Our Team
No single background. No single answer. Just a group of people who believe the most interesting work happens when you stop waiting for permission and start making something real.
CEO
Kai is the founder and CEO of Keystone Ventures, the group behind Innovation Nursery. Before founding the business in 2022, he was Sustainability Director at Education in Motion, one of Asia's largest education groups, home to Dulwich College International and Green School, and founded Dirty Manners, a sustainable clothing brand featured in publications such as, Vogue, Hypebeast and the Straits Times. His focus is on closing the gap between capital and climate - building the structures that let regenerative ventures stand on their own economics rather than on goodwill.
His intent for Innovation Nursery is to bring international capital, partners and networks into the Southwest, to connect with and highlight the climate innovators, founders, scientists and startups in the region and bring them to the global stage.
KAI WHITE
Managing Director
John is a communications and branding consultant, keynote speaker and has spent the last 15 years working with firms like Virgin, COOK, lululemon, Natura &Co, McAfee, B Lab UK and more. His focus is on creating fearlessness within organisations through radical transparency, human personality and moments of mass engagement.
John, along with his wife and two children, is a proud resident of Cornwall. He fervently champions for Cornwall to emerge as a global leader in the regenerative economy. His relentless efforts aim to attract both private and public investment into the Duchy, while also shining a spotlight on the remarkable makers, creatives, misfits and thinkers in the region. John is currently undertaking a Masters at KCL in International Relations and has a real passion for exploring what a regenerative global economy looks like in the new world order.
john brown
Creative Director
Lynné is a creative director and producer with 20 years in theatre, exhibitions and large-scale immersive production. She started in London, working nationally and internationally, collaborating on projects with organisations such as the BBC, The Royal Opera House, Barbican and The National Theatre.
Since moving to Cornwall in 2016, Lynné has led a number of projects with the Eden Project, Heligan Gardens, Kneehigh and Wildworks, producing site-specific work all across Cornwall's wild landscapes, such as Danny Boyle's Pages of the Sea, bringing 35,000 people to four beach sites in a single day as part of a national one day event.
At Innovation Nursery, she leads the creative direction behind the experience on and off the site, from flagship events, pop ups and immersions to the wider programme - bringing people together around food, materials and the built environment. A long table dinner in a field, an immersive workshop in a glasshouse, a shared fireside chat on the beach: whatever sparks connection, joy and conversation. We call it making collision irresistible.
Lynné RaubenHeimer
Head of Estates
Will brings a career built on a genuine understanding of land to his role as Head of Estates. His path began in agriculture and developed through horticulture, but it’s arboriculture that has shaped his approach most, giving him a specialist understanding of trees, woodland systems, and how landscapes mature and change over time.
Will has been part of Innovation Nursery since its inception, shaping the 140-acre Pentewan site into the working estate it is today. Alongside overseeing core infrastructure, his arboricultural background informs the site’s woodland and land management and its wider approach to landscape design, ensuring that development on site works with the land’s existing character rather than against it.
Outside of work, Will is a keen music enthusiast, and his dog, Kensa, is rarely more than a few steps away wherever he is on site.
WILL ROBINSON
Head of Community and Partnerships
Aurélie has a background as a biodesigner, working with living systems.
At Innovation Nursery, she leads special projects spanning digital/physical interfaced manufacturing, materials, the built environment and agriculture, delivering R&D projects as well as community engagement activities to support education and upskilling.
She also runs two material-innovation ventures based at Innovation Nursery: one developing regenerative plant dyes - Colour Earth, the other working with mycelium-based materials for interiors - Osmose.
Aurélie Fontan
Digital Marketing Executive
Sophie is Innovation Nursery’s marketing generalist. She joined the team last year after completing her degree in International Business Management, and has spent the time since building the way IN shows up in the world, on socials, through the newsletter and to anyone who’ll listen.
A lifelong Cornwall resident, you can often find her out on walks or exploring Cornwall’s best brunch spots. She’s also Innovation Nursery’s resident Gen-Z, which has so far consisted of introducing the team to matcha, açai bowls and whatever’s trending this week.
SOPHIE HOOPER
Digital Manufacturing Lead
Ignas has a background in 3D printing and computational design, along with a strong affinity with natural building materials which he developed during the 3D Printing Architecture course at the Institute of Advanced Architecture in Barcelona (IAAC).
Ignas is passionate about the built environment and seeks to challenge the established norms set in place by globalised industries. By learning from vernacular practices and grassroots building approaches, his aim is to leverage the capabilities of digital manufacturing and integrate a human approach into automated construction. Rather than replacing manual labour with machines, Ignas’ aim is to use 3D printing to further research in natural building methods, and exploit the repeatability of the digital process. His goal is to advance policy in the built environment to incorporate more planet positive processes.
Ignas van Rijckevorsel
Facilities Manager
Dean was born and raised in Ireland. He's spent over 20 years in construction, with work taking him across Australia, America, Ireland and the UK. His projects range from large industrial and commercial builds to smaller, more hands-on developments.
At Innovation Nursery, Dean oversees facilities across the full 140 acres, along with the smaller builds happening on site. That mix of scale, from major industrial jobs to close, detailed work, gives him a practical read on how a site like this actually runs day to day.
His background in the built environment feeds directly into how the team approaches its own experiments in construction. Dean brings real, on-the-ground expertise to projects that are testing new ways of building, including the 3D printing crane now being used on site.