Fail: Where real innovation is forged
Green Templeton Lectures 2026
Wednesday 11 March 2026 17:30 to 19:30Speakers: |
Benny Axt, Dr Matthew Frohn, and Dr Susanna Kislenko |
Location: |
EP Abraham Lecture Theatre, Green Templeton College |
Panel
Benny Axt is Oxford Science Enterprise’s first Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) to join from the US, bringing more than fifteen years of experience in healthcare strategy, operations, and international expansion. He has lived and worked in healthcare systems on six continents, supporting organisations spanning from seed stage digital health start-up to Fortune 500 healthcare provider. As an EIR, he’s on a mission to identify and ultimately found a new high-impact venture that translates Oxford’s cutting-edge science into global healthcare impact. Benny holds a Master of Health Care Delivery Science from Dartmouth College, an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr Matthew Frohn has over twenty five years’ experience as a life science venture investor. He is co-founder of Longwall Venture Partners, one of the UK’s leading early stage, deep tech fund managers. He has been involved, as investor, director or chair in a range of healthcare and life science technology businesses in medical devices, molecular diagnostics, imaging, drug delivery, and discovery tools, including Organox, Lightcast Discovery, and Caristo Diagnostics. He has a D.Phil in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and pre-venture background in clinical pathology, and research.
An internationally recognized expert on founder leadership, Dr Susanna Kislenko created and directs The Founder Leadership Research Lab, based between Kellogg College at the University of Oxford and the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, where she is also an Adjunct Research Professor. Using qualitative research methods, Susanna’s research pulls back the curtain on the challenges and potentially darker organizational consequences of long-term founder leadership, including Founder’s Syndrome. Having an interest in how leadership impacts organizations and systems, Susanna holds an IBBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University, an MA in Political Science from McGill University, and a PhD in Organizational Behaviour from IESE Business School. Prior to entering academia, Susanna worked in the charity and social enterprise sphere for 12 years, holding a number of leadership roles in social service organizations across Canada. Susanna’s research is driven and motivated by her practical experience and she is always looking for ways to translate research into practice.
About
If you are not failing, you are probably not innovating.
In health and science, failure is not a detour from progress, it is the mechanism of progress. Clinical dead-ends, regulatory pushback, rejected grants, collapsed partnerships, missed timing: these are not embarrassments to hide, but data to study.
This session does not celebrate failure for its own sake. It examines it as a strategic asset. What separates fatal mistakes from formative ones? When does persistence become stubbornness? How do serious innovators metabolise setbacks faster than the system around them?
The ventures that endure are rarely those that avoided failure. They are those that learned from it before anyone else did.
Open to all, but please register below. The panel will be followed by a drinks reception in the Stables Bar.
About the Green Templeton Lectures
This is the second of the Green Templeton Lectures 2026, exploring healthcare innovation. Innovation in healthcare and life sciences is a rapidly evolving field and a central societal priority. In the context of urgent global health challenges and the expanding role of biotechnology and digital health, Oxford is uniquely positioned to convene researchers, thought leaders, practitioners, and future innovators to exchange ideas and foster meaningful dialogue.
The 2026 Green Templeton Lecture Series explores how discovery, experimentation, and translation drive progress in medicine and health. It considers the scientific, entrepreneurial, and system-level shifts shaping the future of healthcare, while also reflecting on the broader state of the field and the conditions needed for innovation to flourish. The programme strengthens the college’s role as a convener in this space, deepens engagement with students and alumni, and enhances its public profile in health innovation and entrepreneurial leadership. At a time when few spaces in Oxford bring together health, entrepreneurship, and policy in a sustained way, the series aims to create a forum where these worlds meaningfully connect.
The series is led by Associate Fellow Dr Christiaan de Koning, in collaboration with partners across the college and the wider health innovation ecosystem, and forms part of the activities of the Oxford Health Innovation Forum.
The lecture series is generously sponsored by Mills & Reeve. a leading UK law firm known for building strong, long-term relationships with clients, colleagues and communities. Guided by its purpose, “Achieve more. Together.”, the firm works in partnership to deliver practical, forward-thinking legal advice that creates meaningful and lasting impact.
