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Riverlane team members collaborating with each other

Who we are

Our story
Our story

Our story

Riverlane was founded in 2016 by Steve Brierley, a senior research fellow in computational mathematics at the University of Cambridge. At that time, the majority view in the global quantum computing community was that 'useful' quantum computing was more than 20 years away - or might never happen.

Steve's own research identified a quantum 'Moore's law' whereby small-scale quantum computers were doubling in power every two years, meaning useful quantum computing at scale could be achievable within a decade. Armed with this evidence, the support of Cambridge University and intensive guidance from ARM co-founder Jamie Urquhart amongst many others, he founded Riverlane from his kitchen table and has never looked back.

About us
About us

About us

Today, Riverlane is nearly 100 strong with offices in Cambridge, UK, and Boston, US. The company's mission - to make quantum computing useful far sooner than previously imaginable - remains unchanged from day one.

Building Deltaflow - the quantum error correction stack, is how we achieve this. We partner with many of the world's leading quantum computing hardware companies, labs and governments. We're backed by the University of Cambridge and leading technology VC firms.

Our management team

Leadership
Steve Brierley

Steve Brierley

CEO and Founder

Steve Brierley founded Riverlane in 2016 to build the error correction stack for quantum computers. Driven by his conviction that fault-tolerant quantum computers will accelerate human progress, Riverlane partners with leading quantum hardware companies to make that happen sooner.

Steve has worked in quantum for over 20 years and is an expert advisor to the UK government. He holds a PhD in quantum information, spent a decade in the intelligence community and worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge leading major research projects in quantum computing. In January 2024, Steve was awarded an OBE for his services to quantum computing.

Marco Ghibaudi

Marco Ghibaudi

VP Engineering

Marco is an expert in delivering deep-tech prototypes and products. He holds a joint CERN/SSSUP PhD in Innovative Technologies and he specialises on highly constrained systems. Marco innovation track-record comprises the first smart-city testbed in Europe, a key component in large-scale optical networks, the CERN largest electronics upgrade and the first commercial wireless VR Headset.

From small scale software solutions to multi-million units per year hardware chips, Marco has always focused on quality, reliability and time to market. Marco brings Industry best-practices into Research and ingenuity into Development.

Bek  Simmons

Bek Simmons

Chief Operating Officer

Bek is responsible for building world-class teams and scaling company operations to enable Riverlane to reach its strategic goals. Bek enjoys supporting and empowering high-performing teams and has a supreme talent for driving work to completion.

Bek has 18 years' experience within leading health, research and higher education organisations. She co-founded THIS Institute, a £42m healthcare research institute at the University of Cambridge, building a team of 35 people in one year. Bek also has experience in fundraising and stakeholder management across a range of sectors and countries as Chief of Staff at the University of Cambridge.

Bek holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the Open University.

Glenn  Manoff

Glenn Manoff

Chief Marketing Officer

Glenn brings over 25 years’ experience in C-level Marketing roles in high-growth technology companies. He was a key member of the management teams that scaled Trustpilot from startup to global market leader and unicorn IPO. At O2 he helped the company deliver the consistently highest share of commercial growth and build one of Europe’s most iconic brands. He led the launch of the iPhone, The O2 and built Think Big, one of Europe’s leading social impact and sustainability programmes.

Maria  Maragkou

Maria Maragkou

VP Product & Partnerships

Maria has over a decade of experience in quantum technology. As Head of Business Development at Riverlane, she built a network of global partners and a deep understanding of the global quantum computing ecosystem. As VP Product & Partnerships, she is developing solutions that address those needs.

Maria has a PhD in Physics from the University of Southampton and an MBA from Kedge business school. After 4 years of post-doctoral research on single photon sources, she worked in science publishing as a Senior Editor at Nature Materials. 

Earl  Campbell

Earl Campbell

VP Quantum Science

Earl is a world expert in quantum error correction with nearly two decades of experience in creating fresh design concepts for fault-tolerant quantum computing architectures. During his career, Earl has made significant contributions to quantum error correction, fault-tolerant quantum logic and compilation, and quantum algorithms--with 80+ publications and authoring the premier review on quantum error correction in Nature.

Andreas Hansson

Andreas Hansson

VP Strategic Projects

Andreas is responsible for growth acceleration and fundraising at Riverlane. He is an investor and advisor with experience across the entire company life cycle. Andreas serves on the Board of several private and public companies. He has 12+ years' experience in R&D, business development, IP management, and product definition in segments such as IoT, robotics, cloud, AI/machine learning and cybersecurity. Andreas holds a PhD in electrical engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands.

Amelia Copas

Amelia Copas

Chief Financial Officer

Amelia has 10+ years of experience within and leading finance teams. Originally qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, Cambridge and subsequently going on to hold positions in both US and UK listed companies. Most recently Amelia spent 6 years building, developing and leading the finance and operations (Co Sec, HR, IT, Legal, Office) functions in a Cambridge Biotech, during which time she was heavily involved in several fundraises involving raising significant amounts of external funding.

Board
Amelia Armour

Amelia Armour

Partner - Amadeus Capital Partners

Amelia is a Principal in the Early Stage Fund at Amadeus Capital Partners with an investment focus of autonomous systems, AI and machine learning, cloud computing, digital health and medical technology.

As well as sitting on the board of Riverlane she is Director at other technology companies including Paragraf, delivering the capabilities of graphene to the real world; Immense Simulations, an intelligent mobility enabling software company and SLAMcore, a spin-out from Imperial College, developing spatial intelligence for autonomous robotics and drones.

Amelia holds a BSc in Chemistry and Biology from Durham University and is a mentor on the Judge Business School's Accelerate Programme.

Stuart Chapman

Stuart Chapman

Managing Partner and Founder - Molten Ventures

Stuart was a Director of 3i Ventures in London before he co-founded Molten Ventures. He has over 25 years of venture capital experience in Europe and the US - including founding 3i US in Menlo Park, CA. Stuart was responsible for Molten's investments in Lagan Technology (sold to Verint), Redkite (sold to Nice) and Kiadis (sold to Sanofi). Stuart serves as a director with Netronome, Aircall, Resolver, Realeyes, Riverlane and Conversocial; and as observer with Graphcore and Crate.

Before 3i, Stuart was involved in software and systems implementations for Midland Bank. He is a graduate of Loughborough University and currently serves on the Strategic Advisory Board for the Loughborough School of Business.

Hermann  Hauser

Hermann Hauser

Venture Partner - Amadeus Capital Partners

In 2015 Hermann was awarded an KBE for services to Engineering and Industry.

Serial Entrepreneur and Co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, Dr Hermann Hauser KBE has wide experience in developing and financing companies in the information technology sector. He co-founded a number of high-tech companies including Acorn Computers which spun out ARM, E-trade UK, Virata and Cambridge Network. Subsequently Hermann became vice president of research at Olivetti. During his tenure at Olivetti, he established a global network of research laboratories. Since leaving Olivetti, Hermann has founded over 20 technology companies. In 1997, he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners. At Amadeus he invested in CSR, Solexa, Icera, Xmos and Cambridge Broadband.

Hermann is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as an Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. In 2001 he was awarded an Honorary CBE for 'innovative service to the UK enterprise sector'. In 2004 he was made a member of the Government's Council for Science and Technology and in 2013 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

Hermann has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Loughborough, Bath, Anglia Ruskin, Strathclyde, Glasgow and York.

James Scapa

James Scapa

Founder, Chairman & CEO - Altair

Jim Scapa brings nearly 40 years of business growth, innovation, and cultural stewardship to his role as founder, chairman, and CEO of Altair (Nasdaq: ALTR), a global leader in computational science and artificial intelligence.

In 1985, Jim and two partners formed Altair with a focus on the then-new field of simulation using HPC. Today, through Jim’s leadership, the company serves more than 13,000 customers and employs more than 3,000 employees across 25 countries. Altair software – used across a broad range of industry sectors – enables customers to enhance product performance, compress development time, reduce costs, and make smarter decisions. Growth has been achieved both through long-term nurturing of internal technology development, and by strategic acquisitions of complementary technologies which have been successfully integrated into Altair’s offerings.

Jim holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

Andrew  Williamson

Andrew Williamson

Managing Partner - Cambridge Innovation Capital

Andrew Williamson is the Managing Partner and specialises in technology investments. He has hands on experience of building technology businesses, coupled with a venture investing background and an understanding of Cambridge and its academic institutes.

Prior to joining CIC, he was at True North Venture Partners in Chicago where he was a partner in its $300 million venture fund. Before this Andrew spent ten years leading materials science and semiconductor research in US government research laboratories, followed by managing director positions at venture capital funds Physic Ventures in San Francisco and MalibuIQ in Los Angeles.

Andrew studied at the University of Cambridge as both an undergraduate and a graduate, receiving an MA in Natural Sciences and a PhD in Physics. He also holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Andrew manages CIC's investments in Audio Analytic, AudioTelligence, Imagen, Origami Energy, PervasID, PragmatIC, Prowler.io, Riverlane, Swim.ai and Undo.

Featured experts

Our team

Gianluca Aiello
Quantum Applications Engineer
James Auger
IP Manager
Ben Barber
Staff Quantum Scientist
Kenton Barnes
Staff Quantum Engineer
Gordon Bateman
IT Manager
Bjorn Berntson
Senior Quantum Scientist
Tomasz Bialas
Senior Digital Design Engineer
Nick Blunt
Staff Quantum Scientist
Marius Bothe
Quantum Scientist
Abbas Bracken Ziad
Senior Software Engineer
Dan Browne
Professor of Physics - UCL
Wadzanayi Bwanya
Product Intern
David Byfield
Software Engineer
Joan Camps
Staff Quantum Scientist
Stefan Cap
Head of US Government Partnerships
Laura Caune
Senior Quantum Scientist
Gemma Church
Quantum Content & Community Lead
Emilia Conlon
Senior Communications Manager
Ophelia Crawford
Staff Quantum Scientist
Aniket Datta
Staff FPGA Design Engineer
Jonny Davidson
Business Development Manager
Doğancan Davutoğlu
FPGA Design Engineer
Valentino Di Pietro
Project Manager
James Ferris
Verification Contractor
Amy Flower
Senior Marketing Manager
Damien Fontaine
Office Manager
Diana Ford
Head of People & Culture
Gabriel Gallardo
Quantum Engineer
Gyorgy Geher
Staff Quantum Scientist
Neil Gillespie
Head of Decoding
Nicole Gillett
Software Engineer
Alexander Gramolin
Senior Quantum Scientist
Lisa Grieves
People Operations Manager
Tom Hartley
Senior Product Manager
Andrea Husseiniova
Senior Product Manager
Samin Ishtiaq
Head of Systems
Lily Ison
Executive Assistant
Aleksei Ivanov
Senior Quantum Scientist
Róbert Izsák
Staff Quantum Science Manager
Kauser Johar
Head of Technology
Nick Johnson
Senior Quantum Applications Engineer
Melanie Jolliffe
Finance Assistant
Shashaank Khanna
PhD Intern
Hari Krovi
Principal Quantum Scientist
Jatin Lal
Senior Full-Stack Engineer
Joonas Majaniemi
Quantum Engineer
Luigi Martiradonna
Head of Business Development
Philip McBrien
Staff Systems Test Engineer
Adam Melvin
Senior Embedded Software Engineer
Rojalin Mishra
Lead Hardware Verification Engineer
Chidi Nnadi
Senior DevOps Engineer
Mahmut Okan Bugdayci
Senior Embedded Software Engineer
Dwaraka Oruganti Nagalakshmi
Hardware Verification Engineer
Caroline Parsons
Sales Operations Manager
Andrew Patterson
Quantum Scientist
Asher Pearl
Senior Software Engineer
Stanislav Protasov
Staff Software Engineer
M. Rashid
DevSecOps Engineer
Cai Rees
Associate Engineer
Archibald Ruban
Associate Quantum Scientist
Matthew Ruszala
Senior Programme Manager
Amirreza Safehian
Senior Frontend Developer
Dan Seremet
Senior Software Engineer
Elisha Siddiqui Matekole
Quantum Scientist
Rebecca Singer
Management Accountant
Luka Skoric
Staff Quantum Scientist
Matthew Stafford
Quantum Scientist
Christoph Sunderhauf
Senior Quantum Scientist
Gargi Sunil
Senior FPGA Design Engineer
Lauren Swanser
People Admin Assistant
Anthony Tabor
General Counsel
Canberk Topal
Senior Digital Design Engineer
Eve Townsend
Strategy Associate
Mark Turner
Senior Software Engineer
Roque Ulloa
Junior IT Engineer
Alvaro Véliz Osorio
Head of Technology Partnerships
Adnaan Walayat
Associate Engineer
Emma Wallace
Senior Executive Assistant
Setiawan Wenming
Senior Quantum Scientist
Weronika Wiesiolek
Associate Quantum Scientist
Emily Wild
Global Talent Acquisition Lead
Stasiu Wolanski
Quantum Scientist
Catriona Wright
Senior Programme Manager
Joseph Yates
Software Engineer
Ankit Zalawadiya
Lead Digital Design Engineer
Alex Zeffertt
Staff Embedded Software Engineer
Anne Zehr
Senior Executive Assistant - USA
Lewis Zigante
Graduate Engineer