A light hearted introduction to some of the team

Although we're proud of our software technology and operational experience, all this has been created by our people, who are easily our most important asset. We're really pleased that so many smart, capable motivated individuals have chosen to work with us and remain with the company as we have grown.

Davey Alvarez Project Manager
	Work: I'm part of the operations team and use my language, cultural and engineering skills to make the communication as smooth as possible when running data cleansing projects. My job requires me to travel to exotic places once in a while, like Scandinavia or South America to train users and help customers achieve their project goals. Play: I like to exercise both brain halves so I do some drawing, 3D modelling and photography in my spare time, I also like to take my bike out around tracks in the park to exercise as well. Music: I enjoy almost every type of music, generally anything with a rhythm that makes you want to move does it for me.
Click here to view my LinkedIn profile.
Tom Cave International Sales Manager
	Work: The ultimate company outlier, I spend more of my time in airport departure lounges than at the head office. While the excitement of travelling wore off many years ago, the professional pride that comes from interpreting a customer's problems and translating them into a positive return using our solutions, has never gone away. Play: A rugby playing career of 25 years means my knees are shot and to keep fit I have taken up the Company's adopted sport of cycling. My aim is to catch at least one of the Stroud's on two wheels. A country boy at heart, I live in rural Cambridgeshire with my wife, daughters and dogs, and am happiest when out walking with any combination thereof! Music: Anything by The Cavegirls. Books: Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong , East of Eden by John Steinbeck, but best by far, Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful which packs more into its few pages than the other two, combined.
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Alister Coates Lead Analyst
	Work: I work in the operations team. I run data cleaning projects with our customers as well as internal development projects and provide support on day to day bits and bobs. I also try to solve the problems that Jonathan and David throw at me - some trickier than others. Play: Outside of work I enjoy cycling and running - having Richmond and Bushy Parks on our doorstep is a bonus to working here. Charity: I've been raising money for the last few years for small development projects in northern Kenya. So far we've built an orphanage, irrigated gardens and built two fishing boats - both of which are still afloat!
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Alessio Ferreri Software Developer
	Work: I'm working in the sparesFinder development team using ASP.NET technology in the C# programming language. I like working on complex applications using the latest technologies! Hobbies: In my free time, I like to develop various kinds of software applications and little games using Microsoft DirectX® technology. Music: I enjoy listening to many types of music, but my favourite genre is pop music.
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Claudia Ferreri Software Tester
	Work: My role is to test the correct working of the applications and systems while supporting the developers during the creation of new functionality. Hobbies: I love interior design, creating jewelry with Miyuki beads and making pastries and cakes too. Play: I've practiced artistic gymnastics for 10 years and now I want to try in-line skating!
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Gabriele Ferreri Senior Software Developer
	Work: I'm working for sparesFinder as ASP.NET senior developer and I'm trying to make sci-fi requirements into something convertible in code! :) My main expertise is .NET but I have experiences in quite few other platforms (Java, VB6, VBA, Cobol). Hobbies: When I'm not out with my wife I like to watch Star-Trek episodes and learn about 3D CG (Blender). I also like to go to the gym. Music: I like mostly rap music.
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Shine Kandi Infrastructure Manager
	Work: With 7 years of experience in Microsoft technologies now working at sparesFinder as IT infrastructure manager, I like simplifying procedures & finding innovative solutions to deliver the best IT infrastructure, now focusing on cloud and virtual computing. Play: Love playing cricket - played for many local clubs, now playing with my son. Music: Love to hear Bollywood, Arabic and George Michael.
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Hilarie Kennedy Quality Control
	Work: My job responsibility is to perform quality assurance on cleansed data from a variety of different types of customers. I have been working with standardising data and quality control for over 15 years. I enjoy the challenge of making sure items are cleansed properly using our Masterpiece Dictionary, which enables our customers to gain consistency in their data. Play: I enjoy the outdoors; be it gardening, mowing, bird watching or just walking in the woods! I also like to spend time with my 2 grandsons. Music: Classic and Soft Rock... with a little bit of Country now and then! I can also be seen rocking out with my husband at various concert venues.
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Min Li Software Developer
	Work: The environment that I work in is both challenging and rewarding. In the sparesFinder development team I mainly work using ASP.NET and C# and we have always had the opportunity to develop using the latest technologies and tools. We make extra effort to write quality, tidy, structured code. I love challenges and I get plenty of those! Play: When I am not working I enjoy playing with my one year old daughter and take my entire family for long walks in the park or by the river near where we live. Music: I enjoy many types of music from classical to pop. I have played the French horn for 13 years in an orchestra. Recently I have been listening to a lot of nursery rhymes with my daughter!
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Matt Ludbrook Project Manager
	Work: In addition to working closely with our customers to manage our cleaning projects, I solve the project specific challenges that arise so we can provide a complete solution. I also focus on designing both enhancements and new products to improve our product range for our customers. Play: My current routine covers both regular swimming and gymming, the next target is my return to ice hockey. Mind Sports: I play chess at county level and am an avid gamer of all varieties of card and board games. I have been known to dabble with poker.
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Jonathan Melunsky Finance & Operations Director
	Work: I wear a few hats. As Operations Director I manage project scope, scheduling and resources, ensuring timely and efficient delivery. In my other day job I undertake project management for some of our specialist customers. In my final day job as Finance Director I try to ensure we make fair and sustainable profits. Play: I like to enjoy the company of my beautiful teenage girls, and have run a few marathons across Europe. Also enjoy tennis and cricket. More play: Books and education are important. I've got a PhD in South African politics and read history and literature, mainly Russian and ancient Greek.
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Kim Pike Dictionary Manager
	Work: Dictionary/QA Manager with sparesFinder. I have been doing this type of work for over 20 years (some people would call me unique). I have cleaned and/or QA'd over 5 million line items. I have also been involved with or developed 12 client data template dictionaries. I enjoy my job, knowing the value-added benefit that I am giving to a customer. Every day is a new challenge! Play: I am happiest when I am with my family. Outside of that, I like reading (historical fiction is my fav!), gardening, hiking, anything outdoors. Music: Motown R&B and classic rock.
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Sukhpreet Singh Software Developer
	Work: I have over six years of experience developing solutions in Microsoft .NET and have worked with many technologies including Windows Forms and SSIS but mostly on web applications using ASP.NET. I prefer to work on complex applications which require more thinking and at sparesFinder I have this opportunity where I am working mainly on the web applications and I enjoy it a great deal. Hobbies: I like to travel and spend time with my friends and listening to music and watching movies. Music: Apart from Bollywood I enjoy listening to Enrique Iglesias, Jessie J and Bruno Mars.
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Andrew Stroud Operations Manager
	Work: As part of the Operations team, my main job is making sure the magic happens, or at least doing what's necessary behind the curtain to make sure the customer experience is a smooth one. I also design the user guides & training material, tapping into my teaching experience from a former, pre-sparesFinder life. Play: Mainly running around after 2 small children, but we like to travel abroad whenever we can. World's second biggest armchair cricket fan, and also a keen cyclist, though not as hardcore as the boss. Film: Love most things I watch, but the Iranian film Children of Paradise is one I keep coming back to.
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David Stroud CEO
	Work: As well as generally running sparesFinder, I like to get involved converting the great ideas that our customers and staff have into reality. I spend most of my time either developing relationships with our partners and customers or managing the software development team. Play: Outside of work, when not enjoying time with my family, I'm a keen cyclist, doing the Etape du Tour race in France most years. Sadly I have got in with a bad lot who like to raise money by cycling very long distances, usually overnight. Most recent effort was 430km in 24hrs, but we did end up in the Champagne region of France. Music: Fleet Foxes is the latest vogue, always a fan of Joe Jackson & Elvis Costello, but struggle to escape the black hole of the X Factor. Books: Rework, Affluenza, Hot, Flat and Crowded, Captain Scott by Ranulph Fiennes, and anything by William Boyd.
Click here to view my LinkedIn profile.
Steve Travell Quality Coordinator
	Work: I'm part of the QA team, working for Nick, checking the quality of the client's data. Ensuring their instructions and expectations are followed to the letter. In the past year we have dealt with industries such as steel, oil, mineral, coal, gold extraction and petrochemical and pharmaceutical production. When you consider the investment these companies have made then you realise how important it is to get it right. Once when checking some lines for a deep sea mining company I came across life raft and survival equipment, now that has to be handled seriously. Play: Sport gave me up many years ago. I'm now a mad collector, all good intention of buying 60's and 70's toys and selling them on, 20 years and an attic full I still haven't sold one item. Unlike some of the other guys I don't cycle, however recently bought an exercise bike, now all I have to do is get a saddle! Music: I still listen to Bowie and Floyd, at the moment I'm listening to Johnny Cash American 4-5. Books: A Complete History of Nearly Everything, by Bryson, The Historian by Kostova, The Complete Works of M. R. James, I may read Lord of the Rings again.
Mark Varley Senior Software Developer
	Work: Here in the development team, this is where we make the software happen, using the latest technologies delivering solutions to our customers. I have been developing web sites, software, services and integrated solutions for over 14 years and enjoy the challenges and the technology. I specialize in .NET and Microsoft based technologies here at sparesFinder. Play: I enjoy lots of sports and when not hammering the keyboard you'll find me watching football at London's oldest club. Also a big motor racing fan and follow the Le Mans Series & American LMS calendars, making it to a few races each year. Music: Often get to see live music. Recently; Placebo, Nick Cave, The xx, Dead Weather, Sunshine Pickups. I also enjoy my fair share of electronic beats too. Books: Rework, A Briefer History Of Time, The Visual Miscellaneum.
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Nick Waters QA Manager
	Work: Employee #1 - at least on the payroll! I'm now looking after the quality of our returned data which, after selling the service and then implementing it, means I am where there is no further room for manoeuvre! As we spread into more and more new areas it certainly puts the language skills to the test. At least I know what a planchet is, in English anyway. I speak French, Italian and German to varying degrees and over the years have used them all at sparesfinder. Hobbies: I like to read, usually a book a week, but I find gardening rewarding - the opposite of data and easier on the eyes than the computer screen! Music: Trance or rock - nothing in between those two extremes really cuts it.
Click here to view my LinkedIn profile.

Continuity counts. Our board members have accumulated 45 years with the company.

sparesFinder's board consists of 3 non-executives and 2 executives as follows:

	Colin Manderson Non-Executive Chairman

Colin joined the board in Feb 2000 as a Non-Executive Director following the investment by ASCO plc, and became Chairman in May 2001. Colin was CEO of the ASCO group since 1996 after he led a £56m MBI. Under his leadership, ASCO evolved into Scotland's largest oil services company, and one of the largest and most successful independent companies in Scotland. ASCO's turnover has increased from £130 million prior to the MBI to over £400 million in the year 2000, and the company has expanded its operations into the Gulf of Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Trinidad. Colin now invests and participates in a number of Oil & Gas service companies in Aberdeen.

	Kevin Overstall Non-Executive Director

Kevin joined the board in September 2004, when he made an investment in the company. Kevin gained a Mathematics degree at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Following a career as a scientist with NATO and a management consultant with AIC, he formed Kewill Systems and built it up to be a leading software company with 700 staff and a quotation on the London Stock Exchange. Following retirement from Kewill in 1998, he has been a non-executive director of several software companies.

	Ole Bettum Non-Executive Director

Ole joined sparesFinder's board following an investment he led in 2001. He holds a Bsc (Econ) from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Ole began his finance career with Price Waterhouse and joined Close Brothers Group PLC in 1996 to help launch their smaller venture capital investment arm. Between 1996 and 2005 he was instrumental in building Close Venture Management ("CVM") from an early stage to a highly successful venture investment business with some £130 million under management. During his time with CVM, Ole led investments totalling £47m in 22 ventures. He is now working at Bestport Ventures LLP, which he co-founded in 2005.

	David Stroud CEO

David is CEO of sparesFinder, which he co-founded in Jan 1999. He gained an engineering degree from Cambridge University and subsequently became a Chartered Engineer during his early career as an aircraft engineering officer in the Royal Navy. After that he worked at Citibank, firstly as an IT project manager and later as a derivatives trader based in Frankfurt and London. At sparesFinder he has led the growth of the company from its roots as an Internet start-up to its current position as a global leader in its area, steering the product development from the initial spare parts search tool to the comprehensive set of data cleaning, governance and analysis software for all materials that is available today.

	Dr. Jonathan Melunsky Finance and Operations Director

Jonathan is a qualified accountant and joined sparesFinder in 2001. He has 3 degrees from the University of Cape Town, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and a doctorate in South African Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He set-up and operated a profitable small business for 2 years and developed his commercial experience in financial positions at leading blue chip companies. As Financial Controller at the Brand Union, he gained first-hand M&A experience in the merger of three companies, their subsequent sale to WPP and integration into the parent's financial systems, and later the successful outsourcing of the entire finance department.

Our independent status means unbiased advice for customers

sparesFinder started life as a Internet start-up in 1998, but unlike many of them, we neither needed vast amount of capital nor wasted the funds we did raise developing an overhyped shell!

As a result the original founders of the company together with current employees retain a majority shareholding, but they are supported by many private and professional investors, who have helped our development with funding when it was needed and sound advice at all times.

We are proud to have been backed by some of the best names in the UK Venture Capital industry, including Close Brothers and Elderstreet, several experienced angel investors and many "friends and family" shareholders who have supported us from the beginning.