CXO School

An overview of what CXO School covers:

1 · How innovation helps your future. Why innovation matters to your future — as an academic, an entrepreneur or a professional. An introduction to all six CxO roles, including COO and CIO for AI and data, and to the destinations they open up. Includes an introduction to technology transfer, spinouts and consulting: IP as the assets a research career generates — patents, copyright, know-how — and how the CTO role translates research into products, R&D and technology strategy.

2 · Self-awareness: which seat is yours? Which CxO function you naturally lean toward, knowing you will wear several hats at startup stage. Routes in as a consultant or into industry, how to talk about your own worth, and what the wider innovation world actually looks like.

3 · How to value your ideas. Defining markets using basic search tools. Customers, users, and how to get constructive feedback — the product lens, from invention to something people need.

4 · How to present your ideas. Knowing your audience. Case-study show-and-tell, and experimenting with feedback to sharpen how you communicate your research to non-specialists and to investors.

5 · What is a company? Navigating organisations and fitting in. Company structures and a C-Suite overview, how organisations work and where you fit within them, and what it means to join a spinout at a later stage.

6 · Hear from a real CEO of an Oxford spinout. How a company is actually run — governance, the roles researchers evolve into, and navigating power dynamics. With consultant and C-suite guest voices.

7 · The most important question: how much? University equity policy, venture capital, and what a board has to collectively understand and agree about money.

8 · Breakout session. Small groups chaired by experienced moderators. Bring your own idea, or work through a real example.

Plus: US Day, Thursday 19 November A satellite session with a wider audience. Location to be confirmed.

CXO School is for anyone curious about where their research could lead. You do not need an idea, a business background, or to call yourself a founder — the programme is built for people wondering whether any of this is for them, and it answers that question honestly.

CXO School is open to the University of Oxford community, including postgraduates and DPhils, researchers and staff. 

No prior experience or business background is required.

CXO School is open access, with registration required. Register through the EnSpire form using your Oxford single sign-on. There is no application, interview or invitation.

Places on the pilot cohort are limited.

Dates for 2026/2027: 

• Michaelmas Term: Seven weekly sessions, Wednesdays 1:30–2:30pm, from 7 October 2026, at Kavli Oxford. 

Registration is open as of 1 September 2026. Sign up using the link below.