A former diplomat and serial internet entrepreneur is in talks to head the investment company which backs start-ups created from Oxford University’s academic research.

Sky News has learnt that Ed Bussey, one of the founders of the online clothing retailer Figleaves.com during the original dotcom boom, is close to being named the new chief executive of Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE).

Mr Bussey is understood to be the frontrunner for the post, which has been vacant since Alexis Dormandy left OSE last December.

If confirmed, it would see a proven entrepreneur being put in charge of a company which owns stakes in dozens of start-ups in sectors ranging from biotech to nuclear fusion.

Mr Bussey also founded Quill, a digital content production company, and had stints in the Foreign Office and the Royal Navy.

In 2010, he completed an unsupported trek to the North Pole to raise money for charity.

The selection of a new chief executive will come after a period of boardroom turbulence at OSE, with several chairs and CEOs having resigned in a short space of time.

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Professor Sir John Bell, the scientist who served as Boris Johnson’s COVID testing tsar, quit its board in February, citing the pressure of his other commitments.

OSE, which used to be called Oxford Sciences Innovation, is an investor in dozens of companies, including Vaccitech, which created the biotech platform behind AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.

It also counts First Light, the nuclear fusion energy start-up, and Animal Dynamics, a deep-tech company, among its portfolio.

The exit of Mr Dormandy as chief executive of the spinouts vehicle came just months after it raised £250m from shareholders in a rights issue.

OSE has a roster of blue-chip group of investors regarded as rivalling any comparable vehicle in the world.

Among its publicly disclosed shareholders are Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Temasek Holdings, the Singaporean state fund.

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Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecoms technology giant, is also a shareholder.

Co-founded by Alex Snow, the well-known City executive, OSE said its search for a successor to Mr Dormandy was continuing “as planned”.

Among the other start-ups it has backed or created are Osler, a blood diagnostics venture, and Bibliu, a digital textbooks platform.

Last year, two of its portfolio companies – MiroBio and DJS Antibodies – were sold to global pharmaceutical companies for a combined consideration of $655m.

An OSE spokesman declined to comment.

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