SETsquared’s central team supports each of our four centres in their recruitment and support for entrepreneurs. The central team is the first point of contact for media and investment enquiries. It also co-ordinates all PR and marketing activities. The team moreover manages this website, introductions to our business support community and any regional or national events.

Hugo Armitage

Hugo has consulted to SETsquared since May 2004, initially assisting in the administration of the Mentor programme. He then moved on to manage the implementation of the new SETsquared website and online workflow management tool and continues to manage all technical issues relating to the website, workflow and central team.

Hugo's initial IT experience was in network administration. He has been an IT Manager for various companies including a sports marketing company, a plc, and an ASP. He then founded his own technology company targeting home users, SoHo's and SME's offering a broad range of technology solutions.

Karen Brooks

Karen has worked for the SETsquared Partnership in communications and management roles for seven years. She led the team that developed Europe's most successful University collaboration, government funded incubation programme which has provided support to over 200 early stage technology companies and helped create over £200m of value. Karen also developed the SETsquared enterprise brand for the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Southampton and Surrey. Karen has been key in the development of the highly successful UK US Science Bridge programme with UCSD and UCI. This programme has delivered enormous value delivering over a five times return on investment. The programme supported start-ups wishing to access US and European markets and linked academics from SETsquared's institutions with UCSD and UCI for applied research projects.

Karen has also worked for Motorola and Compass Group in strategic development of communications activities and project management roles. She has over 15 years of marketing, communications and PR experience in a range of industries including IT, Telecoms and FMCG. 

Karen holds a degree in Computer Science and is also Prince2 qualified.

Jeanette Evans

Jeanette manages and co-ordinates the operation of the Partnership's Management Group, Executive Board and the New Business Creation Steering Group to effectively achieve the objectives of the partnership.

Claire Judd

Claire has been employed by SETsquared since June 2004 and is SETsquared's Project Officer.

Claire works alongside Karen Brooks and assisted with the set up of the UK US Science Bridge programme. Claire has also been involved with the SETsquared Partnership's Investment Showcase events for the last six years and has led the organisation of this event for the last three years.

Claire also undertakes the general administration for SETsquared Central.

After leaving school Claire went to St Aldate's private secretarial college in Oxford for a year and following that spent 10 years working as a PA in the legal sector, working in various areas of the law.

From 1989 to 1995 she lived and worked in Perth, Western Australia and following that she spent two years travelling extensively.  In 1986 she returned to the UK and moved to Bristol.