Granta Management

Professor Michael F. Ashby

Non-Executive Chairman

Mike is Professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is a world-renowned authority on engineering materials and the author/co-author of the best-selling textbooks, Engineering Materials I & II and Materials Selection in Mechanical Design and of over 200 papers on mechanisms of plasticity and fracture, powder compaction, mechanisms of wear, methodologies for materials selection, and the modeling of material shaping processes, among other topics. He is recipient of numerous awards and honors including Fellow of the Royal Society and Member of the American Academy of Engineering. Prior to Cambridge, he was a professor at Harvard University and held academic positions in Germany and France. He is also co-founder of Granta and directs development of Granta’s CES EduPack.

Professor David Cebon

Managing Director

Dr Patrick Coulter

Chief Operating Officer

Patrick joined Granta as a non-executive director in 1997 and began his current position in 1999. He is an experienced software entrepreneur and business manager, beginning with Cambridge Molecular Design, a successful materials and chemistry software company that he founded in the late 1980s and which continues, through its successor operation, to employ many scientists and support staff in Cambridge. It too was a spin-off from university research and created the leading software in its field of molecular modeling. Patrick has post-doctoral experience in materials and polymer science, a PhD in chemistry from Cambridge University, and has held positions at ICI and Unilever. He has applied his scientific, industrial, and business expertise to drive sustained growth at Granta and to manage and evolve operations as the company grows. He also finds time to contribute to product development and to work directly with Granta customers—particularly in his favored subject area of polymers.

Richard Painter

Vice President, Sales

Richard has extensive experience of sales worldwide in software and hardware companies. He was International Sales Director for PAFEC, the British CAD/CAM software company, and while at Molecular Simulations Inc. (MSI), he grew a sales force serving European markets for R&D in the life sciences, materials industries, and chemicals. Richard has also worked or consulted on managing and expanding sales operations, sales and marketing strategy and general business management at companies including Genomica, Scimagix and KPMG Management Consulting. His experience includes involvement in IPOs and acquisitions. He is a graduate in Chemical Engineering from University College, London.

Stephen Warde

Head of Marketing

Steve has twenty years' experience of marketing scientific and engineering software products and services. He is a Materials Science graduate from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the UK's Open University Business School. He has applied this science and business background in a variety of roles and corporate environments, ranging from marketing a small Cambridge University startup, to working on the management team of a 600-person US-based public corporation. Most recently, he served as Global Marketing Communications Director and then European Marketing Director for Accelrys, a leading provider of modeling and informatics software for chemistry, biology, and materials research. Steve joined the growing Granta team in 2006. He coordinates the company's strategic planning and manages product marketing and marketing communications.

Dr Arthur Fairfull

Product Director—Materials Strategy & PLM Integration

Arthur has developed, implemented and marketed materials information systems for over twenty years, working with three generations of materials software technology. His first company, Matsel Systems Ltd (a subsidiary of Elsevier Science Publishers), offered desktop and online materials selection software in the days before the Internet! Arthur then held a variety of positions at MSC Software, latterly as Director in Simulation Data Management. Joining Granta in 2006, he now drives Granta's materials strategy and PLM integration initiatives, with particular focus on the industrial & consumer equipment sector. He has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Glasgow University and a PhD in composite materials from the University of Liverpool.

Dr Will Marsden

Product Director—Aerospace, Defense & Energy

Will's career within the aerospace materials community began with his first position as a Rolls-Royce research engineer in 1989. At post-doctorate level, he specialized in material model formulations that describe composite damage mechanisms within finite element codes. He continued work in this area at DERA, the research agency of the UK Ministry of Defense, and then managed the composites group for a commercial provider of finite element software. Will joined Granta in 2001, since when he has been responsible for products that support the aerospace, defense, and energy sectors. He has coordinated the work of the Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC), an industry collaboration that helps to define and implement best practice. Will has a BSc in Materials Engineering and PhD in composites fracture mechanics from the University of Surrey.