About Us
"As a genderqueer mathematician I find bias offensive on two fronts: It prevents people from being their best true selves and it leads to highly inefficient decision making. Let's do better, let's do fairer, let's combine science, tech, and DEI in a dream of a bias-free world."
Nemo D'Qrill – Founder and CEO at Sigma Polaris
How it started
Nemo’s vision
Nemo D’Qrill’s decision to create Sigma Polaris was inspired by some extraordinarily capable students which Nemo met during their academic career. Despite being exceptionally talented people who could bring transformation value to a workplace, these individuals struggled to find work due to current recruitment processes and biases.
Disrupt the employment market
Nemo saw a gap which could bring truly disruptive innovation into the employment market: the application of cutting edge AI-led profiling approaches and job suitability analysis to break unconscious bias and unlock a significantly greater range of career options for individuals.
Unlock transformational change in recruitment
72.8% of employers are struggling to find skilled candidates, and lack of social mobility combined with systemic biases present a significant barrier to unlocking large pools of talent. Many recruitment processes are anachronistic, flawed, and impede economic growth. The recruitment sector must adapt if it is to become a force that enables social mobility and the levelling up agenda, and AI – applied well – can unlock transformational change in recruitment.
How it’s going
Sigma Polaris uses state-of-the-art AI profiling technology, refined with experts from the Universities of Bristol and Copenhagen, to understand candidates’ strengths and aptitudes, and shortlist for a particular role. It addresses bias around perceived suitability of a candidate: Our platform presents strong candidates that may not have the background that the employer expects. It also allows companies to widen their talent pool by dropping any potentially biased requirements around experience and education.
Our mission
Prevent 100,000+ cases of bias by 2023
Core team
Nemo D'Qrill
they/them
CEO & Founder
Danish-born Nemo D’Qrill is a polymath who has won debates with Nobel prize-winners in economics, been invited to speak at the world congress of philosophy in Beijing, was in the Olympic selection process for Judo, worked as professional flautist for the Danish Queen, debated immigration policies with ministers, survived a shipwreck in the north sea, and fought with fencing masters across Japan. Nemo has a broad academic background spanning mathematics, rationality theory, behavioural economics, philosophy, and logic.
Roger Birt
he/him
Business Development Manager
Lead generation specialist; former Project Manager in the economic development sector, working for some of the biggest consultancies in the industry. Roger recently completed his Business Management degree with The Open University. Having travelled extensively, he understands the value DEI can bring. Roger watches too much Netflix and has two beagles called Pacho (Narcos) and Holt (Brooklyn 99).
Ethan Green
he/him
Lead Marketer
Ethan is an International Debater, panellist, winner of The Classics Dissertation Prize 2020, speaker, DEI expert, podcast producer, and writer. He has a passion for fairness and rationality, and thinks that tech can change the world, for better or worse, and Sigma is doing it for the better!
Abdurrahman Awan
he/him
Business Development Specialist
Easily impressed and addicted to coffee. Born in Jordan, raised in West London, with Pakistani heritage; Abdurrahman graduated from the University of Exeter having studied Accounting. A former Chairman of the Thames Valley Chartered Accountant Student Society, Abdurrahman’s keen interest in the world of finance is what makes him really fun to talk to at parties.
Advisory board
Ethan started his career in the hospitality space graduating from Shannon College of Hotel Management in Ireland and from there on found his passion in recruitment and sales. Currently leading the sales and marketing recruitment practice at Ingenio a specialist SaaS recruitment agency, Ethan spends his days speaking with the top SaaS leaders across the world and helping them find the best talent in the world!
Adam started his working life in a no-chance band, before spending three years at Victoria station selling tickets. He discovered that he could both program and write, so became a technical journalist and author. He ended up at Microsoft in the US for 25 years, working on software that – literally – touched the lives of billions of people. Mostly positively 😊. Upon retirement in 2017, he returned to the UK and helps startups learn to scale.
Sam was previously joint CEO of Seccl Technology, a fast growing Fintech. Prior to that he was at the Octopus Group for 6 years working on innovation, new product development, strategy and early stage investing. He is passionate about fintech and the role that technology can play in opening access to financial services, and championed both digital education and diversity through initiatives like the Seccl Digital Bootcamp and the API Academy.
Selina has worked with a diverse set of companies from start-ups to global multi-billion dollar firms. Retired recently from Deloitte, Selina now spends her time advising executives on strategy and governance matters. She is an Innovator-in-Residence at Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and serves on the Tulane University Business School Council.
Tom is currently Vice President, Transformation Office at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he leads the global as-a-service transformation of HPE. Prior to HPE, Tom was Chair of Vodafone’s South West business and also Head of HR for the UK B2B segment. Tom worked at Vodafone for 8.5 years and previously was a management consultant for 10 years leading multinational organisational transformation assignments. Tom has a post-graduate degree in Occupational Psychology and is passionate about building the most capable and diverse teams. A wannabe pro-surfer, Tom is also a voluntary Director of Surfing England, the sports national governing body.
Anne previously co-founded a SaaA platform, Visionogy, that developed a patented technology that automates the content creation through the aid of AI. Prior to that, she was an impact investment analyst for Shaper Impact Capital and was involved with strategy and innovation for companies such as Hilton, Netflix and Imagination London. She is passionate about technology and its power to help change the world for the better. She is a Cambridge University MBA and a former Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club committee member.