Simon Bramwell

Simon is a Research and Development Manager with over 9 years experience of innovation leadership in the consumer electronics industry. A Chartered Engineer, largely with Philips and NXP Semiconductors, his technical background includes systems research, algorithm modelling and development, design tools, and customer support; He is a Prince 2 practitioner with wide project management experience and has led small and large development teams.

A graduate of Manchester and Southampton universities, Simon has worked in various consumer domains including TV, Data storage, Mobile Communications, and Assisted Living. As a consultant to TeleMedic Systems Ltd, he led their contribution to the Technology Strategy Board’s Assisted Living projects, delivering working demonstrations of technology for eHealth purposes within NHS and related markets.

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Technology Project Manager, Advanced Digital Institute, Saltaire  2012-

Managing ADI’s Interoperability workstream for the i-focus project in the Technology Strategy Board’s "Dallas" programme. Co-ordinating interoperability profile definitions across this national-scale delivery programme.

Development Manager, TeleMedic Systems Ltd  2011- 2012

Invited to join this SME after a period of consultancy, to lead their contribution to Technology Strategy Board projects:

• Managing R&D activities and projects in Telemedicine and TeleHealth. Won over £300k Government funding and subsequently project managed their contributions to consortia projects involving BT, Cisco, Microsoft and Tunstall. Speaker at UK Trade and Investment event in Barcelona and part of UKTI’s Future Health Mission in San Francisco.
   
• Developed strategic relationship with leading healthcare services provider, positioning TeleMedic’s technology in three of the client’s leading business cases and working with them to tailor solutions with their customers. Developed strategic relationship with a Care Home provider to develop telehealth solutions for their residents.
   
• Developed new scalable architecture for a home TeleHealth solution, and enhanced a compression algorithm to transmit ECG data down low bandwidth connections.
   
• Changed business model from hardware sales to software licensing for greater market leverage, and smoother regulatory approvals. Advised on architectural implications of FDA’s exploration of component-wise rather than system-wise regulatory approvals (UL 2800 standard).
   

R&D Consultant, Self-employed  2009- ongoing

• Co-ordinating £2m R&D Project for a Trusted Services Provision consortium featuring Microsoft and Napier University.
   
• Undertaking R&D Practices Study with Codexx.eu Management Consultancy, correlating innovation behaviours with company performances, for a range of technology firms.
   
• Co-ordinated R&D activities of Health over Internet Protocol, a Community Interest Company developing assisted living programmes.  www.hoip.eu
   

Programme Manager, NXP Semiconductors
Advanced Systems Laboratory, Southampton   2008

Selected to establish new research programme managing software engineers, for the company to enter the Assisted Living market, leveraging existing product portfolios and NXP technologies.

• Developed €1.6m roadmap for two-year R&D programme to successively bring products into Assisted Living markets, accountable directly to the Head of NXP Research.
   
• Liaised with partners, Cisco, Microsoft, BT, Tunstall and BRE, to set up collaborative research consortium, funded by the UK Technology Strategy Board.
   
• Set up joint agreement with TeleMedic Systems Ltd to develop technology in mass-market health monitoring. Project management of software & hardware co-development.
   
• Successfully negotiated handover of consortium membership from NXP to TeleMedic Systems, ensuring continuation of the development.
   

Systems Department Manager, NXP Semiconductors
BU Home Innovation Centre, Southampton  2005 - 2008

Promoted to become member of Innovation Centre Management Team, reporting to UK Managing Director.

• Set up new System-C competence group to model complex SoCs, liaising with teams from Europe and India, leading to 6 months advance in embedded software development lead times on a major development project.
   
• Implemented restructuring plans and departmental reorganisation to achieve 28% cost reductions while protecting strategic projects. Developed outsourcing strategy to place work packages in India. Coached staff into new positions as the business required.
   
• Project managed the transition of design group of 40 engineers from DVD to Set-top-box competence, and bid successfully for over 30 man-years of new STB SoC development.
   
• Monitored and improved staff morale. My groups became the most highly motivated on site, measured by annual surveys (10% improvement).
   
• Developed and executed new resource management system eliminating 20% errors in planning and tracking of resources over all site projects across multiple customers.
   

Advanced Development Manager, Philips Semiconductors Business Line Storage, Southampton  2003 - 2005

Promoted to group manager to form new team of 5 expert research and development engineers working on advanced techniques in optical storage:

• Set up feasibility study into new SoC Development integrating analog IC with digital processor.
   
• Project manager for development of Blu-Ray decoder technology across 2 sites, that delivered decoder IP into roadmap (HW & FW), with €3.8m budget.
   
• Project manager for site-wide adoption of Likert System-4 management techniques (through workshops, training & coaching)
   

Senior Systems Specialist, Philips Semiconductors
Applications Lab, Southampton 1998 - 2003

Appointed data recovery specialist in CD/DVD/Blu-Ray for consumer data and A/V  storage systems:

• Project managed development of the world’s first one-inch one-gigabyte rewriteable blu-ray prototype for portable devices, Managed staff on 3 sites. Delivered on time to Exhibition. Project: budget €1.5m.

• Carried out Systems research in optical storage (Blu-Ray, DVD, CD) including viterbi decoders, advanced data recovery systems, signal processing techniques. Joint IEEE paper.

• Developed relationship with 2 UK Universities researching novel storage technologies.
   
• Provided consultancy to Philips Research on business potential of company research topics.
   

Senior Design Engineer, Philips Semiconductors
Nijmegen, The Netherlands   1996 - 1998

Invited to join new group as IC Development Team Leader, working on semiconductor designs:

• Led team to first-time right silicon design for a Mobile phone controller, as ASIC project design coordinator for 8 digital designers; produced design specifications, negotiated with technical experts from lead customer, specified IC prototyping platform to supplier and introduced into ASIC design-flow.
   
• Designed and synthesized VHDL for extraction of servo control signals for mass data storage products.
   

Senior Systems Engineer, Philips Components
Product Concept & Applications Lab, Southampton  1990 - 1996

In-house expert on digital techniques for VBI data recovery in analog TV broadcast. System expert for stability of text & OSD on TV displays using mixed-signal techniques. Member of Works Council

• Developed echo-cancellation system for robustness against adverse signal conditions. Optimised solutions for cost and performance, diagnosing issues in system design; developed the first VHDL designs in this product range. Used breadboarding, emulation and simulation techniques.
   

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Education

Southampton University: MSc Electronics	A levels:Physics A, Maths B, Chemistry B
Manchester University: BSc Physics II.1	O levels:10 grade A’s
English (native), French (reading and basic conversation), Dutch (conversational and reading)
Prince2 Practitioner, March 2009
Philips Corporate International Management Course (marketing, finance, management skills)
Semiconductors Leadership Journey Corporate Leadership Training (team dynamics, problem solving, strategy, management psychology)
MBTI: INTP
Technical training courses - C, DSP, VHDL, System-C, Unix, CAD tools, Project Management

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Interests

• Third-world development: built a house in Uganda in 2006 with Habitat for Humanity, volunteered with Serve Uganda in 2008 renovating a refugee school in Wobulenzi and provided teaching support in Science and Maths.  
  Charity Trustee and Webmaster  for www.servedirect.org
   
• Photography, Astronomy, Hill walking