Senior Management
Tom Taylor
CEO
Tom joined the Board on 5 September 2024 having joined the Company as Chief Commercial Officer in January 2024.
He previously fulfilled a number of management roles at Made Tech Group plc before and after its AIM flotation including as Head of Sales and Central Government working with clients including HMRC, the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office, the Met Office and the DVLA.
Having originally been one of the founders of a ticketing agency in his native New Zealand, he fulfilled a number of software related roles before joining Made Tech Group plc.
Prof. Robert Young
Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer
Robert joined the Board on 10 March 2020 having been a director of the Company’s subsidiary Quantum Base Limited since 15 August 2014 as one of the founders.
He holds a Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge.
Having been a research scientist at Toshiba Research Europe and the Tyndall National Institute, he joined Lancaster University in 2009 and was appointed as a Professor in 2017 having also been a director of the Lancaster Quantum Technology Centre.
David Howarth
Chief Technology Officer
David joined Quantum Base from BAE Systems where he was the senior Engineering Manager responsible for Performance and Strategy across Maritime Submarines. He had responsibility for driving improvements in engineering effectiveness and efficiency, annual planning and reporting, and the engineering budget for the business. Prior to that, he was the senior Engineering Manager in their 300person Specialist Engineering Capability Group. In this role, David was lead systems engineer and the lead architect for Engineering Management, driving the strategic direction for the Group and delivering complex facilities investment cases.
David is a Chartered Engineer who holds an MEng (1st Class Hons) in Computer Systems, an MPhil, and MSc (Distinction) in Systems Engineering. His key skills include engineering project management across complex systems, systems integration, real time signal processing using DSPs and FPGAs, electronic design and software development.
Prof. Ben Robinson
Scientific Materials Advisor
Ben is an experimental physicist, his research interests are highly interdisciplinary and concern advanced functional materials, surfaces and interfaces. He holds a prestigious 50th anniversary lectureship in Physics and Functional Materials based within the Physics Department and the new Materials Science Institute at Lancaster University. Ben is an expert in the design, synthesis and characterisation of nanoscale materials and devices including single molecule and nanoscale organic electronic systems and 2D materials and their applications.
Prior to his lectureship Ben was work package leader on successive EU FP7 projects where he pioneered novel nanoscale thermal and mechanical characterisation techniques for 2D and organic materials. He completed his PhD at the University of Wales under the supervision of Prof. G. J. Ashwell participating in internationally-leading research on room temperature single molecule transport, and ultrathin functional organic films realised by Langmuir-Blodgett deposition.
During his Ph.D. Ben was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Andrew N. C. Johnstone memorial prize.
Dr Alan Gilchrist
Marketing Director
Alan leads marketing solution thought leadership and brand positioning for Quantum Base. With customer value creation at the core of his work and approach, Quantum Base is successfully delivering nascent quantum technology solutions in partnership with global security organisations to protect global revenues and brands against counterfeiting.
Prior to completion of his PhD in Marketing (Lancaster), Alan had developed a ten-year career in business to business marketing, sales and change management, focused within the UK banking and telecommunications sectors. In addition, he has also created, built and co-owned a start-up organisation (London) supplying IT professionals to the Finance and Automotive Manufacturing sectors.