About Us

James studied Physics and Computing and then went to Brunel University where he worked on optics for his Ph.D. He joined Bookham Technology when the company was in its very early stages and was involved, as a member of the management team, in Bookham’s fast growth phase leading up to its IPO in 2000. During this period he was responsible for product engineering before moving on to become Director of Marketing.

In 2001 James joined Teem Photonics as VP of Business Development & Marketing developing the companies growth strategies, exiting the company following a successful fund raising round in 2003. James joined Mesophotonics in March 2003 as CEO and successfully raised £5.5m in 2003, developing 2 business units one in LEDs and the other in Analytical BioChemistry. In 2007 the Analytical part of the business was bought by D3 backed by Renishaw. The LED business unit was sold to Luxtaltek, a Tiawanese LED manufacturer.

James left Mesophotonics in 2007 to set up PhotonStar LED Ltd bringing a wealth of semiconductor and optoelectronic packaging experience to the company. James is a member of the Institute of Physics, is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the Institute of Directors.

James is a member of the Lighting Association Technical Committee

Majd is Chief Technology Officer of PhotonStar LED Ltd, and a director of the company. Majd is of Lebanese origin and did his PhD at Southampton University in sub-wavelength optics.

Majd was also a founder of Mesophotonics Ltd where he was responsible for the company’s research work and managing the company’s IP, as well as key theoretical and numerical modeling work. Majd has been involved in sub wavelength optics, plasmonics and LED design since his PhD and brings a wealth of optical design and modeling experience to PhotonStar.

Robert has been in the lighting industry since 1992 and a member of the LIF. In 2000 won the Holophane David Currie Award for an article on LEDs ‘Fad or Future’. After many years in the lighting industry, Robert founded Architectural Lighting & Controls Ltd (ALC) in January 2001. The company philosophy is to provide unique lighting solutions on a design and supply basis. Having put together a highly professional team, sales in the last financial year (2008) reached £2.2m. Robert has delivered major projects for clients including Selfridges & Co, the BBC, London Clubs and numerous Government bodies. Robert joined the PhotonStar Board of Directors in May 2009 as Business Development Director following the merge of the two companies. As one of the company’s main corporate strategists, he initially played an instrumental part in giving PhotonStar’s Specification lighting division a route to market before successfully launching the EcoStar collection to the wholesale sector. He now runs the business’s CPD program and is also responsible for taking the company’s revolutionary ChromaWhite technology to OEM market.

Russell Banks was appointed to the board as Chief Financial Officer effective date 2nd April 2013.

Russell comes from a commercially-focused background, having held increasingly senior financial positions in the pharmaceutical, advertising/media and retail sectors. He was previously Chief Financial Officer of FTSE-listed Ark Therapeutics plc, a cutting-edge biotherapeutics developer and manufacturer, and part of a small team charged with executing a strategic direction change from in-house product development to full-service contract manufacturing and regulatory support provision. Prior to that he spent ten years as European Finance Director for biopharmaceutical company Cephalon Inc. (NASDAQ), and until 1998 he was Group Finance Controller at mail order business, Compton & Woodhouse Ltd.

A Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Russell holds a BSc in Economics and Accountancy from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology.

Dave joined PhotonStar Technology in 2007. He is responsible for business development and management of all sales activity for the PST product lines. Dave has over 25 years experience in sales, engineering and general management. Previous companies include Palomar Technologies where he worked closely with Enfis developing LED packaging techniques at the start of the SSL revolution; before that Dave worked for Nortel Networks, Aerosystems International, RAF, BBC and Dairy Crest.

Gethyn started working in Advertising Sales in 1992, before moving into personal recruitment for various Blue chip companies in London. Since 1998 Gethyn has been working in IT hardware and service sales for ITIQ and Gateway managing Channel partners and distribution. In 2002 Gethyn joined Dell Computer corporation Ltd running the MoD account and Local government and Education, whilst working on the DCSA catalogue my team delivered against an annual 36 million pound target achieving a year on year growth of 40%. In 2005 Gethyn moved into a field sales role in the Education market, BSF (Building Schools for the future) working on project bids of £0.5m to £9m.

Gethyn joined PhotonStar in June 2008 with the aim of building a sales strategy and team to support this and from Q3 to Q4 2008 Gethyn doubled sales at PhotonStar.

Fenella was one of the first women to study engineering in the Royal Navy before moving on to a career with A&P shiprepair - responsible for internal communications & support operations. In 1994 at LSI systems, Fenella managed projects to develop and deliver management & communications systems for engineering & manufacturing. With a team of colleagues in 1996, Riverside Systems was founded where Fenella established the commercial division. Her team provided consultancy, hardware, software & staff to maximise the use of the emerging internet and other technology, for internal and external business communication and management. An opportune family career break in 1998 inspired Fenella to establish Oatley-Darwent Ltd. which won awards for an innovative approach to marketing “Eco” products. As managing director, Fenella expanded the business in an 18 month period to a team of 150 across the EU and raised market share from 4% to 23% within the UK. The business was aquired in 2000. Fenella moved into private consultancy, with a number of local authority and private clients, and subsequently became commercial director of Bobby Gilbert & Associates - co-authors of the ZedBook for sustainable construction, and developers of Carbon Mixer software. Fenella joined PhotonStar in November 2008.

An Optoelectronics degree qualified technical manager with over 12 years of practical management experience within Crowcon Gas detection Ltd and Bookham Technology. Steve is experienced in startup operations with Bookham technology taking products from R&D concept through to production, meeting timescales and saving in excess of £1 million. At Crowcon he was responsible for all operations management for £20 million product range in the oil and gas industries. Steve is a qualified six sigma green belt experienced in lean cell manufacturing methods, MRP systems, ISO 9001, supplier audits, SPC and 5s tools and methodologies.
Steve joined PhotonStar in March 2009 to manage production and facilities scale up.