Directors

Richard Farleigh

Chairman

Richard first invested in the ClearSpeed group in 1998 and joined the board in 2002. An Australian, he studied economics and mathematics, and worked at the Australian Central Bank before becoming an investment banker and hedge fund manager. In 1994, he branched out on his own to become a “business angel”. Since then, he has backed over fifty early-stage technology companies including Wolfson Microelectronics, ARC International, Amino Communications, ANT Software, Celoxica and Oxonica. He was also the major backer behind Home House in London.

Richard is a member of the Audit Committee, Remuneration Committee and Nomination Committee.

John Hart

Non-executive Director

A former CTO and senior vice-president at 3Com Corporation, John is chair of ClearSpeed’s advisory board. At 3Com, John was responsible for the overall strategic direction of the company during the period in which it transitioned from a $400 million p.a. operating system company to a $6 billion p.a. networking company. John was the strategic worldwide spokesperson for 3Com at trade shows and played a key industry and company role in the introduction of numerous networking technologies/ solutions and the enhancement of the company’s patent portfolio from five patents to over 500.

John’s earlier career included eight years with Vitalink Corporation as vice-president engineering and five years as an executive consultant for the Control Data Corporation.

Currently, John is a member of the board of directors of Coherent Inc., PLX Technology Inc., and Plantronics Inc.

John is a member of the Audit Committee, Remuneration Committee and Nomination Committee.

Tom Beese

Chief executive officer

Tom has been chief executive officer since September 2000. He joined the group from Hewlett-Packard where he was a member of the functional management team of the Data Protection Organisation and focused on the identification of new markets and development and exploitation of new technologies. He joined Hewlett-Packard after an Executive MBA at the University of Bath and gained his original business experience, after leaving the Army, in consulting and in the development and turn-around of start-ups.

George Elliott

Non-executive Director

George has extensive international experience in the IT industry having been Finance Director of Wolfson Microelectronics plc for seven years until early 2007, at a time when the company went from a loss making operation into a profitable world class fabless semiconductor business. Prior to this he was Finance Director for two years of Calluna plc, having previously been its Director of Commercial Operations for two years. From 1990 to 1995 he was Business Development Director of McQueen International (now Sykes Global Services Ltd) during which time the business was transformed from a traditional printing operation into a leading pan European provider of integrated manufacturing and support services for the IT industry. Between 1974 and 1990 he worked for Grant Thornton in Edinburgh, the last seven years of which was as a Partner with responsibility for corporate finance and practice development.

George is also a Non-Executive Director of Corsair Memory Inc. and Summit plc and Non-Executive Chairman of MicroEmissive Displays Group plc, Craneware plc. He is also currently a Director of Elliott Corporate Development Limited (dormant).

Andy Kroese

Chief financial officer

Andy Kroese joined ClearSpeed in 2007 as Chief Financial Officer and member of the Board. A seasoned HP veteran, he spent 24 years leading and managing various global finance and IT activities. Most recently he was finance director of World Wide Operations for HP’s Personal Systems Group. As part of that responsibility, he lead the group's financial management of supply chain architecture, inventory, commodity procurement, manufacturing and customer support. He holds a B.S. degree in Accounting from the University of Southern California, MBA in Finance from the University of Arizona, and Executive Education from both the Wharton School of Business and the University of Michigan.