Andy Leaver

CEO

My passion for tech runs deep, so let's start at the very beginning. As a child I grew up in a household littered with half finished electronic projects courtesy of my fathers radio amateur passion (call sign G4ECB) this then really catching fire for me when the 80's home computer boom took hold. I cut my teeth on the family Sharp MZ-80K, but my real passions were a succession of Commodore home computers which I couldn't help but want to disassemble, hence leading to my Masters in Microelectronics Systems Engineering from Manchester's UMIST, a city which gave us so much computing history including the legendary Alan Turing.A career in silicon hardware looked a certainty until I met Microsoft and made a sharp left into the world of software, followed by the world of leadership after joining GE, then the largest and most admired company on the planet.

But the real explosion for me was to come when I discovered the Valley and the world of startups - it was a revelation! I've now been fortunate to grow and lead five consecutive companies from early days, each resulting in an IPO: Ariba, SuccessFactors, Bazaarvoice, Workday and Hortonworks. These companies have gone on to be big independent companies, some have been acquired and some are now part of much larger companies - but each taught me a ton about myself and the skills required to lead and grow companies.

The tech waves of SaaS, Cloud, Social and Big Data have thrown me into meeting and working with some amazing people, each teaching me a little bit more about myself and growing a dominant company. It was the open source community-led business model of Hortonworks that also opened my eyes to the devops revolution that was happening in the UK and Europe, and it was here I met the next generation of ambitious homegrown startup founders.Through seed and scale-up funding i've now met so many amazing founders, but I was always left feeling I wanted to do more - how could I pay forward my deep experience in building, leading and scaling companies? The answer was was relatively easy, as all I had to do was answer the question of who did I repeatedly meet in growing Series A+ Enterprise SaaS companies - Notion.Series A+ is where I can really leverage so much of my experience, especially in figuring out the GTM and how to scale it.

Working with leadership teams to determine the best path to growth is incredibly rewarding and seeing the results even better.

Dr Barry Childe

CIO and Co-Founder

Barry has over 44 years’ experience of computing since winning the IBM prize aged 13. He specialises in high performance computing, grid computing, cloud, data fabrics, virtualisation and distributed ledger technology. Prior to joining Arqit in 2018, Barry served as Head of Innovation/Chief Technical Architect at HSBC, Head of HPC Barclays Capital; Head of HPC The Royal Bank of Scotland; CTO VMware; and Head of IT at Westpac, TD Securities and Nordea Bank. Barry is noted as a creator of commercial products such as R3 Corda, We.Trade, VMware. Barry has authored/co-authored books on HPC, Grid & Distributed Computing. Barry has a Computer Science Phd.

Nick Pointon

CFO

Nick is a highly experienced CFO with significant US public company and M&A experience. After an LLB in Law at King’s College London, Nick trained as a Chartered Accountant with Moore Stephens and later moved to KPMG. After roles as Financial Controller in private and public enterprises in telecoms and tech industries, Nick became Finance Director and later VP Finance of King Digital, the operator of Candy Crush which listed on the NYSE and was bought two years later by Activision Blizzard for $5.9bn. After four years as Group CFO of Privitar, a VC funded data privacy company, Nick joined Arqit in 2021.

Paul Feenan

Chief Revenue Officer

Paul has over 26 years of technology, defence, security and global government services experience. He served for 16 years with the British Army in a number of command and operational roles across numerous theatres from Europe and Canada, to the wider Middle East and Africa. He led the UK’s domestic counter-terrorism strategy and planning for the 2012 London Olympics.

Paul previously helped create a substantial multi-million dollar government services division at Avanti, securing new business with the most demanding parts of the government and defence community. He has global stakeholder management and sales experience, including four years in a senior management position in Cape Town, building a big data and predictive analytics fintech platform across Sub-Saharan Africa in collaboration with AWS, Google and Goldman Sachs as well as Tier 1 telcos and banks.

Paul has a Masters Degree in Economic and Political Geography from the University of Cambridge.

Patrick Willcocks

General Counsel

Patrick is an English solicitor and a qualified Irish barrister. Patrick was General Counsel and Company Secretary of Avanti Communications for ten years, with responsibility for all group company legal matters in Europe, Asia and Africa. Whilst at Avanti, he managed the raising of equity and debt to fund the construction, launch and operation of four satellites; negotiated contracts with major telcos and governments; successfully maintained responsibility for all disputes and litigation; and managed the group’s intellectual property portfolio. Prior to this, Patrick was a senior attorney at HP/EDS; a banking and financing solicitor at Eversheds Sutherland; and was an investment banker at a number of international banks. Immediately prior to joining Arqit, Patrick ran a successful legal consultancy. Patrick has an LLB Hons Degree in Law from Trinity College Dublin and has a Barrister-at-Law degree from the Honorable Society of King’s Inns in Dublin. Patrick also has a Masters in Business Studies (Strategic Planning) and a Diploma in Business Studies (both from UCD Business School).

Richard Jackson CBE

Chief of Staff

Richard served as Head of Operations in Downing Street for Prime Minister Theresa May throughout her premiership. In this role Richard accompanied the Prime Minister on almost all her events and visits and acted as ‘Chief Protocol’ on foreign trips. He also led on E&V preparations for the Donald Trump State Visit and the D-Day 75 National Commemorative Events.

Prior to Downing Street, Richard worked at Avanti Communications as Director of Government Affairs. He was Head of Operations at the Conservative Party in the run up to and during the 2015 General Election where the Conservatives won an outright majority after gaining 24 seats. He has also held roles as an Events Assistant for the Conservative Party and ran the office of a newly elected Conservative MP following the 2010 General election. Richard has a BA Hons degree in British Politics and Legislative Studies from the University of Hull. He was made an MBE for political service in 2016 and a CBE for political and public service in 2019.

Air Vice-Marshal Peter “Rocky” Rochelle CB OBE DFC MA RAF FIKE

Managing Director, Defence Sales

Rocky spent 34 years in the RAF. Wide operational experience (Gulf W1; Extensive and successive operational tours Iraq/Afghanistan at all command levels (including Petraeus’ Surge); Kosovo; Libya Campaign as Tornado Force Cdr and CO Marham. When not on Ops Peter has developed an extensive background in Acquisition and Government Strategic Programme Delivery, including an early acquisition tour followed by a Strategic Programme and Plans role in MOD; Chief of Staff for DG FMC; and programme director for Carrier Enabled Power Projection. Rocky completed his Chief of Staff Capability, Acquisition and Force Development role in Apr 2020. He was mandated to deliver the Air Force programme of record, delivering a £40 billion sub-portfolio. Programmes included the delivery of the F35 programme and acquisition of P8 and E7, amongst many others. Rocky was instrumental in delivery of Project Tempest and the Combat Air Strategy (50:50 match funded by Industry); developed the RAF and the UK-only Rapid Capability Office and its Air Information Experimentation Lab. He has led the 5 Eyes (plus 2) Capabilities and Architecture Working Group for the last three years and was instrumental in Space Coalition development and creation of Op Olympic Defender justification. He has a reputation for constructive disruption and delivery. Rocky has an MA in Defence Studies. His awards include the DFC (Kosovo); OBE Cmd 617 Sqn including Iraq surge; CB for services to Acquisition. Rocky is a Fellow of the UK endorsed Innovation Knowledge Exchange (FIKE).

Dr Daniel Shiu

Chief Cryptographer

Daniel worked for GCHQ, the UK's intelligence, cyber and security agency for 20 years. He was the UK’s Head of Cryptographic Design and Quantum Information Processing, part of the initial National Technical Authority function assumed by the new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). In this role he was responsible for briefing the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser in cryptomathematical matters. Daniel also served as Head of the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research (HIMR), which is a linchpin of the government’s “Advanced Mathematics” strategy. Daniel represented GCHQ in helping to found and direct the National Quantum Technologies Programme. During his career, Daniel’s results and expertise have earned him multiple prizes, including an international award for best crypto-mathematician, and on three separate occasions an international award for the year’s best cryptanalytic achievement. Daniel designs weekly puzzles for a national newspaper.

Scott Alexander

Chief Product Officer

Scott is a seasoned product strategist with over 25 years of experience in architecting management systems for networking and security infrastructure equipment that have become the foundation of today’s cloud-centric Internet. He started his career building network management solutions for long-haul fibre optic DWDM transmission systems and has followed the industry evolution through many technology advancements including carrier-grade ethernet, IP networking, software defined networking, cloud infrastructure and AI-driven operations.

Scott has served in many senior product management, professional services and business development functions for blue-chip equipment and software vendors including Nortel, IBM, and Juniper Networks. In all these roles, his primary focus has been reducing the cost of operations for secure, complex IT systems and achieving the best outcomes and user experience. He holds a BEng Hons Degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Kent.

Tracy Mehr

Chief Financial Strategy Officer

Tracy has been a senior Investment Banker for over two decades. He has spent his career providing advice and/or raising equity and debt capital for clients in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors. He has raised over $100 billion in capital for clients in over 200 transactions. He was instrumental in originating and executing many of the transformative transactions in the satellite services industry and leading the development of the Leverage Finance market for software debt issuers. Most recently, Tracy was Head of Software Leverage Finance at Deutsche Bank Securities. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Tracy worked for notable Investment Banks such as Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette. Tracy holds a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University in New York and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Amherst College.

David Webb

Chief Software Engineer

David joined Arqit from McAfee where, as Director of Engineering and Site Leader at McAfee's Brighton development centre, he led the software engineering teams responsible for the McAfee enterprise encryption product set. With over 12 years of experience leading multi-site engineering teams to build mission-critical enterprise encryption and key management systems in both on-prem and cloud environments, David's focus on driving innovation and quality across the organisation ensured that the McAfee encryption product set was named Leader in the Gartner MQ for Mobile Data Protection for seven successive years until the quadrant was retired, and counted a large proportion of the Fortune 500 and Global 2000 amongst its customer base. Prior to joining McAfee, David spent 13 years as a senior C++ engineer at Envitia leading the development of high-performance 2D/3D mapping and spatial analysis systems. David holds a BEng(Hons) in Electronic Engineering from Southampton University, and his first role was designing animation software in C for TV character generators used on Top of the Pops, Sky Sports and BBC Cricket amongst others in the mid-'90s.

General Stephen “Seve” Wilson

Director, Arqit Inc.

General Stephen W. Wilson is a retired 4-star U.S. Air Force General with over 39 years of military service. General Wilson has extensive operational experience including commanding the largest Wing in the Middle East and commanding and reinvigorating America's nuclear Bombers and Missile forces in Global Strike Command before assuming his duties as the 39th Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force. As the Vice Chief, he managed the organising, training and equipping of over 685,000 active duty, Guard and Reserve Airmen, helping direct strategy, policy, acquisition, technology, personnel and risk management. He helped manage the planning, programming, budgeting and execution of the Air Force's $205B annual budget. General Wilson also served on the Joint Requirements Oversight Council setting the acquisition requirements for the Department of Defense. General Wilson was widely acknowledged as the driving force for embracing both innovative technology and new thinking to include the start-up of AFWERX, a U.S. Air Force program which expands technology, talent and transition partnerships for rapid and affordable commercial and military capabilities. In 2020, AFWERX was named as one of the Top 20 Best workplaces for innovators in the world. General Wilson was also the catalyst behind the U.S. Air Force/M.I.T. AI Accelerator partnership to advance and improve Air Force operations while also addressing broader societal needs. General Wilson's many awards and decorations include three Defense Service Medals, the Defense Superior Service Medal, two Legions of Merit, two Bronze Stars and two Air Medals. General Wilson is a command pilot with over 4,500 flight hours that includes nearly 700 combat hours. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University and the U.S. Air Force Weapons School. He holds two Masters degrees - one in Engineering Management from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and one in Strategic Studies from Air University.

Lt General VeraLinn “Dash” Jamieson

Director, Arqit Inc.

Lt. Gen. Jamieson is experienced in data management, cloud technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning with over 37 years of government experience. She achieved the rank of Lieutenant General in the U.S. Air Force and prior to retiring, served as the Director of the United States Air Force’s Intelligence Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Cyber Effects enterprise, conducting operations for the Department of Defence. Prior to assuming her position as Deputy Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Jamieson served as the Deputy Commander, Joint Functional Component Command for ISR, U.S. Strategic Command, Washington, D.C. She earned a B.S. in Business Administration from West Virginia University, and masters degrees in Strategic Studies and Aviation Management from the National Defence University and Embry Riddle University, respectively. Lt. Gen. Jamieson has served as a director of Digital Realty Inc since 2020.

Nick Pointon

CFO

Nick is a highly experienced CFO with significant US public company and M&A experience. After an LLB in Law at King’s College London, Nick trained as a Chartered Accountant with Moore Stephens and later moved to KPMG. After roles as Financial Controller in private and public enterprises in telecoms and tech industries, Nick became Finance Director and later VP Finance of King Digital, the operator of Candy Crush which listed on the NYSE and was bought two years later by Activision Blizzard for $5.9bn. After four years as Group CFO of Privitar, a VC funded data privacy company, Nick joined Arqit in 2021.

General Stephen “Seve” Wilson

Director, Arqit Inc.

General Stephen W. Wilson is a retired 4-star U.S. Air Force General with over 39 years of military service. General Wilson has extensive operational experience including commanding the largest Wing in the Middle East and commanding and reinvigorating America's nuclear Bombers and Missile forces in Global Strike Command before assuming his duties as the 39th Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force. As the Vice Chief, he managed the organising, training and equipping of over 685,000 active duty, Guard and Reserve Airmen, helping direct strategy, policy, acquisition, technology, personnel and risk management. He helped manage the planning, programming, budgeting and execution of the Air Force's $205B annual budget. General Wilson also served on the Joint Requirements Oversight Council setting the acquisition requirements for the Department of Defense. General Wilson was widely acknowledged as the driving force for embracing both innovative technology and new thinking to include the start-up of AFWERX, a U.S. Air Force program which expands technology, talent and transition partnerships for rapid and affordable commercial and military capabilities. In 2020, AFWERX was named as one of the Top 20 Best workplaces for innovators in the world. General Wilson was also the catalyst behind the U.S. Air Force/M.I.T. AI Accelerator partnership to advance and improve Air Force operations while also addressing broader societal needs. General Wilson's many awards and decorations include three Defense Service Medals, the Defense Superior Service Medal, two Legions of Merit, two Bronze Stars and two Air Medals. General Wilson is a command pilot with over 4,500 flight hours that includes nearly 700 combat hours. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University and the U.S. Air Force Weapons School. He holds two Masters degrees - one in Engineering Management from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and one in Strategic Studies from Air University.

Lt General VeraLinn “Dash” Jamieson

Director, Arqit Inc.

Lt. Gen. Jamieson is experienced in data management, cloud technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning with over 37 years of government experience. She achieved the rank of Lieutenant General in the U.S. Air Force and prior to retiring, served as the Director of the United States Air Force’s Intelligence Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Cyber Effects enterprise, conducting operations for the Department of Defence. Prior to assuming her position as Deputy Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Jamieson served as the Deputy Commander, Joint Functional Component Command for ISR, U.S. Strategic Command, Washington, D.C. She earned a B.S. in Business Administration from West Virginia University, and masters degrees in Strategic Studies and Aviation Management from the National Defence University and Embry Riddle University, respectively. Lt. Gen. Jamieson has served as a director of Digital Realty Inc since 2020.

Stephen Chandler

Board Director

Stephen is an entrepreneur, investor and company builder, with 20 years’ experience in forming, funding, running, advising and investing in technology businesses. He is currently Co-founder and Managing Partner at Notion Capital, a venture capital firm focused on Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service, and a board director of several high-potential tech companies. Stephen was previously President and CFO at MessageLabs, the global leader in SaaS messaging security acquired by Symantec in 2008 for $700m, and a Director at UBS Investment Bank following an early career as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte. Stephen has a BA Hons degree in Economics from the University of Exeter and was nominated “Investor of the Year” at the 2020 Investor AllStars awards.

Manfredi Lefebvre

Vice Chairman and Senior Independent Director

Manfredi is Chairman of Heritage Group a diversified conglomerate that invests in tourism and other industries. Heritage Group is active in the travel industry, in real estate and financial investments, and in February 2019 it acquired the majority of the luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent. Silversea was founded by the Lefebvre family in the early ‘90s as a pioneering cruise line offering a personal style of ultra-luxury travel, unrivalled in the world. In June 2018, two thirds of Silversea, now one of the leading companies in the world of ultra-luxury cruises was sold to Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited for an amount in excess of $1 billion in equity value. The remaining one-third stake was transferred to Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited in July 2020. Manfredi held the position of Executive Chairman of Silversea Cruises Group from 2001 to 2020. Manfredi was honoured with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre de Saint Charles & Grimaldi by H.S.H Prince Albert II of Monaco in 2007 and was appointed Honorary Consul of the Republic of Ecuador in Monaco in April 2019.

Garth Ritchie

Board Director

Garth has over 25 years of experience in financial markets across the globe. He joined Centricus in June 2020 and leads the firm's Capital Markets and Advisory business. Previously, he was President of Deutsche Bank and Head of the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB). Garth joined Deutsche Bank in 1996 as an associate in the bank’s Johannesburg office and went on to hold senior management positions across the investment bank. He became a member of the Global Markets Executive Committee in 2009 as Head of Equities and held a range of leadership positions across the division. In January 2016, he was appointed to the Management Board with responsibility for the bank’s Markets division. In 2017, he became Co-Head of the newly created CIB. One year later he became its sole Head and was appointed as President. Garth holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Port Elizabeth in South Africa.

Carlo Calabria

Board Director

Carlo is Chairman of CMC Capital Limited, an investment banking boutique specialising in Mergers and acquisitions. Co-Sponsor of Centricus Acquisition Corporation, the Nasdaq -listed SPAC that combined with Arqit Quantum. Prior to founding CMC Capital, Carlo served as Head of Banking for Barclays Europe and was responsible for the investment banking activities of the firm in Continental Europe and CEEMENA. Prior to Barclays, he joined Merrill Lynch in 2006 as Vice Chairman of its Global Corporate and Investment Banking practice and remained in the post following the Bank of America takeover in 2008. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Carlo served as Head of International M&A at Credit Suisse. Carlo commenced his career at Morgan Grenfell & Co Limited. Carlo has a MA in Economics and Business from La Sapienza University in Rome.