Meet The Team
We have roughly 200 staff whose every day aim is to bring you great software and first-class service. Our headquarters are in London, we've got an office in LA, as well as a host of team members dotted around in other parts of the US, Canada, Japan, China, Taiwan, France and Mexico - so we're never too far away from you!
We travel extensively - we are as often on the road meeting customers as we are at our desks - but if we've not managed to meet you in person yet and you're curious as to what we look like, take a look at our rogues gallery below.
Bill Collis
CEO
CEO
Do not steal Bill's mini rolls! Just don't. Bill joined The Foundry in 2001 as an Algorithms Engineer, was soon promoted to Head of Research and is now CEO. Prior to The Foundry, Bill worked in Algorithms at Snell & Wilcox where he contributed to the development of the infamous ‘bullet time’ effects in The Matrix. He has published over 50 papers, a book entitled ‘Heart Sounds Made Easy’, and holds five patents. Bill loves tractors and is often found terrifying small animals as he drives around his very own field.
Bruno Nicoletti
Head of Technology & Founder
Head of Technology & Founder
As well as being the reason we are all here, our Founder is also the loudest person in the company. The self confessed geek has been working in the post production industry since 1987 when he joined Zap Production - Australia's first computer graphics company. Bruno enjoys climbing mountains and frightening new employees. When his daughters grow up, Bruno plans to answer the door sharpening one of his many swords to scare away the boys they bring home.
Simon Robinson
Chief Scientist & Co-Founder
Chief Scientist & Co-Founder
Bruno's first hire and original business partner, Simon, is usually on a sugar high from his Haribo habit. Two decades of experience in the film and broadcast industry, working within software and post-production has qualified him to hold the best job title in the company - Chief Scientist. Simon once kayaked across the Arctic where he was fully trained to shoot polar bears. This skill has come in very handy in the VFX industry.
Andy Whitmore
Chief Product Officer
Chief Product Officer
Andy loves Barbour and all things country gentleman - especially cricket. He's even got a cricket bat signed by his idol Graham Gooch. When he's bored at home he likes nothing more than taking a wander around the local car lot checking out the specs of the latest hybrid saloon car. He had a brief stint in games development working on a title based on 'the mysterious wilderness monster known as the Yeti' but decided beasts weren't for him and joined The Foundry as an engineer in 2001. Andy knows literally everything there is to know about The Foundry's portfolio and makes sure everyone is on track and that actual products emerge.
Christopher Kenessey
Chief Sales & Marketing Officer
Chief Sales & Marketing Officer
There ain't no mountain high enough to keep Christopher from climbing it. Our resident action man recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Aconcagua (2 of the Seven Summits) and approaches everything sales and marketing related with the same gusto and determination. He previously worked at Cisco and Tidal Software where he spearheaded massive growth. He worked for the Walt Disney Corporation and completed their management training program, where he learned the importance of creating a fun working environment, but claims he never dressed up as the Mouse!
Mark Brownlie
Chief Finance Officer
Chief Finance Officer
Someone has to look after the money and who better than a hard nosed, no nonsense Scot with a background in whipping VC led, start up, entrepreneurial and larger multinational businesses into shape. Bad shirts are his trademark, but don't tell his wife because she picks them out! When he's not sorting out The Foundry's finances you'll find him hunched over a spreadsheet keeping track of his personal beer expenses. When he gets excited we have no idea what he's saying so have to call upon Lucy (the only other Scot in the office) to translate.
Richard Shackleton
Head of Corporate & Industry Intelligence
Head of Corporate & Industry Intelligence
Richard is a huge petrol head and a fire juggler. The problem is he keeps blowing things up when he combines his two passions. He's a Yorkshire man with a whopping 16 years experience in the post-production and visual effects business. He knows a lot of stuff about everything and helps us get really strategic. Richard is basically the go to guy, and also makes a mean cup of Rosie Lee.
Lucy Cooper
Head of Marketing
Head of Marketing
Lucy was lured from north of the border by the bright lights of London back in 1997. Fifteen years later she's still here having held marketing positions within post production, physical special effects and the BBC. Still true to her Scottish roots she religiously forces members of her team to eat haggis on Burns night (even the vegetarians). She really enjoys being underwater, and making up hand signals for different fish. She also likes throwing herself down snowy mountains in her cat hat. Her career highlight was serving a cup of tea to Matt Damon in his pants.
Sarah Richards
Head of Human Resources
Head of Human Resources
Sarah will accept cupcakes as bribes. As The Foundry's head of HR, she hunts far and wide to seek out the best and brightest talent to join our growing family. With over 12 years management experience, she keeps us all in check and makes sure the company remains a totally awesome place to work. Sarah buys the staff's affection by enforcing the traditional beer o'clock every Friday at 5pm. She loves holidays, fine wines and spending time with friends and family.
Jon Starck
Head of Research
Head of Research
Dr Starck is so clever that he can look at an object and fix it using only the power of his mind. When asked to explain his genius, he said: “I graduated from Cambridge with a starred first, have published over 40 peer-reviewed articles, received the 2003 BMVA Sullivan prize, and serve as reviewer, area chair and technical chair for CVMP, ICIP, BMVC as well as the EPSRC Peer Review College.” We're not entirely sure what this all means, but it sounds pretty impressive eh? If only he could work out how the coffee machine works.
Phil Parsonage
Head of Engineering
Head of Engineering
Being the tallest man in the world (well The Foundry) has its benefits when playing tennis and running marathons, but Phil's joints are starting to complain these days and he's recently decided never to stretch again as ‘it only causes problems’. Phil started out at NaturalMotion to work on their animation product, Endorphin, before moving to The Foundry in 2004. Despite making a brief escape in 2007, to Trinity College Dublin as part of the AXIOM project, he couldn't resist returning and is now Head of Engineering.
Jason 'Lenny' Leonard
Customer Support Manager
Customer Support Manager
Lenny has a love for pigeons that sometimes makes children run away from him. Fed up of working as the IT man at accountancy and law firms, he joined The Foundry in 2008 as Customer Support Manager. He's the guy that you can rely on when you need help. His raison d'être is keeping our customers up and running and also making sure they're happy as Larry. He enjoys music production, doodling on post-its and remaking films using objects on his desk (most recently 'Dune' with the help of a banana).
Jon Wadelton
NUKE Product Manager
NUKE Product Manager
The very charming Mr NUKE is a self confessed geek and the kind of guy that ignores safety instructions and swallows badges. Jon started his career working in audio back in his hometown of Melbourne. It's his mission at The Foundry to push NUKE into new and exciting places. He is passionate about film, has a very eclectic taste in music, loves food and is a total coffee snob. He once had a coffee with Kylie Minogue but admittedly doesn't think much of her latest album.
Andy Lomas
KATANA Product Manager
KATANA Product Manager
Andy is an Emmy award winning CG Supervisor and part time super-genius. His credits include Avatar, The Matrix: Reloaded, Over the Hedge, Alice in Wonderland, Arabian Nights and Jason and the Argonauts. He joined The Foundry to work on KATANA - a software solution almost as clever as him. Not only is he one of the most enthusiastic people you'll ever meet, he's also an active digital artist. In 2007 his work was selected by The Saatchi Gallery for a special exhibition as part of the Zoo Art Fair at the Royal Academy.
Jack Greasley
MARI Product Manager
MARI Product Manager
If you need tips on the best restaurants in town, be it in LA, London or Tokyo, Jack's your man. He grew up in rural Essex but wouldn't be caught dead in a pair of loafers. He started off at Framestore in London working on the Harry Potter movies before heading off to Weta Digital in New Zealand where he was Senior R&D Engineer on a small indie film called Avatar. Jack pretty much invented MARI and has more stamps in his passport than George Clooney.
Jack Binks
HIERO Product Manager
HIERO Product Manager
Jack likes taking pictures but what's more interesting is the pimp hat he keeps nestled on top of his desk fan. We think he puts it on as soon as he leaves the office on a Friday. Jack wears a lot of different hats (including the pimp hat) at The Foundry, because he knows so many things. When studying engineering at York, he started dabbling in After Effects, graduating to Shake relatively quickly which landed him his first jobs custom building AVID and Adobe editing stations and moonlighting as a motion graphics artist. Jack joined The Foundry in 2005 working in QA before graduating to Product Management. He survived a nasty accident with a ski pole in his youth, but claims it has had no effect on his ability to empathise with colleagues.
Matt Plec
Senior Product Designer
Senior Product Designer
Don't ever look Matt in the eyes or you'll wake up dressed as chicken on a trawler boat heading for the middle of the ocean. Matt's brain is like a sponge. There's not much he doesn't know. He spends lots of time talking to customers and calls on his experience in everything from compositing and 3D animation to software development to help him steer the design of all the wonderful products at The Foundry.
Charlotte Dawson
Channel Marketing & Operations Manager
Channel Marketing & Operations Manager
Charlotte is one of the only people in the company that loves Las Vegas. When she's not at home watching bad reality TV shows, you'll find her working hard to keep The Foundry's global network of resellers in line. Charlotte started out as an aspiring Recording Engineer but quickly realised that a Grammy award was but a distant dream. She's now happy sticking to being a bit of a bedroom DJ by night, and supporting lots of other lovely creative people by day.
Ian Hall
PR Manager
PR Manager
Ian films things but often ends up doing very little with the footage. He likes writing and watching movies - which makes his day job as PR guru at The Foundry pretty ideal. Ian writes case studies, articles and helps the press get the best possible stories about our exciting industry and the products and talent making it happen. He also has a collection of cardigans that's really second to none.
Najeeb Khan
License Compliance Manager
License Compliance Manager
When Najeeb needs serious advice he always calls upon his trusted hand puppets to guide him. He graduated as an Aeronautical Engineer and had early stints working at Porsche, Alfa Romeo and BMW as an engineer. His hands soon became tired of manual work and he switched over to sales. He is now responsible for Licence Compliance within companies using The Foundry's software. Najeeb grew up in the warm climes of Tanzania and recently travelled back to Africa to connect with his home town, swim in the ocean, and eat lots of mangoes.
Nicki Morris
Education Manager
Education Manager
Nicki joined The Foundry in 2005 as Marketing Manager from the world of event marketing before being persuaded by Bill to turn her hand to sales. She was instrumental in developing and launching the company's Channel and Licence Compliance programmes before taking on Education where she currently encourages the next generation of VFX artists to learn The Foundry's software. Outside of work Nicki loves scuba diving and has a labrador called Jack, who seems to get himself into a world of trouble. She is also a real foodie - we all look on with envy whenever she produces her Cordon Bleu ‘packed lunch’ from her bag.
Camille Hughes
Office & Travel Administrator
Office & Travel Administrator
Camille is the first person from The Foundry you're likely to encounter if you visit or ring the London office. She keeps us all in line (seriously, don't mess with her) and makes sure we're on the right plane going to the right place at the right time. She's the person we phone, no matter what time zone we're in. If it's all gone horribly wrong, she can always be counted on to sort it out. She also ensures we're all in the know about important national holidays encouraging themed baking wherever possible. Her taste in music is truly appalling, but she more than makes up for it with her general joie de vivre.
Hieronymus
Mascot
Mascot
Drawn by the boyfriend of our founder Bruno's ex landlady, Hieronymus became the official mascot of The Foundry after a brief, but ultimately unsuccessful, career as a lumberjack. He was named after Hieronymus Bosch, as he is somewhat grotesque. Hieronymus likes beer and cheese and his favourite pastimes include bear baiting and dancing the Lambada, usually at the same time.
