Leadership Team
Leadership you can count on
Leadership Team
Our Leadership Team underpins our trusted, open and supportive people culture. With a sincere Team ethos at its core, each member of our Leadership Team is an expert in their field and proudly contributes to a united and collaborative working environment for all.
Senior Leadership Team
Chess Group Managing Director
David Tuddenham
- David joined Chess in 2011 as Operations Director, to help deliver operational excellence to support the rapid growth of Chess. He was promoted to Deputy Managing Director in 2014 before becoming Managing Director in 2016.
- David was appointed as Chess Technologies' Group Managing Director on 1st June 2021.
- Worked at Honeywell Life Safety and has experience in the Oil & Gas industry through Teledyne where David assisted the business with delivering increased revenues during a challenging economic background.
Finance Director
Chris Talbot
- A Chartered Management Accountant with over twenty years experience in sectors including instrumentation, construction, software and engineering.
- Joined Chess in February 2022 as Finance Director.
- Prior to Chess, he was the Finance Director for a company involved in the design and manufacture of instrumentation equipment in the neuroscience sector.
- Chris is responsible for providing strategic partnering with Chess’ Group MD, with a focus on the financial information to assist with the company’s strategic plan.
Programme Director
Kerry Barnes
- Kerry is a multi-skilled Programme Director with extensive experience within global defence markets.
- In her early years Kerry qualified as an as Engineer, as such she is able to use sound engineering judgements to influence decisions both internally and external in this capacity.
- Kerry started at Chess in 2016 as a Project Manager. She was promoted to Programme Manager in 2018 responsible for the delivery of all projects within the Maritime Sector of the Business, before becoming the Programme Director in 2024.
HR Director
Lottie Pepler
- Lottie joined Chess Dynamics in January 2023. She is responsible for leading the People strategy to grow talent, and high performance teams across the business.
- With over 30 years of experience in Human Resources, Lottie has worked for diverse and multi-site organisations during her varied career. Previous companies include Honeywell, OCS Group and most recently, British Sugar.
Business Development Director
Mark Byfield
- Mark joined Chess in 2017 and as BD Director he is responsible for leading the BD team to identify, develop and secure new business in the UK and international defence and security markets.
- He has spent 30 years in the defence industry in senior Programme Management, Sales & Marketing and Business Development roles at GEC-Marconi, e2v, BAE Systems, Selex and Leonardo.
- Mark is a qualified chemist, with a BA Hons in Chemistry from Oxford University and a PhD from the University of Surrey.
- Outside of work Mark’s hobbies include music, travel and regular trips to both Elland Road and The Rec to watch Leeds United and Bath Rugby.
Naval Systems Director
Michael Green
- Dr Michael Green has been working in Plymouth in the defence industry since 1990.
- A Systems Engineer by trade, he has worked in Video Trackers, Ground Based Air Defence, Airborne Targeting and Surface military systems.
- He has been leading the Naval Systems team at Chess Dynamics since 2015 , growing the team from 5 to over 25 people.
Director of Image Processing
Steve Hogg
An integral part of the Vision4ce brand since its acquisition, Steve is Director of Image Processing at Chess Dynamics.
Steve joined the Vision4ce team in 2008 to bring business management and systems engineering expertise to support the organisation’s transition to a product-based business.
He was one of the founding owners/management team members at Octec in 1989, which went on to become the world leader in automatic video tracking solutions.
He also previously worked as an electronics engineer at Radamec, British Aerospace, and Marconi.
Engineering Director
Steve Holloway
- Over 30 years’ experience in the defence industry particularly in naval and air domains with expertise in Electronic Warfare, Test Equipment and Electro-Optical Systems.
- Steve brings a huge amount of knowledge and experience to Chess and provides leadership of the engineering team at our Horsham and Plymouth offices.
Senior Management Team
Engineering Manager
Adam Wicks
- Chartered Engineer with more than 20 years experience working with electronics, control systems and software
- Joined Chess in 2002 and has held various technical roles, working on many of products and projects in the Chess portfolio
- Has been in the position of Engineering manager at Horsham since 2014, leading the general engineering team
Programme Manager (Land)
Andy Brookes
- Appointed as the Land Programme Manager for Chess in 2022, Andy is responsible for the delivery of a portfolio of projects to UK and International customers.
- Andy has 40 years’ experience in the Defence Sector, 20 years in the Royal Engineers (specialising in GEOINT) and 20 years with Defence Industry Primes.
- He has acted as the Customer Friend through major acquisition programmes as well as leading and delivering complex projects in the Research, Land, Above Water and Below Water spaces.
Quality Manager
Colin Pitman
- Colin joined Chess in 2023 as Quality and Test Engineering Manager. He is responsible for overseeing Quality Assurance and the administration of the Business Management System, as well as Test Engineering.
- Colin has worked in electronic and electro-mech manufacturing SMEs since 1998. He starting working as technician, working his way up to management in 2013.
- He has experienced in electronic/PCBA assembly, repair, fault-finding, and functional testing. Colin diversified into Quality Management in 2017.
Operations Manager
David White
- David joined Vision4ce in 2015 as a Technical Project Manager working on a large defence contract. Working across the business to ensure customer voice is represented throughout the business.
- Qualified as an as Engineer, David has over 25 years of experience within defence market and customer fulfilment. He has previously worked as Program Manager for Octec and GE Intelligent platforms
- David was promoted to Operations Manager in July 2023.
Supply Chain & Continuous Improvement Manager
Lisa Moon
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Lisa joined the Chess team in 2018 as Supply Chain Manager and is responsible for the design & execution our Supply Chain Strategy at Chess.
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Lisa started her career as an Electronics Engineer and diversified into Operations, specialising in strategic Supply Chain development.
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She has over 20 years’ experience of leading supply chains in large scale Global Multinationals & SME’s
Operations Manager
Martin Simms
- Joined Chess in 2021 as the Production Manager before assuming the role of Operations Manager in 2023.
- Following 15 years’ service in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (specialising in telecommunications), Martin has 20+ years Operations Management experience in a variety of different roles.
- Martin has worked across several industries including Telecommunications, Oil and Gas, Medical, Aerospace and Defence. He has been responsible for delivering complex high value, low volume systems to customers such as GlaxoSmithKline, Shell, Petrobras, Boeing and Airbus.
Engineering Manager
Paul Gillham
- Paul Gilham joined Chess as Engineering Manager in 2021
- As a Weapon Engineer Officer in the Royal Navy, Paul has extensive experience of Naval Systems from conducting tests, trials and integration, leading the team at Portsdown Technology Park. System Acceptance in MCTA and Operational Sea Training at FOST
- He also has experience from ship-build within industry for ship design, with physical, functional and non-functional integration and ILS
Financial Controller
Sean Friggens
Senior Bid Manager
Verity French
- Joined Chess in 2021 as Bids Manager within the Sales Team.
- Verity has over 20 years sales and bidding experience in a variety of sectors including, property, European funding streams, skills & enterprise and defence.
- Verity works within the Chess Sales team to manage bids across all sectors of the business.
Programme Manager
Mel Sykes
- Appointed as the Naval Programme Manager for Chess in Nov 24, Mel is responsible for the delivery of a portfolio of projects to UK and International customers.
- Mel has 38 years’ experience in the Defence Sector, 28 years serving in the Royal Navy (specialising in SIGINT) and 10 years with a Defence Industry Prime.
- He has been responsible for leading and delivering complex projects in the Maritime Defence space.
