Prestigious Impact Prize for Simprints’ Chief Strategy Officer
Simprints’ Chief Strategy Officer, Alexandra Grigore, has been named as a Gates Cambridge Impact Prize winner.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, a new prize has been launched to highlight the impact Gates Cambridge scholars have made. The eight winners, all international postgraduate students, come from all walks of life and all disciplines. They share an aspiration to leave a positive mark on the world.
Members of the esteemed judging panel were impressed by Alexandra’s impact:
Alexandra’s outstanding contributions and remarkable achievements truly embody the spirit of the Gates Cambridge community, and we are thrilled to recognise her impactful work. Alexandra’s work stood out in a very competitive pool, and we are proud to acknowledge the positive change she is driving.
Alexandra’s leadership
Alexandra is the Chief Strategy Officer and a Co-Founder of Simprints, the world’s first open-source biometric ID platform with privacy at its core.
She co-founded Simprints at Cambridge University with two fellow Gates Cambridge Scholars, Toby Norman and Dan Storisteanu, and Toby’s brother Tristram. Since then, the team has built safe and ethical biometric tools to unlock access to critical support for vulnerable communities around the world.
Previously our Chief Product Officer, Alexandra led a team of engineers to develop machine learning-based biometric recognition models trained explicitly for under-represented demographics, especially in low- and middle-income countries, including places with no internet connection. She now leads Simprints’ strategic work, developing partnerships and working across multiple teams.
Alexandra reflected on the groundbreaking work of Simprints:
“I am so proud of what we have achieved at Simprints. While many biometric tools exist on the market, few serve the world’s most vulnerable populations. Simprints tools have empowered NGOs and governments to provide essential services to millions of people worldwide.”
Alexandra is delighted to have won the Impact Prize. She sees it as recognition not only for her work, but for the role of Gates Cambridge in bringing together scholars from different backgrounds with a shared aim of improving the lives of others. She commented:
“This prize is testament to how the seeds planted at the start of my time as a Gates Cambridge scholar can yield some amazing fruit. Gates Cambridge was so important in the creation of Simprints, and its values are our values.”
Gates Cambridge turns 25
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship, the University’s flagship scholarship programme for international postgraduate students, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Celebrations begin this week, with a ceremony marking the impact scholars have made over the last quarter-century.
Celebrating changemakers
The Impact Prize ceremony takes place on Friday 10 January and will see eight scholars presented with an award for their achievements. The Impact Prize symbolises the many ways that scholars have been having an impact across the world and the enormous ripple effect that Gates Cambridge has had in such a short space of time.
We’re thrilled to be part of this group of changemakers and look forward to celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship with them throughout this year.
