Management & Advisory Team

The Ver-tec management and advisory team is comprised of a highly experienced and talented set of individuals, namely:

	Ben Bowmaker Chief Executive Officer Ben Bowmaker is a business entrepreneur with a strong background in the holographic and security industries. Prior to founding Ver-tec, Ben was Business Development Director at The Holographic Image Studio Ltd (THIS), where he focused on raising finance and building the sales team to drive revenue in the CD & DVD markets with next generation holographic anti-counterfeiting technology. Ben was also  responsible for developing the UK market and securing research partnerships with organisations such as De La Rue Holographic. Previously, Ben was Business Development Director for Eyestorm, heading up their off-line corporate Image Licensing activity for Europe. He established offices in New York and subsequently re-organised the team to operate in five semi-autonomous divisions from London, Paris, Geneva, New York and Milan. Ben Bowmaker trained as a Violinist at the Royal Northern College of Music.
	David Winterbottom Consultant David Winterbottom is a physicist with wide interests and experience in providing practical help and advice to all areas of industry. He started work with 9 years as an Acoustic Consultant with Sound Research Laboratories Ltd then moved to the Physics Department at the University of Essex providing consultancy based in the Physics Department.  He left the University in 1994 and set up TD&I to specialise in Process Control Software, Optical System Design and Applications,  Image Processing, Motion Control and supply and support of Noise Modelling Software.
	Patrick Flynn Senior Consultant & Head of Technical Sales Patrick Flynn has over 25 years experience in the field of photographic, Holographic and imaging technology.  Commencing his career at Loughborough University he joined Light Fantastic Holographic in 1980 as one of their founder members and was instrumental in developing the commercial side of holography.  In his role as Technical Director for OpSec and later Applied Optical Technologies he helped develop holographic techniques for the security and authentication industry which led to his position as Senior Microstructure Specialist with De La Rue Holographics, producing Optical Security Devices for the Security Print and banknote industry. More recently, Patrick has been involved within the vision inspection and authentication industry, where he has been able to use his expertise in holography and optical technology to develop quality assurance and process control systems for the security foil and label industry.
	Hugh Parnell Finance Director   Director, NW Brown Group Ltd, Chairman Envirotech Ltd and non-exec of several other companies.  Since qualifying as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1978 Hugh has had a very diverse career centred around finance, management and business development. He joined British Petroleum and gained extensive experience of business development, his last role being responsible for strategy implementation and planning for the refining and marketing businesses across Europe.   Hugh then joined Robert Fleming and Co. and later Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in the City to develop their oil-sector corporate finance businesses. In 2000 Hugh joined the NW Brown Group - a regional financial advisory company in Cambridge - to head up corporate finance and take responsibility for the early stage VC, business angels and access to finance activities around high-tech Cambridge. He acquired mandates amounting to managing a suite of early stage venture funds totalling £40m. Since early 2007 Hugh has divided his time between consulting to the NW Brown Group for early stage business funds and engaging with companies directly to help with business development.
	Jeremy Plimmer Non-executive Director Jeremy J. Plimmer is Secretary General of the Product & Image Security Foundation, the only International Forum for Manufacturers, Suppliers and users of Security Labels, Tags, Tickets, Materials, Systems and Document and Product/Image Security Technologies. Jeremy is a founder Director of Security Solutions Consultancy Limited and chairman of the PISEC series of conferences.  He has presented papers and chaired numerous conferences across Europe and the U.S. He has also acted as keynote speaker at major industry events. Previously, Jeremy worked in the security printing industry where he gained international experience in developing passport, identification and financial security products as Development Director of a leading UK print group which is now part of the Appleton Corporation.
	Dr David Tidmarsh Industry Advisor David Tidmarsh is commercial director for Technical Graphics Security Products. The company, based in Milford, New Hampshire, USA supplies all security threads for US currency and 32 other countries. David is also Regional Sales Director for the European division of Crane AB. In addition to these responsibilities, David is Chairman and Strategic Advisor to Reconnaissance International. He also writes a financial column monthly for Holography News. Previously, David was Chief Executive of Applied Optical Technologies, responsible for developing Group strategy, directing the Company and managing its performance. David Tidmarsh holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Southampton, a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Reading  and a Dip BA from Manchester Business School.