Dr Philip Harrison

Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director

Tel: +44 (0)7944 607094
Email: phil@sofmat.com

Dr Philip Harrison is one of the founder Directors of SofMat Ltd, it was his original concept that informed the development of the SofMat technology platform and he developed the SofMat patent.  Phil works alongside the other founding Director, Dr Ben Whiteside, on all technical aspects of product development as well as leading on Sales & Promotional activity.

Phil has a broad base of experience in a number of industry sectors in both technical and commercial roles as well as experience working with a number of Universities.  He is a qualified metallurgist, a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.  His technical roles have included problem solving of production processes, research and development of new products, and generating new processing routes for novel materials.  The commercial roles have included international sales management for products destined mainly for the electronics and aerospace sectors.  His work within the university sector has involved, as well as early stage researcher posts, knowledge transfer and liaison with potential industrial clients producing a broad base of contacts within both sectors.

Dr Harrison has produced five patents through his working life, in fields as disparate as Medical Devices, Ballistics and Surface Finishing.  The most recent of which is the basis for the technology platform developed by SofMat Ltd for use in the anti-counterfeit / brand protection field.

Key Experience:

• Manufacturing & Supply Chain – materials & process optimization
• Metallurgy & Materials – experience in metals, ceramics and polymers
• Metrology – characterisation of nano-surfaces
• Knowledge Transfer – commercialisation of innovations arising from HE-base

Mrs Sue Rainton

Business Operations Manager / Company Secretary

Tel: +44 (0)7702 367331
Email: sue@sofmat.com

Sue provides administrative & business support to SofMat Ltd including day-to-day operational activities, HR, contracting and financial planning.  She has many years experience in corporate management roles within UK Local Government, Regional Public Sector and the private sector.

Sue’s specialties are: Financial planning & operational systems management. Project Management (Prince 2 Practioner). Grant funding for R&D / Innovation, with a strong track record in project development, application & management. European Structural Funding.  She holds professional & management qualifications (CMS & DMS) & is currently studying for a part-time PhD researching SME Innovation & interactions with the Higher-Education/Research-base.

Prof Ben Whiteside

Director

Tel: +44 (0)7989 434797
Email: ben@sofmat.com

Ben is one of the founder Directors of SofMat Ltd, working alongside Dr Philip Harrison he applied his technical knowledge to the development of the SofMat technology platform.  In addition to his role with SofMat Ben currently works within the University of Bradford where he leads the RKT Centre for Polymer Micro and Nano Technology.  This Centre provides a key resource for industry, working to bring micro and nano scale components to market, alongside internationally recognised pioneering academic research in the field.

His key areas of research interest are:

• Surface structuring of polymeric devices using feature replication;
• Material-specific behaviour;
• Crystallisation properties and post processes including plasma treatment or embossing;
• Product property control using advanced process control and novel materials and material combinations to tailor internal morphology;
• Optical characterisation methods for polymer processes including high speed optical and thermal imaging systems.

Professor Chris Bovis

Chairman of the Board

Tel: +44 (0)7702 367331
Email: sue@sofmat.com

Christopher Bovis JD, MPhil, LLM, FRSA is Professor of International Business at the Business School of the University of Hull. He is internationally renowned specialist in public sector management, public procurement and public private partnerships. His fields of expertise cover international business and trade law, European Union law, anti-trust, energy, transport and telecommunications.

Peter Sorg

Corporate Advisor, Business Development (Europe)

Tel: +41 79 707 94 64
Email: peter@sofmat.com

Peter Sorg
BBA Bachelor of Business Administration (HWV), Basel, Switzerland Swiss Federal Diploma in International Business, Marketing and Sales Management
Experience
• Over 30 years in various senior executive business development positions in the oil and pharmaceuticals/chemicals industry (Mobil Oil, Exxon, Ciba-Geigy, Novartis, CIBA SC) of which: • 22 years with Ciba-Geigy, Novartis and Ciba SC including 13 years assignment in the Asia-Pacific region to establish and build successful and profitable enterprises in SEA and NEA (Indonesia, Japan, Korea) and 7 years overall business responsibility for the Asia-Pacific, South Asia and MENA regions • 16 years as business strategy development entrepreneur & consultant in the life science industry via his own companies Sorg Consulting and Quilt Solutions LLC (both in Switzerland) • Founding partner, investor & BoD member of various Life Science start-up companies as well as EurAsia Competence AG, Switzerland, a leading inter-cultural management services consultancy.
Other assignments
• Former BoD member of Swiss-Asia Chamber of Commerce • 17 years part-time faculty member “Sino-Swiss Management Training Program” (University of Geneva and University of St. Gallen, Switzerland) for “Change Management”, “Leadership Development”, “Organizational Development” for the Chinese Government (CTCSPMO, Beijing) • Various technology and corporate business development mandates in life science sector
Special competences / skills;
• International and interdisciplinary technology business strategy and business development management • Technology and know-how transfer • Building critical mass entities and high performance organizations • Strategic assembly and M&A transactions • Corporate change management and leadership programs • Corporate strategic issue management • High quality private enterprise networks in North-East-, South-East- and South-Asia, Europe, Switzerland and USA.

Sterling C. Johnson

Corporate Advisor, Business Development (America/Canada)

Tel: +1 886 880-1635
Email: sterling@sofmat.com

Sterling C. Johnson
Sterling has extensive business experience in the life science field which includes agricultural chemicals, animal health, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.
Experience
After a 20 year career managing departments and operations for Eli Lilly & Co. in its agriculture business, Sterling gravitated to start ups in drug delivery and ophthalmic medical devices. He was a founder and CEO of Escalon Medical. Since 1997 Sterling has consulted through his firm, Exalen LLC, for more than 10 medical device and pharma/biotech companies in the USA, UK, Ireland, Europe, and Australia, including being a contract CEO, Director and investor in several start-ups. His vast global business experience in marketing, business development, licensing and management have included residences in Japan, Germany, Austria, New Zealand as well as the Eastern, Midwestern and Western regions of the USA.

Areas of Expertise:
• Corporate establishment, strategic planning and governance
• Market assessment and alliance management
• Business development, partnering and licensing