After graduating from the University of Bristol (UK), and then Jagiellonian University (Kraków, Poland), Tessa started working at the British Polish Chamber of Commerce, where she ran the business events department for 7 years. Next she took a role at a global top 10 law firm, leading the international business development for the Banking & Finance practice, as well as the global key clients team. After completing an Executive MBA at the Business School of Warsaw University of Technology, Tessa pivoted into the CEE startup ecosystem, founding her own startup and supporting the business development of various successful scale-ups. She currently heads the alumni startups at MIT Enterprise Forum CEE - one of the regions top accelerators. The alumni group includes 230 graduate startups and Tessa is on a mission to support their further growth and development, with a particular emphasis on scaling to new geographies. Tessa is originally from London, UK, but has made Poland her home. Throughout her career she has focused on creating business relationships between various geographies, and creating synergies between global communities of various sectors.