• Click to open/close

  Dr John S Hartas

  Managing Director

  SyntheSys Systems Engineers Ltd

  John’s career began with designing and developing software for high performance, real-time, industrial control systems.

  He then moved on to work in a research / analysis role where he specialised in issues related to operational use and management of advanced military communications systems.  In 1988 Dr Hartas set up SyntheSys to provide information systems products and services to government and industry markets, and is now one of the UK’s leading independent suppliers of systems engineering consultancy services.

• Click to open/close

  Mark Hudspeth

  Managing Director

  SyntheSys Defence Ltd

  Managing Director Mark Hudspeth has an abundance of technical engineering experience, specialising in Tactical Data Links (TDLs) since 1993.

  Since 2008 his work focus has largely been on distributed test and trials engineering.  Mark has unrivalled experience in this field, having been the technical lead on the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence Multi-Link Test Facility (MLTF) contract initially, and subsequently as the project manager.  He maintains a strong involvement in the provision of technical support in test and trial activities.

• Click to open/close

  Mark Williamson, BSc (Hons), CSEP MINCOSE

  Managing Director

  SyntheSys Technologies Ltd

  Mark leads SyntheSys Technologies and is responsible for the delivery and support of IBM® Engineering Lifecycle Management solutions and associated services.

  Mark has an engineering background with 23 years’ service in the Royal Air Force, providing both direct and support roles for airborne radar systems on a variety of aircraft.  He also served on software teams in both test and software maintenance roles.

  Since joining SyntheSys in 2005, he has gained significant experience with IBM® solutions for software and systems engineering and is a certified IBM® Engineering Requirements Management DOORS® Family professional.  This experience enables Mark to support clients in identifying the ideal IBM® solutions that meet their engineering requirements, implementing the solution, and providing mentoring for the products.  His systems engineering credentials have been recognised by INCOSE CSEP certification in 2013.  He is now delivering Systems Engineering and CSEP preparation training to future candidates.

• Click to open/close

  Jacqueline Readman

  Director

  SyntheSys Systems Engineers Ltd

  Prior to joining SyntheSys, Jacqui worked in the data business for over 20 years, ultimately as the owner and Managing Director of her own small business with eight employees.

  This gave Jacqui an astute understanding of a wide range of business issues, but particularly relating to data security, quality, and contractual relationships with customers and suppliers.  Jacqui’s responsibilities include: Contracts Manager (managing customer and supplier contracts); Quality Management (in accordance with International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 9001); Environmental Management (in accordance with ISO 14001) and Personnel Management.  Jacqui also has a good knowledge of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) having attained the associated award.

• Click to open/close

  Kathryn Chandler

  Senior Consultant

  SyntheSys Defence Ltd

  Kate has worked with international organisations, government departments and civil / military committees and is experienced in strategic policy development, joint research analysis, operational planning and key programme delivery.

  Kate is an Air Traffic Management (ATM) specialist and has worked across a broad number of areas during 32 years in the military and civil environment, including conceptual development as part of the Air Staff, information management and international engagement.  In addition to her role at SyntheSys, Kate is a current reservist in the Royal Air Force Service Complaints Team.

• Click to open/close

  Steve Arliss

  Senior Consultant

  SyntheSys Defence Ltd

  Steve has 30 years’ Tactical Data Links (TDLs) experience working with Link 11A / B, Link 16, and Link 22, having worked on all phases of the development project life cycle of numerous Operational, Test, Simulation & Training Systems.

  Since joining SyntheSys, this experience has been utilised to provide TDL expertise in support of United Kingdom (UK) and multi-national trials using the UK Multi-Link Test Facility (MLTF).

• Click to open/close

  Roland Kemp

  Consultant

  SyntheSys Defence Ltd

  Roland (JRE JICO, JRE Principal Field Engineer), is a highly experienced Tactical Data Links (TDLs) and former Dutch Hawk and Patriot Air Defence fire control operator.

  Roland served for 37 years in the Royal Netherlands Air Force.  His experience includes Link 11A / B, ATDL-1, Link 16, JREAP and network design, and Senior Link 16 Manager at the National Data Link Management Cell.  The last 5 years of active duty were spent at the Centre of Excellence from the Ground Based Air Defence Command as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Tactical Data Links and was involved in the introduction of JREAP.  His broad experience enables Roland to assist in training courses and exercises.

• Click to open/close

  James Norful

  Senior Consultant

  SyntheSys Defence Ltd

  James served 21 years in the United States Air Force (USAF), serving in various assignments both in the US and within North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

  He excelled as a data link subject matter expert providing student instruction, leading teams through test & evaluation processes and course planning, with the goal of eliminating inefficiencies in a specific process for the benefit of everyone involved, from those participating in the system, to the eventual stakeholders.  This unique blend of experience enables James to grow customer relationships while exceeding consumer demands.

• Click to open/close

  Sam Southwell

  Principal Consultant

  SyntheSys Defence Ltd

  Sam has over 20 years’ Royal Air Force (RAF) experience in avionics systems.  The latter part of his military career saw him specialise in Tactical Data Links (TDLs), primarily as a Link 16 Engineer.

  He has extensive experience in data collection, analysis and front-line engineering support to the RAF, Royal Navy and Army TDL systems.  This experience continues to be utilised to deliver support to platform implementations and test support through the Multi-Link Test Facility (MLTF) and TDL Implementation and integration support to platforms.

• Click to open/close

  Kurt Anker

  Principal Consultant

  SyntheSys Defence Ltd

  Kurt has over 30 years’ experience within military Command and Control (C2) systems, both in flight and ground operations.

  Kurt started his career in the Royal Danish Air Force in 1984, with 28 of those years spent working in a software engineering capacity on real-time C2 systems.  Kurt joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 2003 where he worked with the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) team in Geilenkirchen, Germany.  He spent 12 years as data link programmer and 8 years as test leader and test manager.

  Kurt specialises in the data link field and has extensive development and testing knowledge within real-time and simulated environments.

• Click to open/close

  Matt Hirschfield

  Consultant

  SyntheSys Technologies Ltd

  Matt started his working life as a trainee electronic engineer and explored various engineering disciplines.

  Having progressed to technical authoring back in 2004 he has been writing everything from user manuals to business processes for over 17 years.  For the past 8 years Matt worked for Aerospace firm, Daifuku Logan where he worked with Requirements Engineering to administer the IBM® Engineering Lifecycle Management tool suites for multiple projects and developed the use of the tool within the business.  Matt is a proud father and loves the outdoors, particularly enjoying running, cycling and walking to keep fit.  He has interests in music and photography.  Matt enjoys riding and restoring classic motorcycles.  His current project is a 1971 Honda CL100 which is currently testing his problem-solving skills.

• Click to open/close

  Matt Mendell

  Senior Consultant

  SyntheSys Technologies Ltd

  Matt began his career in the healthcare industry working as a database engineer, then expanding his role in systems management, training and agile development.

  He took a brief sojourn to South Korea to teach English, before returning to join IBM® where he worked for 8 years.  During this time, he became a deep expert in Requirements Management and the wider Systems Engineering disciplines.  His work in this took place in a broad range of industries including rail, automotive, healthcare, nuclear and aerospace & defence, as well as developing experience in several industry methodologies such as PRINCE2, ISO26262 and achieving his Associate Systems Engineering Professional (ASEP) certification with the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).

  Outside of work, Matt enjoys squash and running, and watches too much football for his own good.  He is an avid cinema-goer, having studied film at university, and as bad a guitar player as he is a keen karaoke singer.

• Click to open/close

  Michele Sutcliffe, BSc (Hons)

  Security Lead / Assistant Finance Lead

  SyntheSys Systems Engineers Ltd

  Michele joined SyntheSys in early 2014 after spending almost 30 years working as a compositor and administrator in commercial printing.

  This included sixteen years at the Halifax Courier daily newspaper where she held the position of Deputy Pre-Press Manager.  Her varied skillset was a good fit for the administrative department of SyntheSys, and she began her career as Commercial Business Support Officer.  Michele is now Security Lead and as Assistant Finance Lead is responsible for the administration of SyntheSys’ finance system across all business groups.  She is also involved in facilitating our training courses which includes, liaising with our overseas customers, producing training materials, document quality control and support to SyntheSys’ home-based staff.

• Click to open/close

  Sarah Thomas, BA (Hons), DipM, MCIM

  General Manager

  SyntheSys Technologies Ltd

  Sarah has many years of B2B Marketing experience and has worked on several client-side sales and marketing projects throughout her career.

  Graduating from the University of Huddersfield where she studied Business Management, Sarah gained knowledge from working in both large and small organisations where the focus of her work has been direct marketing, digital marketing, events management and reporting.  Sarah is General Manager for SyntheSys Technologies and works in an operational capacity to build customer and stakeholder relationships and ensure the smooth running of the business.  Sarah is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

• Click to open/close

  Luke McCarthy

  IT Lead / Senior Systems Engineer

  SyntheSys Systems Engineers Ltd

  Luke is responsible for the IT infrastructure and IT security operations across the SyntheSys group.

  Luke started his career with SyntheSys in 2016 to develop the SyntheSys Defence Community Portal.  Once the Portal was complete, Luke naturally moved on to IT support, IT security, website development, as well as supporting the team in development activities in various customer contracts.  Luke then went onto managing the IT infrastructure and IT security operations, which sees him lead the group’s Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation.  Luke is currently completing his final year with the Open University to complete a BSc (Hons) in Computing specialising in software engineering.  Luke has a keen interest in cyber security and has spent many years of his life behind a human-machine interface, taking inspiration from his family who are themselves well established in IT.

• Click to open/close

  Colin Higham

  Systems Engineer

  SyntheSys Systems Engineers Ltd

  Colin has over 35 years’ experience working in the IT industry in development and consultancy roles.

  He has worked across a broad range of corporate and Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) organisations in financial, manufacturing, e-commerce, international trade and many other areas.  Colin works on web-based projects and is responsible for the company website amongst other interesting internal and external development projects.

• Click to open/close

  Stephen Hartas

  Assistant Marketing Lead

  SyntheSys Systems Engineers Ltd

  Stephen has been with the company since 2015, starting as a scanning / shredding assistant.  Since then he steadily progressed through the business to currently occupy the position of Assistant Marketing Lead.

  As well as working daily with the Customer Engagement Team and The Defence Community Portal, Stephen works with departments within the company to coordinate event planning, press releases and other various marketing activities.

• Click to open/close

  Tanya Vincent

  Administrator

  SyntheSys Systems Engineers Ltd

  Prior to joining SyntheSys, Tanya worked as a manager in the retail sector, more recently running her own business manufacturing decorative items.

  Tanya has varied experience in management, sales, customer service, administration, and financial management along with manufacturing and production.  Tanya is currently working towards qualifications in Microsoft solutions which she uses to support the business.

Exploring SyntheSys’ engineering and training services for manufacturing, engineering and defence markets.