Senior Management Team
PhD, Matthias Kauer, Managing Director
Before becoming a co-founder of Lightricity, Matthias Kauer has been a Research Manager in the Energy & Environment Group at SHARP Laboratories of Europe. He has a PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge and over 15 years of industrial experience in optoelectronic device R&D with companies in the UK (SHARP Laboratories) and the US (Bell Labs). During his career at SHARP, he has managed business-funded R&D projects in optoelectronics, solar & renewable energy; Innovate UK/TSB-funded collaborative R&D projects, EU Framework projects and industry-academia R&D projects. Matthias has also managed and developed large teams of scientists, engineers and non-technical staff, with responsibility for interviewing, hiring people and developing company policies. He has a track record of technology transfer to mass production in factories in Europe and elsewhere. He is a senior member of the IEEE, has 39 journal publications and 42 patent applications.
Mathieu Bellanger, Technical Director
Before co-founding Lightricity, Mathieu Bellanger has been a Senior Researcher/Project Lead at SHARP Laboratories of Europe. He holds a physics and engineering degree from the French "Grande école" Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) of Toulouse together with a master's degree in Nanophysics from University of Paul Sabatier (Toulouse). With over 9 years’ experience at SHARP, he has worked on various R&D projects covering a wide range of photovoltaic devices technologies, for flat plate, CPV, space and IoT applications. As one main inventors of the PV energy harvester, he has led the development and prototyping of this EH technology, and successfully transferred it to mass manufacturing facilities. He has also secured high level of funding and led several UK and European collaborative projects within SHARP and Lightricity.
Advisory Board
Prof. Ian Page, Business Developer
Ian Page is the Business Development Director of Seven Spires Investments, a private venture fund which invests in high-tech companies. After gaining degrees in both Electronics and Systems Engineering from the University of London, he worked on innovative parallel and real-time computing systems in large, UK computer companies. In 1976, he moved into academia where he researched highly interactive computer systems and led several successful research projects, one of them resulting in the spinout from Oxford University of a pioneering ‘hardware compilation’/FPGA company in 1996. In 2003, he co-founded Seven Spires Investments and serves as board member for several of its portfolio companies. He has held Visiting Professorship and Entrepreneur in Residence posts at several UK universities and hopes to bring to Lightricity a wealth of experience in UK early-stage technology companies and to leverage his wide professional network to help grow and scale up this exciting business.
PhD, Ian Thompson, Commercialisation, Finance and HR Expert
Ian Thompson has a wealth of experience in bringing new technologies to market across a broad range of industry sectors from oil and gas, to specialist electronic materials to consumer electronics. Following a PhD in Materials Engineering at Imperial College Ian’s career has been spent developing and commercialising products for BP, Cookson Group, TAM Ceramics and SHARP. Ian has international experience in Europe, USA and Japan. Recent positions included Founder of Buckingham Technologies Ltd, Managing Director of SHARP Laboratories of Europe Ltd, non-Executive Director of Faradion Ltd and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Oxfordshire Science Festival Ltd.
Ian has joined Lightricity to create an organisation and business development strategy for realising the commercial potential of Lightricity’sworld leading technology. Ian has also extensive experience of HR, staff recruitment, team building, creating company values and policies.
Prof. Des Gibson, Product Development Expert
Professor Des Gibson has a 30 year track record in industry, academic based research & development and successful physics-based product commercialisation. He has co-founded and scaled up four successful physics-based technology companies focussing on optical thin film & sensor technologies. Two most recent are Gas Sensing Solutions Ltd (co-founded 2006, recent winner of both an Institute of Physics Innovation & a Shell Springboard awards) - and Applied Multilayers Ltd (2002, now TelemarkInc, USA). In 2014, he joined the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) as professor in thin film & sensor technologies and is director & founder of the Institute of Thin Films, Sensors & Imaging. Professor Gibson is a chartered engineer, fellow of the Institute of Physics, fellow of the institute of Engineering & Technology, senior member of the Optical Society of America and a named inventor on 17 patents with over 100 peer-reviewed technical publications. Des has joined Lightricity to contribute to the company’s growth through development of external funding, collaborations and manufacturing links.
PhD, Mike Brownlow, Technology Strategy and IP Expert
Mike Brownlow has a wealth of experience in developing and bringing new technologies to market in the display, consumer electronics, electronic device and health sectors. Following a PhD in engineering at the University of Oxford, Mike’s career has been spent developing and commercialising products for SHARP Laboratories of Europe Ltd., most recently as Technical Director/CTO.
Mike has joined Lightricity to work in close collaboration with the other team members in supporting the company’s management team to create a technical and IP strategy to realise the commercial potential of Lightricity’s world leading technology.
PhD, Simon Aliwell, Commercialisation and Funding Expert
Simon Aliwell is a technology commercialisation professional supporting highly innovative organisations to ensure that emerging technologies have a better chance of successfully reaching the market. Simon has a PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from London Business School.
He has led teams providing innovation management services and consultancy to industry, government and academia and run a number of technology and business networks. Simon has a background in sensors and instrumentation technology research and further experience in technology commercialisation. He has developed new sensor and instrumentation technologies and has experience in the application of sensing and instrumentation in a wide range of sectors. For the past 12 years he has also been supporting the development of the energy harvesting technologies and applications sector in the UK. Simon has joined Lightricity to help the company grow through better understanding of market and funding opportunities, and developing R&D collaborations and commercialisation partnerships.