Our Founders
From left to right:
- Joshua Benjamin
PhD, MRes, and MEng in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from University College London (UCL), postdoctoral research on Ultra-fast optical networks for Data Centers - George Zervas
Professor & EPSRC Fellow at UCL, published over 300 scientific papers, has filed 10 patents, and led & participated in over 20 R&D projects worth over £50m - James Regan
Seasoned CEO, fundraiser and business scaler with degrees in physics and fine arts - Alessandro Ottino
PhD Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering, MPhil and BEng Electrical and Electronics Engineering from UCL
The Executive Team
James Regan
Chief Executive Officer
Seasoned CEO, with extensive experience in building successful tech companies from lab-based research.
Robert Bahns
Chief Financial Officer
Experienced technology and investment executive and navigator of the challenges of start-up ramp-up, finance and operations.
George Zervas
Chief Technology Officer
Technical driving force with more than 20 years of research into positively disrupting AI systems and optical networks.
Joost Verberk
Vice President Business Development & Marketing
Passionate tech advocate, addressing customer challenges by taking concepts to market-ready products.
Our Senior Leaders
Proven product development execution
Mark Lewis
VP Network Systems Engineering
Mark has led large, multidisciplinary teams to deliver FPGA based SmartNIC solutions to multiple hyperscalers during his time at Intel and Altera
Steve Mayne
Associate VP Physical Layer Engineering
Steve has delivered multiple optical transceiver product developments ranging from 10G T-XFP to 800G OSFP during his 25 years at Nortel / Bookham / Oclaro / Lumentum
Yannick Lize
VP Product Line Management – Photonics
Yannick has over 15 years of experience in developing and commercialising cutting-edge technologies including leading the development of silicon photonics transceivers at Intel.
Alessandro Ottino
Scientific Director
Alessandro’s expertise is in machine learning and HPC systems and applications which he leverages in the core systems design and cross-domain solutions
Andrew Hunter-Osborne
Supply Chain Director
Andrew has built supply chains across multiple start-ups in the optics arena, including an exit (WaveOptics) to SNAP Inc. for $0.5B
Jonathan Gill
Project Director
Jonathan has worked in laser product development and transfer to manufacture for over 30 years, in Nortel Networks and several start-ups for optical fibre telecoms & datacoms applications, and scientific lasers for OEM markets
Pantelis Aivaliotis
Director Photonic Integration
In his 15 years’ experience, Pantelis has been involved in several PIC technology innovations for optical transceivers. In his last 10 years at Huawei he delivered several PIC-based optical components from early research into mass production
Paul Wallace
Product Director
Paul has a proven track record in product strategy, program management and go-to-market strategies, and has held leadership roles at companies such as Brocade, DDN Storage, Oracle and Sun Microsystems
Mary McCarthy
Transceiver Development Director
Mary has over 15 years of experience in telecommunications and optics, spanning both industry and academia. Past companies like Oclaro and Lumentum have benefited from the combination of her strong technical background and extensive experience in product and project ownership
Ryan Yang
Director of Opto-electronic Systems
Ryan has 12+ years of experience in optical and RF IC evaluation and characterisation, having worked at HiLight, Qualcomm, and CSR. At HiLight, he led IC evaluation and ATE test development, successfully transitioning products from bring-up to full production.
The Board
Ian Hogarth
Founder & Investor, Plural
Ian is a partner at Plural, the early-stage investment fund that backs the most ambitious founders on a mission to change the world through technology.
Dave Grimm
Partner, Albion VC
Dave is a Partner at AlbionVC and has been investing in Deeptech startups for nearly 15 years, with investments across semiconductors, photonics, quantum computing, medtech and AI.
James Regan – CEO, Oriole Networks
and
George Zervas – CTO, Oriole Networks
Company Secretary
Sarah Quibell
Sarah has a rich background in Family Offices and Start-Ups. In her most recent role, she facilitated a $0.5B exit of WaveOptics to Snap Inc. and successfully integrated systems across legal and compliance teams.