Management Team

Louise Falevsky - CEO

Louise began her career as a cutting-edge technology developer, participating in early stage Internet and then WWW (Web) research projects. She then went on to develop mobile applications. Involvement in smaller high-tech startups brought Louise’s entrepreneurial capabilities to the fore that then changed her focus towards the business drivers acting in the world of technology.

As the dotcom market cooled in the US in 2001, Louise moved to the UK to take the role of IP (Technical) Business Development with the newly formed QinetiQ Ltd (formerly DERA, Defence Evaluation Research Agency). During her time at QinetiQ, Louise found that bridging the line between technology and business was her strength and she has continued to find opportunities to further develop these skills. While at QinetiQ, Louise worked with many researcher scientists on a variety of projects, but decided to focus her efforts in development of an Email Compliance ASP service to answer the Anti-SPAM business concern. She worked with corporate partners and external financiers as CTO to spin out the Compliance service into an MBO company.

Upon return to the US, Louise has been providing business develop and support services especially for those based in either the US or UK that want to expand their businesses across the pond as well as for existing global businesses.

Louise has taken a leading role in the business development of web-based products from an embryonic idea into a business solution. Louise’s specialist skills have been used to design a secure network for Ministry of Defense experiments, provide security analysis of a NHS (National Health Service) public portal, and implement a multilingual company website.

Louise has a special interest in space technologies. She has been fortunate to work with JPL/NASA and leading planetary scientists to enable live data and image feeds from Mars to the web. She has also provided technical and organizational support to StarBuzz Enterprises LLC; primarily focused on a Lunar Renaissance program highlighting lunar space travel in the past and into the future.

Louise has a wealth of international experience, is an excellent communicator, and has proven to be a successful leader. She holds degrees in Geography and Computer Science and is a member of the British Computer Society, the Institute for People-Centred Computation, and the British American Business Council.

Matthew Chittick - CFO

Matthew is a highly skilled Commercial Accountant with over 25 years’ experience within blue-chip companies and major public sector organisations. His understanding of business strategies and business challenges contribute to his ability to provide authoritative business support as well as incisive financial modeling.

Matthew joined QinetiQ, formerly DERA (Defence Evaluation Research Agency) as part of the Ministry of Defence, in 1995 as Financial Controller of a newly formed division and moved on to financial and management roles as Commercial Accountant and New Ventures Accountant. As the Commercial Accountant, Matthew took the financial lead in successfully winning substantial business contracts for QinetiQ business divisions.

Matthew has gone from strength to strength since leaving QinetiQ in 2006. He has provided financial and accounting consultancy to large multi-national corporations as well as smaller private firms and governmental organizations. More recently he has consulted for MoD partners, Caterpiller and Carillon, defence contracting organizations to support MoD bids and to provide Balance Sheet forensics.

Before joining QinetiQ, Matthew held a number of positions including 10 years as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a food importing and processing company. He was CFO from the time of company start-up, instrumental in raising finance. He led the company through to achieving Public Listed Company/Initial Public Offering (PLC/IPO) status and to the ultimate sale of the business to a FTSE 100 company.

Matthew holds an MBA, is a fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accounts (CIMA – CPA equivalent) and a member of the British American Business Council.

Dr. Alan Smith - CTO

Alan received a First Class degree and PhD from Durham University. He has spent 30 years in the UK Ministry of Defence’s research laboratories which subsequently became DERA, the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, and then QinetiQ.

At MoD/QinetiQ, Alan was a Principal Consultant for research management and consultancy in communications technology (Physical Layer), antennas, system optimisation and concept development. For 15 years he was the UK/MoD Technical Authority for tacmilsatcom equipment procurements. Current interests are in milsatcom and stratospheric platforms.

Alan has a broad research experience in physical science and applied engineering and is an active researcher with over 60 publications in several disciplines. He has had leadership and line-management responsibilities for professional scientific and engineering teams supporting the UK/MoD’s tacsatcom equipment procurement and technology risk reduction programmes.

He is a member of the Institute of Physics Fellowship Panel and an Assessor for the Accreditation of Company Training Schemes. Alan has been instrumental in winning three national awards for QinetiQ’s Initial Professional Development Scheme (2004, 2006, 2008). Extramurally Alan is Vice Chair of the Hereford & Worcestershire Centre of the Institute of Physics and is active in popularisation of the physical sciences. Alan is also a technical referee for three of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s journals.

Alan is a Chartered Scientist and Chartered Engineer. He is also a Fellow of The Institute of Physics and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.