Colin Howes - Director

Colin is a director and co-founder of SynergyTech Limited. He is MBA qualified with over 28 years’ experience in senior sales and marketing roles within the transport, telecoms, security, construction and building controls sectors. Originally trained by the RAF as a senior aircraft systems and mainframe computing engineer, Colin now specialises in strategy, research and planning, bidding and product management. He has worked as an employee and contractor for many of the worlds’ leading brand named companies including: Honeywell, Molins, Alcatel-Lucent, BAE Systems, Selex (was Marconi), Alfred McAlpine (now Carillion) and Siemens. Colin has secured some of the largest engineering and construction projects for his clients including London Crossrail, Riyadh Metro, Eurotunnel communications and UK Rail Fixed Telecoms and mobile GSM-R networks.

Nikita Boni - Director

Nik is a director and co-founder of SynergyTech Limited. He holds a diploma in systems engineering. After an early career writing computer software, he now has over 20 years’ experience in senior sales and procurement roles primarily within the telecoms sector. Nik specialises in strategy, planning, procurement and commercial management and is responsible for all SynergyTech contract management. Nik has worked as an employee and contracted for many global brand name companies including: Orange, Cable & Wireless, Flag Telecom, Vanco, Globix, Teleglobe International, SatNet group and UUnet (now Verizon). Nik is currently contract managing an international brand name client contract on behalf of a global telecoms company.

Russell Eden - Seniot Business Development Consultant

Russell is a senior business development consultant with over 15 years’ experience within the telecoms industry following a successful career in construction. Russell is recognised as one of the most successful salesmen in the telecoms sector and secured some of the biggest client for his employers including Lloyds, Nat West, Charles Schwab, Bookers, Pitney Bowes and many others. Russell specialises in client research, business development and account management. Russell has worked as an employee and contractor for major brand name companies including: Talk Talk, Opal Telecoms, Pitney Bowes and Colt Telecom.

Peter Elkins - Senior Business Development Consultant

Peter is a senior business development consultant with over 35 years’ experience in the transport sector. Peter holds an MBA from Henley Business School and studied electrical and electronics engineering at the university of Hertfordshire. Peter specialises in client research, product marketing, business development, account management and leadership of large international sales and marketing teams. Peter has worked as an employee and contractor for Transmitton, Siemens and Thales within the rail and metro sectors.

Ellie Stoneley-Gradwell - Marketing Consultant

Ellie is a marketing consultant with over 20 years’ experience in social media marketing and public relations. Ellie holds a BA (Hons) degree in Psychology, English and Sociology from Durham University. She specialises in digital inclusion, project management, networking, social media, marketing, PR, communications, partnership working, training, eLearning, and working for and through local & central government.

Sarah Ball - Senior Market Research Consultant

Sarah is a senior market research consultant with over 20 years’ experience in strategic consultancy assignments and both national and international market research projects. Sarah holds a BSc in Social Science and Administration from LSE and an MBA from Cranfield. She also undertook a 3-year PhD research project into market segmentation within the high technology sector at Cranfield. Sarah has work for and undertaken consultancy projects on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Harris, BT, Deutsche Telecom, SITA, Cable & Wireless, AT&T, Manx telecom, Microsoft and the Market Research Society.

Carlo Van Hinsk - Sales Consultant

Carlo is a sales consultant with over 10 years’ experience in Telemarketing. Carlo is a qualified lawyer LLB (Hons) and highly experienced telesales expert. Carlo has undertaken a number of successful telesales campaigns for SynergyTech and its consultants resulting in multi-million pound contracts for clients.

Athol Hampson - Senior Technical Consultant

Athol is a senior technical consultant with over 28 years’ experience in engineering management and consultancy. Athol holds a BTEC in engineering and a diploma in contract law and is a prince 2 practitioner. Since leaving the RAF as a senior telecommunications engineer, Athol has focused on engineering consultancy. Athol specialises in pre-sales engineering, bid management, technical supplier evaluation and project management. He has worked as a technical consultant for many police forces worldwide (including the Met and New York Police), Capita, Rediffusion, Philips CSD (now Tyco), Securicor and Datel. Athol has worked on many of the UKs largest engineering projects including the London Congestion charging, Crossrail, Eurotunnel, M25 CCTV and the BBC licencing project. Athol is currently leading two £1bn major engineering projects on behalf of a global engineering company.

James Morrissey - Senior Technical Consultant

James is a senior technical consultant with over 20 years’ experience of engineering and project management. James is a Prince 2 practitioner, an HNC in business and finance and a member of the institute of Engineering and technology. James specialises in overseeing the design, development and delivery of communications and control systems for infrastructure projects in the UK and overseas. His experience is often used to manage all engineering aspects of a project from bidding to delivery and maintenance. James has worked in the UK and overseas for major brand name companies including Thales, Siemens London Underground, Tyco and Mott MacDonald.

Mike Woodhead - Senior Technical Consultant

Mike is a senior technical consultant with over 10 years’ experience in the security industry as a Security Consultant, Penetration tester and E-commerce developer. Mike holds a BTEC in computer studies and is a Crest certified tester and CESG Check team leader. Mike specialises in application testing, risk management and mitigation, code reviews and technical security code audits, E-commerce & .Net development, PCI, wireless, external and internal Infrastructure testing of ICT networks. Mike has worked as a consultant for many of the top banks and critical nation al infrastructure suppliers including Halifax, HBOS, Selex and NCC group.

Roy Gradwell - Senior Technical Consultant

Roy is a technical consultant with over 20 years’ experience of designing and building telecommunications networks. Roy was trained by the Royal Signals on ground communication systems and specialises on the design and construction of fibre networks and telecommunication equipment rooms and network operation centres. Roy designed and built many of the UK’s cable networks in the North of England and Cable & Wireless network control centres. He also designed several areas of the BT fibre network including new cable routes for the 2012 London Olympics. Roy is a regular speaker at the European Fibre-to-the-Home conferences and is considered to be an international fibre network expert.

Peter Ashenden - Senior Technical Consultant

Peter is a senior technical consultant with over 25 years’ experience of business planning, project management, business analysis and testing. Peter holds an MBA degree from Cranfield University and is a Prince 2 practitioner. Peter specialises in key analysis and planning of key business issues including Regulatory Change, Risk Management, Corporate Governance, Data Quality and Data Governance, Compliance and Internal Controls, Counterparty Risk and Collateral Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and Contact Centre initiatives. He has worked for well know brand names in the finance and engineering sectors including Barclays, HSBC, RBS, Cooperative financial services, Visa, Capital One, Chartis Insurance, Kynsale, Mazda and Molins.

Howard Brown - Senior Technical Consultant

Howard is a senior technical consultant with over 28 years’ experience of building and project managing the construction of telecommunication networks and data centres in the UK and Channel islands. Howard holds an HND in electrical, electronics and communications engineering from Coventry University.

Russell Wyatt - Senior Technical Consultant

Russell is a senior technical consultant with over 30 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector. Russell has operated at Operations director level managing project management, field engineering and technical support for major network operators, equipment suppliers and system integrators. Russell holds a BTEC HND Electronics and Communications Engineering.

Fiona Carruthers - Technical Author

Fiona is a technical author and bid administrator consultant with over 20 years’ experience of authoring, editing and proof reading documents. Fiona holds an HND in Engineering from Nottingham Trent University holds SC Security Clearance and is fluent in French and German languages. Fiona specialises in all aspects of the clients’ requirements capture through to release of paper manuals, online application support files and web-based publications. Fiona has worked for many clients as an independent consultant including local companies to large international giants including Experian and Siemens.

Mark Couzens - Senior Information Systems Consultant

Mark is a senior consultant with over 20 years’ experience of Information Systems development. Mark has a BA Honours in Business, a Higher Certificate in Electronic Engineering, is a certified Risk Practitioner (MoR), a certified Programme Manager (MSP) and a Prince 2 practitioner. He has experience in a broad range of sectors and has worked with clients such as BAE Systems, MoD, NPIA, Lloyds TSB and British Telecom. Mark was the Chief Architect on the Police (£40m CBRN, Scene Assessment System; worked on the £1.4bn NS&I Public Sector Bid; Chief Architect for the £12m Rail GPS Bid; and created the Cloud Solution Concept Design for HP UK Public Sector. Marks specialises on Enterprise and Solution Architecture, Large Bid/BD, IT Strategy and Business Change/Transformation.

Alastair Faulkner - Senior Consultant

Alastair is a senior consultant with more than 30 years of comprehensive experience at the senior management in systems, applications, and infrastructure roles. This includes substantial knowledge and experience in the planning, management, execution, and technical delivery of large, operationally critical infrastructure and systems projects. Alastair holds a MSc in Computer Science (Salford) and an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) from Warwick. Alastair is a chartered Engineer (CEng) and a fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS).

Neill Whittaker - Senior Consultant

Neill is a senior consultant with over 15 years’ experience of Programme/Project Management and Business Development in the Defence, Nuclear Energy and Transport Sectors. Neill has a Higher Certificate in Business Studies, is a certified Belbin assessor and qualified Association of Project Management Project Manager (APMP) practicioner. He has worked with clients such as QinetiQ, MoD, Transport for London, Tube Lines, Evodia Limited, Jacobs Engineering and British Energy. Neill was the Project Manager for the £151m Comms and SCADA upgrade of 100 stations for Tube Lines (Bechtel); worked on the €272m ELI Beamlines programme based in Prague managing contracts across globe; Project Manager for Jacking and Neutron Scatter Plugs based at Dungeness Power Station. Neill specialises in Programme delivery, Requirements capture, Large Bid/BD and Business Change/Transformation.