CoSTAR EVOLVE - MEET THE MENTORS

Austen Atkinson is a creative business mentor, project lead, and award-winning writer, editor, and producer with over four decades of international experience. He mentors founders and creative teams, drawing on a career that has spanned film, TV, games, immersive technology, and digital publishing. His expertise includes digital innovation, immersive storytelling, IP and commercialisation, and launching publishing and digital product ventures.

Austen has delivered projects for Google, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, and Marvel Comics, and has helped creative businesses secure millions in funding and global distribution. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts for his digital work. Austen is passionate about supporting creative and technological innovation, funding, and building strong industry networks, and is driven by a commitment to nurturing talent.

Damian Baetens is a former music manager with artists signed to major labels in the UK, who has since carved out a successful career as a Business Support Director for Generator, one of the UK’s leading agencies in the digital and creative sectors. In 2012, he co-founded Transmit Startups and supported 15k start-ups with over £178m in lending. Damian’s experience starting and growing his own company means he is ideally placed to advise other entrepreneurs on the practicalities of growing a business. Damian was diagnosed with ADHD at 53 years old and is now supporting others with specialist mentoring. 

 He can assist mentees with ensuring an evidence-based approach to bring new products and services to market, commerical strategies establishing new revenue streams and staying ahead of the competition, increasing capacity by developing your team and building partnerships and neurodiversity in business, playing to the strengths of your diverse team.

Simon Benson is a veteran immersive technology consultant with over 30 years of experience in real-time interactive development across sectors including defence, motorsport, and consumer entertainment. A former Director of Immersive Technology at Sony, he led multi-million-dollar AAA game projects, pioneered stereoscopic 3D console gaming, and founded the PlayStation VR project. Simon is also named on over 50 patents and is recognised as a global leader in immersive innovation. 

He is passionate about mentoring, having supported numerous founders navigating the technical and strategic challenges of immersive technology. Simon takes pride in seeing how his experience can help unlock progress, avoid pitfalls, and accelerate innovation. He regularly shares his expertise as a speaker, panellist, and mentor across a wide range of industry and academic programmes. 

Phil Birchenall is the founder of Diagonal Thinking. A consultant and trainer helping creative, media and digital professionals build innovative and successful operations he has over 20 years’ experience in the sector, and has worked with organisations including Discovery Education, MMU, and Creative UK. His focus is on helping founders build businesses around their IP, helping them to crystallise both their strategic direction and the day-to-day operational requirements they need to realise their success. 

More recently, Phil has focussed heavily on the use of AI in business operations. He leads workshops, mentor founders, and regularly speaks on AI in business. Bringing a mix of strategic thinking, commercial awareness, and creative curiosity, he has mentored through Creative Enterprise and the GM Growth Company and enjoys working one-to-one with founders and teams who want clarity, challenge, and confidence in what they’re building. 

Lisa Brook is the Founder and Director of Live Cinema UK, establishing the organisation in 2014 to research, produce, and tour immersive and interactive screen events. Lisa fell in love with live cinema and immersive whilst working in her previous roles at Sheffield Doc/Fest and Leeds International Film Festival and not finding a national organisation to advise on producing work for screens with extra live performance and interactivity, she set up Live Cinema UK to do just that.  

In December 2023, she joined the British Council part time as Creative Technology Relationship Manager, supporting XR and immersive collaborations between the UK and countries around the world. 

John Cassy is a multi-award-winning company Founder and Executive Producer working across storytelling and innovation. Produced projects with organisations ranging from Apple and Google to Disney and National Geographic, as well as talent ranging from Sir David Attenborough to David Beckham and Avatar director James Cameron. 

He led a three year multi-million-pound R&D project funded by Innovate UK looking at the future of visitor attractions which included building prototype immersive experiences. 

Current projects include a high-profile football led visitor experience launching in the US next year and working with an emerging Hollywood studio to reintroduce one of the US’s most famous writers through film, television, events, streetwear and publishing. 

Previously John spent 10 years at Sky (including launching Sky Arts), and his areas of expertise include strategy, commercial, creative development, innovation and R&D. He is motivated to help ambitious creators and founders pushing the art of the possible and he is an expert in strategy, IP development, commercial deals, partnerships and innovation grants. 

Vesko Cholakov is an experienced founder, creative technologist, and AI engineer with deep technical fluency across real-time systems, immersive media and machine learning. He has led the development of advanced R&D projects including 3D digital twin reconstruction, apps using Gaussian Splatting, generative design platforms for fashion, and real-time computer vision for edge-based IoT.

His expertise spans a wide range of generative AI models – including VAEs, diffusion models, transformers, and NeRFs and his technical toolkit includes Unreal Engine, Houdini, Blender, and TouchDesigner, with cloud deployment skills using various AWS services, MERN app stacks and containerised MLOps pipelines. He has worked with motion capture systems, haptic interfaces, AR/VR headsets, and multisensory sensor arrays. Vesko brings experience in the design, implementation, and launch of innovative products across industries, bridging academic research, cloud platforms, and novel creative pipelines. He has a holistic, systems-level approach to mentorship – focused on practical, strategic guidance to help founders turn bold creative visions into scalable, future-proof ventures. 

Amanda Dickens is an experienced business mentor, qualified executive coach, and former CEO with over 30 years of leadership across innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. She has supported hundreds of start-ups to validate and commercialise ideas, secure early traction, and develop scalable business models. Amanda led a disruptive innovation practice at PwC and co-founded a healthtech venture using virtual reality before setting up an inclusive social enterprise edtech that helped founders to learn how to start businesses. 

Amanda’s mentoring focuses on translating complex ideas into compelling value propositions, validating product market fit, go-to-market strategy and building founder confidence and resilience.  She has also built a network across many sectors and uses this to help her mentees whenever possible. 

She is passionate about unlocking innovation from every corner of society and is excited to support CoSTAR’s mission of helping founders move from idea to impact through purposeful, inclusive enterprise development.

Ben Fredericks is an artist and producer based in Leicester. He leads Ben Fredericks [Collaborations], creating immersive and interactive artworks driven by storytelling that interrogates systems, ethics, and audience relationships. His work spans VR, installation, and theatre, with projects shown at Cannes XR and Raindance (Playing God), Phoenix (The Diary), and on national tour (Choosing Children). He has also produced work presented at the Venice Film Festival (Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alex Rühl) and the Wellcome Collection (Archive of the Unseen by Christopher Samuel). 

Access is central to Ben’s creative and producing practice. With over 15 years’ experience—including with Shape Arts, the British Council, and Innovate UK—he brings expertise in access integration, co-creation, and disability-led strategy. 

As a mentor, Ben can help artists and companies develop bold, immersive work with a focus on storytelling, form, and audience. In addition, he can offer strategic and practical guidance for disabled practitioners working in immersive and digital spaces to help them build sustainable and ambitious practices. 

Shannon Harvey (he/him) is a creative technologist and strategic producer with over 15 years of experience delivering innovation at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and the built environment. He has led pioneering work in virtual production, AI integration, and experiential design for clients including Apple TV, Disguise, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover, and Johnnie Walker, across projects in dozens of countries. His expertise spans immersive media, R&D strategy, workflow design, and audience experience.  

As a mentor, Shannon is driven by a commitment to building equitable, future-facing creative ventures. He supports founders to align ambition with integrity, navigate complex pipelines, and bring scalable IP to market. With a calm, systems-led approach, Shannon thrives in cross-functional environments and is especially passionate about mentoring diverse talent working at the edges of technology, culture, and commercial growth.    

Tony Hughes is an entrepreneur, consultant, and mentor with over 20 years’ experience helping creative and tech businesses to innovate, grow, and expand internationally. His background spans innovation, technology, public speaking, strategy, and startup mentoring - skills he has developed across a wide range of ventures and advisory roles. 

He currently leads Locate Markets, a platform providing data and tailored market entry insights to companies and cities seeking to scale or attract investment. He also serves as a mentor for creative and tech companies on the UK’s Global Entrepreneur Programme, where he supports high-potential founders from around the world in setting up and growing their businesses in the UK. 

Tony works across the innovation ecosystem - partnering with startups, corporates, and governments alike, and is passionate about helping emerging businesses realise their ambitions. He is driven by a belief that creativity and collaboration are essential to unlocking global opportunity. 

David Johnston is a technology leader with 15+ years of experience driving innovation across media, entertainment, and emerging tech. Currently Director of Creative Technology at Digital Catapult, he has worked with over 100 startups applying technologies such as XR and AI to their creative business and challenges.

His career has taken him from hands-on technical work at places like Warner Brothers, Framestore and BBC R&D, to strategic leadership roles which has provided him with a unique perspective to help companies and individuals on the CoSTAR programme. 

Having personally made the transition from technical specialist to technology leader, he understands the challenges professionals face when navigating career growth in rapidly evolving tech landscapes. His experience mentoring through accelerator programmes and teaching at institutions like National Film and Television School has shown David how valuable it is to share practical insights, advice and experience of working across evolving technologies in an uncertain world. 

Tina Pollock possesses an MA in Games Design and casually lectures in Ulster University on its Studio Development module. Tina specialises in creative uses for immersive tech, game production, project management, and business development. She is a seasoned mentor with specific qualifications in Mentoring, Coaching and Leadership, with a special interest in inspiring diverse creative leaders. 

Erica Wolfe-Murray runs Lola Media, an innovation studio helping creative and tech companies to harness their existing/new IP to generate inventive products/services, develop additional audiences and imaginative business models fostering growth and commercial resilience. Building her career in blue-chip advertising, design, tv production and licensing both as a creative head and an FD, she has a reputation for inventively exploiting IP in new, effective ways by identifying overlooked growth potential. Erica's 500+ past clients range from renowned brands to emergent createch and incubators. 

Her deeply rewarding journey as a mentor includes the acclaimed 2014-16 Growth Accelerator programme, 5 years as lead on the BFI/National Lottery Female

Founders Scale-up Programme and for the Clore Fellowship. She is on the advisory boards for VR, games, scripted/unscripted content companies and wrote ‘Simple Tips, Smart Ideas: Build a Bigger Better Business’, a 2020 Business Book Award finalist, to support micro business founders.

Anthony Lilley has worked across the creative industries for his whole career specialising in the intersection of technology and the creation of IP and experiences.  In his twenties, he led a media start-up, Magic Lantern Productions, and took it from a back bedroom to multi-million turnover and multiple industry awards.  More recently, he founded Scenario Two, which works in theatre and live entertainment where he has raised over £5m in investment alongside her co-founder and delivered four major productions in the last few years.   

He has a long-held interest in R&D, including as one of the originators of the AHRC Creative Industries Clusters programme and as an early advisor of CoSTAR, and holds a personal Professorship in Creative Industries at Ulster University where he is also chair of Studio Ulster, part of the CoSTAR Network. 

He has mentored over a dozen companies and individuals and find the best relationships are based on and result in two-way exchanges of ideas and experience. 

Dominic Lusardi is a creative–technical entrepreneur and advisor with almost 30 years’ experience spanning immersive technology, business leadership and digital strategy. As founder of Animmersion, he built one of the UK’s leading immersive studios, working across real-time 3D, VR, and data visualisation long before they were buzzwords. Over 15 years, he grew the business to national recognition before exiting, earning a place in the Maserati Top 100 UK Entrepreneurs along the way. 

Dominic combines deep technical fluency with lived entrepreneurial insight. He’s supported startups, scaleups and public sector leaders, helping them navigate complexity, challenge assumptions, and build things that actually work. Now Entrepreneur in Residence at Durham University and a mentor on Creative UK’s flagship growth programme, he focuses on supporting ambitious founders and creative leaders who want honest, grounded advice from someone who’s built it, broken it, and built it again. 

Robin Moore is a creative technologist and experienced business manager/mentor, specialising in media innovation and immersive content. As a consultant with Media Cymru and Co-Director at Clwstwr, he has directly supported over 30 creative businesses in delivering R&D projects across Generative AI, AR/VR/XR, spatial audio, and virtual production - offering support with technology selection, R&D strategy, and the use of AI to speed-up prototyping and user testing. 

Formerly BBC R&D's Head of Innovation in Wales, Robin has led both editorial and technical initiatives across flagship brands like iPlayer, BBC News, Doctor Who and the Six Nations. He is also Director of innovation consultancy SHWSH Ltd, a Visiting Professor at the University of South Wales and a sought-after AI trainer. Robin can bring strategic insight and technical know-how to the application of AI and immersive technologies in storytelling, performance and visual creativity. 

Adrianna Polcyn is a Visual and Technical CGI Artist Supervisor based in Scotland, originally from Poland. She specialises in XR content production, 3d scanning, volumetric capture, and digital humans, with experience across VR, virtual production, and game content creation. From 2016 to 2024, she led volumetric capture and technical art team at Dimension Studio, working on high-profile projects such as Balenciaga F/W 2020, Madonna’s 2019 Billboard Awards performance, and Coldplay x BTS’s My Universe. She also contributed to feature films like Wicked (2024) and I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022).  

Now freelancing, Adrianna collaborates with different clients, mainly specialising in volumetric capture, supporting 3D tool development and automation. She is skilled in Houdini, Unreal Engine, 3ds Max, and photogrammetry and filmmaking workflows, with a strong grasp of real-time and traditional pipelines. Passionate about mentorship, she is looking forward to contributing to training emerging artists and sharing her expertise further. 

Mark Sage is passionate about empowering leaders and teams to unlock the potential of emerging technologies through practical mentoring and strategic guidance. As Executive Director of the Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA), he brings a global perspective to driving innovation and adoption. His mentoring experience includes supporting scale-ups and founders as Sector Manager for Digital Innovation at SETsquared, guiding international CEOs through the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Leaders in Innovation programme, and developing executive learning content for MIT Horizons.  

He focuses on translating complex technology, especially in AR, XR, and digital innovation, into real-world impact, using a data-driven approach to inform decision-making. He is excited by CoSTAR’s mission to bridge research, innovation, and industry, and is motivated to help creative and technology leaders navigate change, build collaborative networks, and deliver value. His goal is to empower people to succeed and ensure that new technologies drive meaningful progress and business.   

[to come]

Dr Chloe Sharp, is the founder of Sharp Insight, an innovation consultancy she established following her successful exit from SnapOut, a user research and grant writing consultancy she co-founded and led as Managing Director for nearly five years, and leadership positions she held in the financial sector in R&D grant services.  Her expertise spans over a decade in innovation research, product development, and securing non-dilutive funding across sectors including AI, SpaceTech, Creative Industries, GovTech, transport, and health. 

She holds a PhD and authored, "Make Products That Matter," combining academic insight with practical business experience. She is passionate about helping SMEs navigate technological change through evidence-based, data-driven methodologies.

Chloe seeks to empower entrepreneurs to innovate, scale, and streamline operations, particularly in understanding customer needs and creating meaningful impact. She believes in democratising access to research methodologies that drive sustainable innovation and help businesses create products that truly matter to their users and communities. 

Ceri Bradshaw (They/Them) has over 25 years of experience in the tech industry as a hands-on developer and senior technical leader. They currently work as a Fractional CTO, helping startups and scale-ups with technical strategy and delivery execution. They love solving problems of all descriptions: people, processes, and technology, and specialise in supporting non-technical founders. 

Ceri is a technical mentor for several organisations in the UK, where they have delivered sessions on topics such as what to build, how to build it, and what good looks like for early-stage startup technology. Ceri is passionate about building small and testing ideas early and often, and regularly helps start-ups to find smaller, more practical ways to deliver their MVP without breaking the bank. 

Ceri also has experience in data strategy, data ethics and AI, and is increasingly supporting startups and scaleups to develop credible AI strategies that scale with the company. 

Robyn Winfield- Smith is a stage, screen and XR director based as Founding Director of Liminal Stage Productions, and Theatre & Emerging Technologies Lead at Hat Trick Productions, where she specialises in the development of transmedia ‘spectacle’ IP universes that harness emerging technologies – in realtime virtual production, spatial entertainment, genAI and more – to engage the audiences of the future through new more immersive, interactive and embodied forms and experiences. 

Robyn’s 10-year background in theatre has seen her work for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre Studio and on internationally touring live cinema productions in Europe. Since her Clore Leadership ‘Transform’ Fellowship in 2021, she has collaborated with companies ranging from Epic Games, StoryFutures and ILM, been commissioned by ScreenSkills to deliver specialist virtual production training, jointly won a Silver BIMA Award for her work on an interactive digital comedian prototype exploring the ethical implications of using genAI within the creative industries. 

Tim Ward is a go-to-market and growth hacking strategist, serial entrepreneur, bidding and procurement expert, speaker, mentor, and board advisor with deep expertise in scaling businesses through unconventional, high-impact strategies. As founder of multiple ventures, including an AI-driven SaaS platform that reached millions, he specialises in go-to-market strategies that favour organic, self-sustaining growth over traditional ad spend.

His clients span global enterprises like PIF, KPMG, and Serco, as well as the UK government, with over £20 billion in supported public sector contract wins. Tim leads Do and Grow – go-to-market strategists, and mentors at The Unicorn Factory, Nova SBE’s Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute, and Founders Institute. He is passionate about empowering ambitious teams to unlock sustainable, scalable growth; sharing his experiences and insights to support others on a similar journey of personal and professional growth.