It’s still early days. We have successfully built our proof of concept supported by grant funding & dug deep into stress biomarkers funded by Innovate UK. With the support of early angel investors we have finished building a feasibility prototype for further validation and to demonstrate our closed loop system, needed to personalise treatment. Next will be a further investment round to get us to fully engineered prototype and to build our next mobile app and software.
Who we are
Jane Ollis
CEO and Founder
Jane is a medical biochemist & environmental scientist by training, curious about how science & technology can help us shape tomorrow's world.
From interning at NASA to sitting on and advising boards of global companies, charities and government bodies, she is also an alumni of Sydney's social leadership programme, a business fellow of Oxford University and respected Non-Executive Director in the healthcare and renewable energy sectors.
She has experienced the rollercoaster of life as a mother, carer and business leader and knows what it takes to be resilient in tough situations, the power of loving kindness and the boost that a smile and a laugh gives us all.
As a speaker and influencer she shares the wonders of how our brains work, how to use stress to enable us to step up and into life's challenges and stop chronic stress that makes us sick, so we can focus on bringing our best to life, every day.
Dr Tony Steffert
Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
Tony is a well respected neuroscientist who has specialised in the workings of our brains and how we can use simple feedback tools, games and direct stimulation, to reduce stress and treat symptoms of disease and mental illness.
His background in design engineering & brain measurement has led him to work on a range of research projects at Imperial College & Goldsmiths in London. His area of special interest is the link between dyslexia, creativity and using virtual reality in neurofeedback (teaching people to consciously control their brain waves). He is a member of the Society of Applied Neuroscience and International Society for Neuronal Regulation and the Society of Applied Neuroscience
Eliot Frazier
Director Data & AI
Eliot is a researcher and technical leader in the AI space, with five years of industry experience. He specialises in designing NLP and network-based models. He also grown a business from 30 staff to 450+ globally & built algorithms that have formed stand-alone tools, platform ML functionalities, and intelligence-based improvements to underlying data engineering pipelines.
Dr Sunil Arora
Chief Medical Officer
Sunil, an anaesthetist and chronic pain consultant, is a gentle curious medic deeply interested in the relationship between stress and chronic disease. He brings a wealth of clinical experience and sets the bar high for MindSpire's clinical evidence base, ensuring results are peer reviewed, reliable and credible.
Dr Amir Konigsberg
Non Executive Director
Amir is a serial entrepreneur and global executive active in the AI, Autonomy, and tech space. He has founded and led 3 technology-driven startups to become global businesses and brings extensive experience in technology and business strategy, venture capital, M&A, partnerships, company formation, and expansion. He has held leadership roles at Google and General Motors. Amir was a founding director of Israel Brain Technologies, an organization founded under the auspices of former Israeli President Shimon Peres. He is the author of 15 US patents and holds a PhD in Rationality and Decision Making from the Hebrew University and Princeton University. In 2017 Amir was voted as one of Israel’s 40 under 40 innovators by Globes, Israel’s leading financial and business publication.
Andrea Wilson
Marketing Lead
Andrea develops fresh approaches to brand and business growth on the basis of clear distinctiveness, through her firm White Stone. Previously with McKinsey & Company in the Marketing and Business Building/Growth practices, she focused on brand and marketing strategy and new venture development. Prior to this, at WPP Group Andrea set up a consulting unit and the strategy practice of a brand agency (now Brand Union). She has lived and worked across the world and has an MBA from London Business School.
CLINICAL ADVISORY BOARD
Professor David Wilkinson
Professor Wilkinson obtained postgraduate degrees in experimental psychology and neurological science from the University of Kent and University College London respectively, before completing post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School, USA. Since moving back to the University of Kent in 2005, he has worked with clinical and commercial collaborators to gain regulatory clearance for caloric vestibular stimulation in the management of episodic migraine and Parkinson’s disease. He has also conducted early phase trials to investigate the efficacy, safety and mechanistic bases of both caloric and galvanic vestibular stimulation in acquired and traumatic brain injury. More widely, he has helped pioneer our understanding of how the human balance system, in both health and disease, interacts with cognition and emotion. He is a former director of the Research Design Service at the National Institute for Health Research, and currently sits on the Parkinson’s UK College of Experts. He also has honorary investigator status at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, UK, and at the Translational Research National Centre for TBI & Stress Disorders Centre at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Boston Healthcare System, USA.
Professor Rahul Kanegoankar
Kenny is the Professor of Medical Innovation at Canterbury Christ Church University, Programme Director for the MCh Otorhinolaryngology, Consultant ENT Surgeon and Innovation Lead within the Kent Surrey Sussex Clinical Research Network. He has been instrumental in guiding MindSpire on the role of the vagal nerve and auricular stimulation from the outer ear.
Professor Richard Gevirtz
Richard is a world leading expert in HRV biofeedback. As Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Alliant International University in San Diego he has led multiple world wide studies into the physiological mechanisms and the clinical benefits. Alongside he runs his own clinic and is supporting MindSpire's mission to reach a wider audience who can benefit from the simplicity of using breathing to reduce stress whilst optimising brain performance.