Meet The Team

Dr Raoul-Gabriel Urma

Founder & CEO

Raoul holds a PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge University and was nominated an Oracle Java Champion for his contributions to the community.

He is an international speaker and best-selling book author. He has advised and worked for several organisations on large-scale software engineering projects including at Google, Oracle, eBay and Goldman Sachs.

Kevin Lemagnen

CTO

Kevin has led the development of data products for the energy sector and worked for the telecommunications industry at Qualcomm. He was also a visiting researcher at Stanford University.

Kevin has delivered data science and machine learning training courses to various clients from industries that include finance, engineering and research helping professionals leverage the latest techniques.

Angela Au

Finance Director

After receiving her degree in Engineering and Management Studies from Cambridge, Angela trained as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG. Post-qualification, she spent 10 years at Arm, a UK technology company, supporting its growth from a start-up into a FTSE-100 company, before taking a career break in 2003.

Since then, she has worked as a consultant helping technology start-ups build their financial infrastructure and operations. Her most recent client was the award-winning social enterprise Simprints Technology.

Anthony Clark

Head of Client Relationships

Anthony has led and developed commercial teams, delivering growth and organisational change for corporate and startup businesses.

After completing a degree in Biotechnology and Strategic Management at the University of Edinburgh, Anthony managed operations, sales and marketing functionalities within the Food Retail and Agritech industries. He is a passionate leader, enjoying coaching others to help them reach their potential.

Judit Gorog

Business Support and HR Manager

Judit has 13 years’ experience as PA and Executive Assistant.

Before joining Cambridge Spark she worked for organisations like the University of Cambridge, Cambridge City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council as a Senior PA / EA.

With a BSc in Economics and many different PA and Secretarial qualifications.

Zaneta Sevcikova

Delivery Assistant Manager

Zaneta joined Cambridge Spark in early 2019. After finishing her studies and obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Taxes, she gained experience in customer service, administration, finance and marketing within several educational organisations.

She loves everything that involves travelling and exploring.

Kieran Garvey

Head of Faculty

Kieran has worked for over a decade in tech-enabled financial innovation; developing regulatory and FinTech data products, leading the creation of a FinTech education programme for regulators from 150+ central banks in 100+ countries at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Alternative Finance, supporting businesses in raising £25m+ via equity crowdfunding and co-authoring 30+ reports on the global FinTech industry. Kieran holds degrees from the LSE and Imperial College London.

Darren Vidler

Delivery Assistant Manager

Having studied both a degree (BA Hons Enterprise & Management at the University of the West of Scotland) and undertaken an administration apprenticeship, Darren has subsequently spent over a decade working for start-ups and national apprenticeship providers. With experience building teams and processes from scratch, working in established settings and a successful audit track record, Darren's remit at Cambridge Spark extends across apprenticeship compliance, audit and operations, supporting our drive to deliver a gold standard learning experience.

Miran Mistry

Faculty Lead and Data Technical Mentor

Miran has a background of working with Data for over 20 years. Primarily as a TSQL/SQL programmer and Database developer in leading organisations across number of different industries including Automotive ,GIS systems , Legal and Finance. In the past two years he has entered the training industry within the Apprenticeship sector at one of the largest providers, supporting and mentoring Level 4 data analysts through the BCS programme.

Here he will be the Technical mentor for apprentices working with them to develop their projects and managing them through the End Point Assessment for their apprenticeship.

Kayte Winter

Delivery Operations Coordinator

Kayte has spent her most recent years working in Further Education, primarily focused on compliance and delivery of Apprenticeships across a broad range of subject sectors.

Kayte is driven and motivated by improvement and has successfully implemented processes and models in alignment with ESFA and OFSTED guidance. Kayte remains committed to quality improvement within training and education which supports the vision of Cambridge Spark.

Helen Gibson

Head of Training Solutions

Helen has a degree in Psychology and has worked within training and development for the last 8 years, helping clients choose the best solutions for their team. She has worked with organisations at a global scale, across a wide range of sectors including Pharma, Finance and FMCG.

Tom Phillips

Head of Business Development

Tom heads up business development at Cambridge Spark, looking after market strategy. He works closely with our network of partners,  building relationships to bring our upskilling and development programmes to even more workforces. He originally trained as an accountant and tax advisor, before moving into business development and client relationship roles. 

Christina Sevigny

Customer Success Manager

Christina has years of experience in Marketing and holds a degree in Business and Human Resource Management. Hailing from Canada, but now based in Cambridge she has experience in business development, digital marketing and graduate recruitment.

As Account Executive, she will focus on the careers and talent side of the business helping to bridge the gap between our students and business partners.

Robyn Harley

Head of Delivery

Robyn is a further education professional with over 10 years’ extensive experience in Operational Leadership, Delivery, Governing Compliance and Quality. She has a wealth of experience in supporting organisations to achieve growth whilst ensuring that quality practices are upheld.

As Head of Delivery, Robyn supports the Cambridge Spark Delivery Team and wider members of the team to develop and deliver impactful training and education experiences. Robyn is a qualified APM PMQ Project Manager with a Higher Diploma in Leadership and Management.

Jason Sandham

Account Manager

Jason joined the team in 2021. He has spent the last 3 years of his career working in the learning and development industry. Supporting organisations to develop digital and data capability to aid in in digital transformation initiatives in client facing account management roles.

Samantha Hackett

Office Manager

Samantha has 10 years experience working within the tech industry primarily responsible for office management, health & safety, payroll, travel and all things HR. In her previous role as Office/HR Manager for a tech start up she played a vital role in building the business from the ground up. This included project managing a purpose built facility from start to finish but also implementing all the systems, policies and procedures to support the organisation's aggressive growth plans.

Samantha is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.

Lauren Starling

Delivery Coordinator

Lauren is an experienced teacher and has spent the past 10 years of her career delivering and coordinating adult education in a variety of sectors. Prior to Cambridge spark she worked as a Lecturer for a local college. Within these roles, she most enjoyed creating user friendly training content catered to all learning styles- ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. Lauren brings with her a Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

Josie Jakub

Head of Marketing

Josie brings nearly twenty years experience from the cloud computing and software industry. By her own admission, she's a Digital Transformation and technology marketing geek. A strategic leader, Josie will focus on programs that differentiate the Cambridge Spark brand and share the incredible Cambridge Spark story with the world. In her spare time, Josie is trustee of an animal charity, an author and group facilitator for the national bereavement charity, SOBS.

Jack Poulton

Curriculum and Quality Engineer

Jack has a passion for education and data. He has a background in Physics having completed his PhD at University College London. After graduating he entered the education sector in a mentoring capacity and he greatly enjoys helping others expand their knowledge. He joined the team in June 2021 as a Curriculum and Quality engineer.

Ahsan Imran

Training Solutions Manager

Ahsan has extensive experience in lead generation, business development and client relationship management areas. After completing his degree in Banking and Finance at London Metropolitan University, Ash entered the world of apprenticeships where he worked with fortune 500 companies across Automotive, Financial Services, Retail, Public and Technology sectors by advising businesses on how they can improve their talent strategy using the apprenticeship levy.

Artur Sokolovsky

Data Mentor

Artur joined Cambridge Spark in September 2021. He is a physicist by education and a PhD candidate in Machine learning. He is mainly specialised in time series analysis and IoT infrastructure deployment. He is a big fan of dancing and street music.

Sam Tobin

Head of Service Delivery

Sam has worked in the professional training and apprenticeship sector for 10+ years, overseeing delivery of a wide range of learning programmes to a rich variety of stakeholders, across various sectors and disciplines, including FTSE 100 organisations and other large scale organisations.
As Cambridge Spark's Head of Service Delivery, Sam is passionate about developing and sustaining client partnerships, utilising her degree in Business Management alongside her qualifications in Project Management, Online Delivery facilitation & harnesses her years of experience in leading people to deliver excellence.

Pete Traynor

Admissions Coordinator

Pete Traynor has been working in the education sector since 2007.

Before working at Cambridge Spark he worked in secondary and higher education. This included working in examinations and admissions for King's College London and the Royal Veterinary College.

Working in admissions he helped oversee university applicant interviews in the UK and North America. He also oversaw admissions for The Royal Veterinary College’s Gateway Programme, which aimed to give students from certain socioeconomic backgrounds a route into a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine degree programme.

Tom Cartwright

Business Development Executive

Tom is part of the Business Development team looking after lead generation. He has experience with developing new business, lead generation and customer relationship management. Tom has previously worked with apprenticeships from levels 2 to 5 in the health and social care industry. Prior to stepping into the Business Development world, he completed a degree in Coaching & Sport Science at Nottingham Trent University

Seb Crawford

Business Development Executive

Seb graduated from the University of Sheffield with an Economics degree. After graduating he spent 2 years working in the education sector. He joined the business development team in September 2021, where he is sourcing, generating and building new business leads.

Will Hall

Training Solutions Executive

Will is part of the Training solutions team looking after new and existing NHS clients. He has several years of experience within the training and development industry, previously working with Leadership & Management programmes at senior level. Prior to moving into the training industry he completed his HNC in Project Management.

Jemma Hooper

Delivery Operations Coordinator

Jemma has spent her previous years carrying out administrative work within the NHS and local Authorities, Jemma has a keen eye for detail that has enabled her to successfully implement a number of processes and procedures to improve the daily running within an office environment. Jemma is enthusiastic and driven to learn and expand her knowledge within the education sector.

Ajith Abraham

Data Mentor

Ajith has been working in the further education sector since 2014. He has a great passion for data. He has a BSc in computer science, PGDip in sales & marketing management. He is undertaking MSc in data science. He joins Cambridge Spark as a data mentor. He will be guiding learners to develop their skills and knowledge and help them prepare for the End Point Assessment

John Weedon

Data Mentor

John is an accomplished Data Professional with key experience in data analysis, mentoring and reporting. Central to this has been John's ability to develop actionable insight and use it to drive continuous business improvements in both process and performance.
With experience of managing teams of analysts, and a background in teaching, John has developed excellent communication, interpersonal and mentoring skills that allow him to build positive relationships with stakeholders from all levels.

Sarah Hardwick

Business Development Executive

Sarah is part of the Business Development team looking after lead generation.
She has experience of generating new leads, business development and customer relationship management. Sarah has previously worked within the professional education sector providing support to businesses looking to upskill their workforce.

Abby Leachman

Partnerships Manager

With over 7 years experience in sales, marketing & account management, Abby comes from a varied background, but with a passion for building long term relationships.
As Partnerships Manager at Cambridge Spark, she looks to establish and maintain strategic partnerships, with a focus on collaboration.

Natasha Grzybowski

Assistant Account Director

Natasha joined the team in 2022. She is a dedicated account manager with over 10 years of customer and sales experience. After graduating from Teesside university with a 2:1 , She has spent the last 10 years of her career working for tech companies supporting organistions in fulfilling their digital skills gaps, chairing campaigns, delivering marketing solutions and driving forward new business strategies Natasha has a keen interest in digital skills and how these can help organistaions achieve their business goals.

John Niggl

Digital Performance Manager

Rachel Phillips

Curriculum Manager

Rachel is a customer-focused project manager with a passion for learning and development. With over 10 years of industry experience, Rachel works with the Cambridge Spark Faculty to develop a gold standard curriculum.

Sol-Raksha Raja

Full-Stack Engineer

Coming from a background of Energy Data Analytics, Raj joined the company in 2018, and is developing the K.A.T.E application. They transitioned careers from an Economics field to Computer Science. Often talks about their dog.

Samson Crocker

Full-Stack Engineer

Samson has a background in Physics and holds an MPhys from Durham University. After graduating he worked in an analytics role before moving into software development, building client-facing web dashboards for or a research consultancy in the sports, media and sponsorship space. He joined the team in May 2020 and is working on the KATE platform in a full stack role.

Caroline Bleger

Front-End Engineer

Caroline joined the team in September 2018. Having studied Publishing, Web Development and Interactive Media in Cape Town, South Africa, Caroline has a background in graphic design and front-end web development, with a passion for UI and UX design. She now works on improving K.A.T.E. Always finding new ways to make the user’s journey as effortless as possible.

Ed Fincham

Research Engineer

Ed joined the team in February 2020, having completed his PhD in Machine Learning at the University of Edinburgh. He previously worked with us as a teaching fellow, but now contributes to our R&D as well as our commercial activities. His research focuses on behavioural profiling of students and building models to deliver interpretable insight for course instructors.

Zoe Wells

Coaching Manager

Zoe is passionate about working with those at the leading edge of business and technology and has coached and mentored individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, including teams at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Zoe has a science background and advanced coaching qualification. She has worked in the education sector for over 8 years, primarily for the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Assessment working in Education Services, Teaching and Learning and Student Support Services.

Ellen Hadfield

Learner Success Coach

Ellen is passionate about empowering others to achieve their potential. Since qualifying in 2014 Ellen has coached a broad spectrum of clients within education settings, helping them progress towards their goals. Ellen is experienced in working with business leaders to develop mentoring and career progression programmes. Ellen also brings with her a degree in Social Policy, an IAG qualification, experience as a careers advisor, training facilitator and team manager within the charity and voluntary sector.

Annica Curtis

Learner Success Coach

Annica joined the Cambridge Spark team because she is passionate about the education sector and encouraging people to achieve their full potential. Having initially started her career at Cambridge University, Annica then spent 5 years working as an EFL teacher in Japan, and within the start-up sector in Sweden / Germany, before transitioning into coaching. Annica holds a BA Hons in English Language and Linguistics from University of York and is happy to guide learners through their English functional skills assessment.

Robbie Galvani

Learner Success Coach

Robbie is passionate about supporting others to progress and meet their full potential. He began his career in Youth Offending Services, going on to working within the Education Sector where he built effective working relationship across various stakeholders. This included maintaining business relationships and the delivery of training to companies such as Blackstone and State Street Bank staff to support the facilitation of their mentoring programmes. Robbie has been a qualified Coach and Mentor since 2013.

Lucy Baker

Learner Success Coach

Lucy is an experienced maths teacher and prior to this worked as a chartered accountant, spending several years of her career abroad in Switzerland. In these roles she most enjoyed interacting with people and helping others to overcome challenges in their work, learning and wellbeing. She joins Cambridge Spark as a coach.

Lucy has a BSc (Hons) in Mathematical Sciences and a PGCE from Durham University. She is happy to use her experience in teaching to provide maths support to learners.

Becky Britten

Learner Success Coach

Becky joins Cambridge Spark with a passion for inspiring and supporting individuals to achieve their potential. Becky has 8 years' experience working in Higher Education where she has helped learners around the globe unpack and reflect on their experiences and skills, in the context of their goals.
With a BA in International Business Management and a MA Ed in Leadership & Management, Becky has a wealth of experience delivering organisational development advice to a variety of businesses and enterprises within the private and voluntary sectors.

Joanne Scott

Learner Success Coach

Joining Cambridge Spark from Loughborough University, Joanne has 13 years experience in Higher Education where she supported students through their year in industry, helping them to secure placements and reflect on their skills and learning in the workplace. She is proudly dyslexic and has a passion for empowering neurodiverse individuals. Since qualifying as a coach in 2020 Joanne has provided coaching support to dyslexic students helping them to overcome barriers and tap into their unique strengths and perspectives.

Joanne has a BA(Hons) in Fine Art & Media Studies and continues to develop her art practice creating prints inspired by her childhood in the Yorkshire Dales.

Sahan Bulathwela

Senior Teaching Fellow and Researcher

Sahan Bulathwela is a PhD in Machine Learning at UCL. Before that, he worked as a Data Science Engineer at Skimlinks, where his primary focus was on building high-performance data pipelines for data processing and machine learning.

He holds an MSc in Computational Statistics and Machine Learning from UCL. For his master’s thesis, he worked with a Research and Advanced Development team at Cisco Systems to adapt machine learning algorithms to Cybersecurity.

Helen Hu

PhD in Statistics

Helen is completing a PhD in Statistics at UCL and The Alan Turing Institute. She holds a BA in Mathematics from University of California, Berkeley and a masters in Statistics and Data Science from the University of Edinburgh.

Eugenia Shynkevich

Data Scientist at Deutsche Boerse

Eugenia is a Data Scientist working for Deutsche Boerse Group. Her main focus is on bringing machine learning solutions to the financial industry. She uses AI and NLP techniques to develop new products and improve internal processes.

Her goal is to deliver end-to-end data science solutions from data acquisition to model building to deployment & operation. Since 2009 Eugenia worked for a broad spectrum of organizations ranging from large corporations such as Deutsche Bank to fin-tech start-ups to academic institutions. A committed professional with hands-on experience in machine learning, web development and data visualisation for the financial services and healthcare sectors. Elena is innovative and confident with a can-do attitude and outstanding communication skills.

Ryan Griffiths

PhD Researcher in Machine Learning and Physics

Ryan is a PhD Researcher in Machine Learning and Physics at the University of Cambridge. Prior to this, he was a Machine Learning Engineer at Prowler.io where he worked on Bayesian Optimisation and Bayesian nonparametrics. He also holds an MPhil in Machine Learning and Machine Intelligence. Outside of the ML sphere, Ryan is a Fide Master in chess, a keen runner, and has recently taken up Latin dance.

Chris Tegho

Machine Learning Engineer at Calipsa

Chris is a machine learning engineer working in computer vision at Calipsa. His interests are in Bayesian neural networks, reinforcement learning, variational inference and computer vision. Prior to this, he completed his MPhil in machine learning at the University of Cambridge. Chris also enjoys planting and working closely with artists on their ML projects.

Ashwin D. D'Cruz

Machine Learning Engineer at Calipsa

Ashwin D. D’Cruz is a Machine Learning Engineer at Calipsa. He holds an MPhil in Machine Learning, Speech and Language Technology from the University of Cambridge.

Maria Pérez

Teaching Fellow

Maria is a Research Fellow at the AI Centre at UCL. Prior to that she was Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, a Lecturer at University Loyola Andalucia and a Research Assistant at the Spanish National Research Council and the University of Cordoba. She holds a PhD in machine learning, a MSc on intelligent Systems and a BSc on Computer Science. Maria is especially interested in the application of artificial intelligence for sustainable development.

Jorge A Menendez

Teaching Fellow

Jorge is a PhD candidate at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, where he uses tools and concepts from machine learning to understand how humans and animals learn.

Leigh Shlomovich

Teaching Fellow

Leigh is currently completing a PhD at Imperial College London in Statistics focussing on applications of time series analysis to network monitoring, predominantly for cyber security. Previously she completed her Masters in Mathematics also at Imperial.

Dr. Ekaterina Kochmar

Senior Teaching Fellow

Ekaterina is a senior research associate at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory, working on Automated Language Teaching and Assessment (ALTA). She conducted her PhD at the Natural Language and Information Processing Group, Computer Laboratory. Her research focuses on compositional distributional semantics and the use of machine learning methods in educational NLP.

Ricardo Monti

Senior Teaching Fellow

Ricardo is a Post Doctoral Research Associate at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL. He obtained his PhD from Imperial College London, during which time he also interned as a data scientist at Spotify.

David Illes

Vice President at Financial Services

David is a lead technologist working for Financial Services Fraud Prevention Technology division. His main focus is delivering end-to-end analytics and AI solutions from model building to deployment, operating on a high-throughput real-time fraud prevention platform.

Previously he managed to bootstrap the department’s big data platform built on Apache Hadoop and Spark and was working as a technical architect on many projects on the areas of Trade Surveillance, Anti-Money Laundering and Regulatory Reporting. He likes reading, listening to weird music and learning about the next random thing he gets excited about.

Marc Torrellas

Senior Machine Learning Scientist at Streetbees

Marc received a PhD with honours in Wireless Communications and Information Theory from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), where he obtained his MSc. Since 2015, he has worked as a Data Scientist for Zhilabs in Barcelona, providing in-depth data analytics to telco providers; Darktrace in Cambridge, UK, providing ML-based cybersecurity services; Eigen Technologies in London, providing ML and NLP based products and services, focused on extracting unstructured information from legal and financial documents; and Streetbees in London, providing market research and insights into communities by leveraging ML and NLP concepts.

Alan Chau

DPhil in Statistics and ML

Alan is currently undertaking a DPhil in Statistics and Machine Learning at the University of Oxford. He has a strong research interest in Statistical networks, Kernel methods, preferential learning and Graphical Neural Network. His current project is on combining insights from nonparametric modelling based on reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS) with spectral methods for ranking, in order to integrate contextual information with the pairwise comparisons, facilitating the extraction of latent structures behind preferential data.

Alan is also keen on bridging the gap between advanced Artificial Intelligence research and the business world. From his experiences as an ML consultant and the former Managing Director of a student-run AI consulting group, he has developed a strong skill set on mathematical modelling, project scoping, team management and designing functional teams for projects.

Alex Bird

PhD at the University of Edinburgh

Alex is currently finishing his PhD at The Alan Turing Institute/University of Edinburgh. His interests include time series, graphical models, Bayesian methods, deep learning and meta-learning. Small data problems perhaps interest me more than big data problems, and grey box problems more than black box. Alex holds an MSc in Machine Learning and Computational Statistics from University College London.

Julian-Ferdinand Vögele

Data Scientist at Security Research Labs

Julian-Ferdinand is a data scientist at Security Research Labs, a Berlin-based cybersecurity consultancy, where he optimises cybersecurity strategies for companies around the world. Prior to this, he completed his MSc in Computer Science at UCL with a focus on ML and software engineering. Throughout his undergraduate in Germany, China, and the US, he specialised in social computational science and gained first-hand experience in data analytics at McKinsey and various tech start-ups. He is a scholar of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.

Helena Andres

Teaching Fellow

Helena is an AI and machine learning research associate at the University of Cambridge, in the Department of Computer Science and Technology. She holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, an MPhil in Mathematical Networks. With background in theoretical physics and mathematics, her research combines complex systems, mathematical networks and deep learning. She is currently focusing on unsupervised generative models and graph neural networks. In her spare time she enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee.