Management Team
Mahmoud Farhadiroushan
Chief Executive Officer
Mahmoud Farhadiroushan co-founded Silixa in April 2007 to develop and commercialise the
next generation of optical fibre sensors. Mahmoud previously co-founded Sensornet in 1998
and as CEO grew the company from its two-man roots to a successful, internationally-operating
company and a rapidly-growing turnover.
In 1995 Mahmoud joined King’s College London as a senior member of the Optoelectronics Research
Group and managed a collaborative European project to build a fine-spatial resolution distributed
sensor. The resultant instrument far surpassed the sponsor’s expectations, and was one of the
most successful European projects completed around this time.
Between 1990 and 1994, Mahmoud was responsible for the initiation, technical leadership and management
of a joint industrial project sponsored by eight oil companies. These early initiatives established
a strong recognition for the application of optical fibre sensors in the oil and gas industry. From
1985 to 1990, at University College London, he conducted research into optical fibre gyroscopes and
multiplexed sensor systems as well as multiple-quantum well devices for intra-chip optical data
transmission.
Mahmoud is the joint winner of two DTI SMART awards, the prestigious 2000 Manufacturing Metrology
for World Class Manufacturing Award (Frontier Science and Measurement), for pioneering work on a
new wavelength measurement system, and the 2001 British Telecom Technological Innovation Award.
Tom Parker
Chief Technology and Operating Officer
Tom co-founded Silixa in 2007 and is Silixa’s Chief Technology Officer. As CTO, Tom takes the
lead with the development of Silixa’s iDAS and ULTIMA DTS range of instruments and oversees
Silixa’s application-specific development projects.
Prior to starting Silixa, Tom co-founded Sensornet with Mahmoud in 1998. Here, Tom built an
extremely strong technical team and led the development and market introduction of the range
of DTS and DTSS instruments, cables, downhole components and software. Many key products led
directly from his co-inventions. At the beginning of 2006, Tom took on the role of Chief Operating
Officer to ensure the seamless running of the company through a phase of rapid expansion and
transition from a technology development company to a specialist service company accredited
with ISO9001.
Tom worked as a Research Engineer at King’s College London, researching distributed strain
measurement, from 1995 until forming Sensornet in 1998. He has a PhD in Solid State Physics
from Imperial College London and a first class degree in Physics from University College London.
He is author of a number of sensing patents.
Tom’s awards include the Metrology for World Class Manufacturing Award and British Telecom
Technological Innovation Award for an extremely fine-resolution optical wavelength meter. This
instrument was able to determine wavelengths with a resolution to as fine as 10 femtometres
(10x10-15m) - a distance 5000 times smaller than the diameter of a hydrogen).
Sergey Shatalin
Chief Scientist
Scientist. He has worked continuously in optical fibre R&D for the past 28 years,
almost exclusively in fibre sensing systems. Sergey has experience in academia and
industry in both his native Russia and in the UK, having published more than 50 scientific
papers and 5 patent applications. He has wide experience in the field having worked in areas
as diverse as optical fibre gyroscopes, hydrophones, distributed sensors and optical
microscopy. While working towards his physics PhD, he won the prestigious prize for
the best scientific paper, in any subject, published by a student in the entire Soviet Union.
Sergey has filled a variety of roles in R&D and prior to joining Silixa he was Director
of R&D for a Russian telecom equipment supplier. Previous to this, Sergey led the
development of a distributed polarization and disturbance sensor for Surrey University
spin-out Polarmetrix.
Yomi Amunikoro
Head of Finance and Administration
Yomi is the Head of Finance and Administration, which incorporates all finance functions
together with human resources and corporate administrative functions. He also holds the
position of Company Secretary.
Yomi is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), with over
10 years experience in Accounting and Finance, and holds a first degree in zoology.
He has been responsible for high-level financial management, implementing and driving
corporate and financial strategies and policies, budgeting, management control and financial
management. In his previous company, Yomi formed the in-house finance department, which became
an integral part of the company.