Martyn Thomas CBE FREng
BSc FIET HonDSc (mult) FRSA
(b. 1948. UK citizen).
Martyn Thomas is an independent consultant systems engineer and non-executive director. He is an internationally recognised expert in safety-critical or business-critical, software intensive systems, software engineering, and cybersecurity. He has been instructed as an expert witness in complex, high-value litigations in Europe and Australia.
Martyn works extensively with universities and Government: he is a non-executive director of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIAHE), a member of the Defence Scientific Advisory Council (DSAC), and Visiting Professor in Software Engineering at the Universities of Oxford, Aberystwyth and Bristol. He has given oral evidence to several UK Parliamentary Committees in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and advised the National Crime Agency and several Government Departments.
In 1983 he founded Praxis, a software engineering company, to exploit modern software development methods. In 1986 Praxis became the first independent systems house to achieve BS 5750 (ISO 9001) quality certification for all its activities. Praxis became internationally recognised as a leader in the use of rigorous software engineering, including mathematically formal methods for developing and assuring software with very high dependability.
In December 1992, he sold Praxis to Touche Ross (later Deloitte and Touche), an international firm of accountants and management consultants, and Martyn became a Deloitte & Touche partner, with world-wide responsibilities for advanced software engineering. He left Deloitte Consulting in 1998 to return to working for himself.
Martyn Thomas is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), which is the UK’s National Academy for Engineering. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Martyn has been appointed as the first IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology at Gresham College (www.gresham.ac.uk) for three years from August 2015 to 31 July 2018.
Contact Details:
Telephone: +44 0207 5827169 Mobile: +44 07970 826812
website: www.thomas-associates.co.uk email:
Summary of Positions, Experience and Achievements
1998 – present Chairman, Martyn Thomas Associates Limited. Consultant and Expert Witness.
Clients include Railtrack plc/ Network Rail, UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS), Airservices Australia, DERA/MoD, National Australia Bank, Buro Happold, TSB, Wragge LLP, Freehills. Temenos, Logica, Charles Russell LLP, Blake Dawson LLP, GO-Science, National Crime Agency.
Assignments have included
· Project assurance of the development of Swanwick Air Traffic Control Centre
· Assurance of the Year 2000 remediation programme for all NATS facilities
· Assurance for the correction of failures in the UK National Airspace System
· Transition Safety Case for Network Rail when it took over from Railtrack
· Chair of the Steering Committee for the 5 year EPSRC Dependability Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration DIRC.
· Review of the plans for a new Europe-wide FDP development for EuroControl
· Capability assessment for ERTMS signalling for the West Coast Mainline rail upgrade
· Analysis of supplier software developments, for Airservices Australia and expert reports for litigation
· Review of many project proposals for funding of innovative technology-based projects.
· Expert reports on a software platform for trading and clearance for an Australian bank.
· Analysis of an expert report for a mediation between a software supplier and the Vatican Bank and reports and oral evidence and support at the mediation in Rome.
· Chairing the international Executive Committee for the four-year European Integrated Project DEPLOY and support to the project manager.
· Analysis of software development for a leading diamond company, provision of expert reports and oral evidence in the litigation.
· Chair of the 2015 Cybersecurity Science Capability Review for the UK Ministry of Defence
· Other software and project reviews, expert reports and litigation support.
2014 - present Non-executive Director of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
HSE is an executive non-departmental public body with Crown status, established under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It is sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions. HSE’s primary function is to secure the health, safety and welfare of people at work and to protect others from risks to health and safety from work activity. HSE regulates health and safety across a range of sectors and industries including major hazard sites such as onshore chemical plants and offshore oil and gas installations, throught to more conventional sites including quarries, farms, factories, waste management and construction. HSE has 2,500 staff and a budget of £230m.
2011 – 2014 Non-executive Director of the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), the scientific laboratory of the Health and Safety Executive.
Supportive challenge and review of the CEO and executive Directors. Support of programmes for culture change and commercialisation of services within a public sector research establishment. Membership of the Audit and Risk committee. Improved methods for risk management.
2011 – 2013 Non-executive Director of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
Supportive challenge and review of the CEO and Executive Directors. Acting as scientific advisor to the Board, liaising with the Home Office CSA Bernard Silverman, GCSA John Beddington and other CSAs. Supporting the DD Information Systems and Operational Technology. Board lead for reviewing the IT Modernisation Programme. Presentations to staff at SOCA branches and the Award Ceremony. Membership of the Risk and Audit, and Senior Appointments Committee. Deputising for the Chairman at the Diversity Committee.
2010 - present Non-executive Director, Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA).
Usual NED and Trustee responsibilities. Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee.
2002 – 2005 Member (non-executive director) Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Development of a strategy with measurable objectives. Supportive challenge and review.
2001 – 2003 Chairman, FirstEarth Limited, a specialist in CAD tools for automotive electronics.
Strategic direction and mentoring of a university spin-out company. Sale to a US CAD company.
2001 – 2003 Assurance and Innovation Director, Aspect Assessment Limited, independent safety assessors.
Provision of reviews to assure a key client of the independence of the company from related companies.
1992 – 1998 Partner, Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group, Managing Partner Bath offices. Chairman and Managing Director of Praxis plc. Membership of the management committee for Deloitte Consulting UK. International responsibility for advanced software engineering and Year 2000 services. Consultancy for FTSE 250 and Fortune 500 companies in Europe and the USA.
1983 – 1992 Founder and Chairman of Praxis plc. Responsible for all aspects of establishing a new, independent software company and growing it from 2 staff to ~200 staff. Trustee of the pension scheme and of the staff share scheme. Negotiated sale to Touche Ross.
1975 – 1983 Team Leader, later Systems Manager and Deputy Director, South West Universities Regional Computer Centre (SWURCC).
Development of a regional computing service for the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Cardiff and UWIST. Development of two Algol 68 compilers, for International Computers Ltd (ICL) and for Honeywell Multics. Packet-switched networking. Development of VLSI CAD software and of a FORTRAN compiler for the Distributed Array Processor.
1973 – 1975 Designer, Standard Telephones and Cables.
Design of the software for a microprocessor-controlled PABX. ESPL/1 interpreter.
1969 – 1973 Systems Programmer, University College London, and Technische Hogeschool Delft, Netherlands.
Diagnosis and correction of faults in OS/360. Development of OS interfaces and the I/O runtime software library for a new Algol 60 compiler for IBM.
Qualifications and Honours
1969 BSc (Biochemistry), University College, London
1993 IEE Achievement Medal in Computing and Control
1994 DSc honoris causa, Hull University
2004 DSc honoris causa, University of Edinburgh
2005 DSc honoris causa, City University, London
2007 CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to software engineering
2007 Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Professional Affiliations
Fellow and Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellow, Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
Visiting Professor in Software Engineering, University of Oxford (to 31 August 2017)
Visiting Industrial Professor, University of Bristol
Visiting Professor, University of Aberystwyth
Member, Defence Scientific Advisory Council (DSAC) (to 30 June 2016)
Member, Advisory Council, Foundation for Information Policy Research
Member, Executive Committee: UK Computing Research Committee (UKCRC)
Member, Longitude Prize Committee, NESTA
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Previous National and International Roles
Chair, IT Policy Panel, Institution of Engineering and Technology (to September 2014)
Chair, Executive Board, EU Framework 7 Integrated Project (DEPLOY) (2008-2012)
Member, ICT Oversight and Scrutiny Board, Cabinet Office (2012/2013)
Chair, External Advisory Panel, Oxford University Computing Laboratory, 2001-2008)
Member, Advisory Group, Foresight Intelligent Infrastructures Project, 2005-2006
Member, Advisory Group, Foresight CyberTrust Project, 2003-2004
Member, EPSRC Council, 2002 – 2005
Expert advisor to DG XIII of the European Commission on JESSI and ESPRIT.
Member of the Enterprise Initiative Review Group, CBI.
Member of the NATS Research Advisory Council of the UK Civil Aviation Authority (1992-1998).
Chair, Industry Steering Committee, Oxford University IGDP (1993 – 1997).
Member of the IT (later ITEC) Foresight Panel of the Office of Science & Technology (1994 – 1999).
Member of the HEFC Research Assessment Panel for computer science, 1993 and 1996.
Member of the Industrial Advisory Board of IEEE Software (1989-1994, 1997- 2006).
Chairman of Formal Methods Europe (European Commission) (1991-1994).
Member of ITAB, the joint DTI/SERC Information Technology Advisory Board (1990-1994).
Member of PITCOM (Parliamentary IT Committee) (1985-1998)
Founder Chairman, Safety-Critical Systems Task Force, BCS.
Member, Advisory Board, Systems and Software Engineering Centre, DERA, MoD (to 1999)
Member, EPSRC Computing College, and of ad-hoc EPSRC programme review committees.
Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Large-Scale Complex IT Systems (LSCITS)
Member, Digital Systems KTN Advisory Board
Member ESRC Global Uncertainties Strategic Advisory Group
Selected recent Invited Lectures
July 2007 Dependable Software. Federal Aviation Authority conference, New Orleans.
September 2007 Sufficient Evidence? Keynote, Ada UK conference Building better, safer software. Manchester,UK.
December 2007 Exploiting engineering ingenuity to protect personal privacy. ICO Conference Manchester, UK.
January 2008 OII / POST conference: Truly Transformative Government, London, UK.
September 2008 Principles of Sociotechnical Systems Engineering, St Andrews, UK.
October 2008 Assurance of sociotechnical systems. IET System Safety Conference, NEC, UK
November 2008 Software Engineering Issues in System Dependability, RAEng mission to Tokyo, Japan.
December 2008 Formal Aspects of Safety Critical Systems, London
January 2009 Strategies for Government, Scottish Parliament Science Seminar, Edinburgh.
June 2009 Digital Footprints, the Science, Cheltenham Science Festival
July 2009 Simple words on complex systems. LSCITS workshop Keynote, St Anne’s College, Oxford
February 2010 Why Projects Fail. Chronos Ltd, IPL Ltd and elsewhere.
February 2010 Caveat Vendor: How to develop software and avoid litigation. BCS. Bath University.
March 2011 GNSS Dependence and Vulnerabilities. National Physical Laboratory, UK
October 2013 Number crunching and ethics in the era of Big Data. Battle of Ideas, Barbican London.
October 2013 Smart Meter Security in an Uncertain World. IET Power in Unity Conference, London
October 2013 Risks and opportunities of the Smart Grid. Building a Smarter Future Conference, London.
October 2013 Smart Building Security. Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, UK Parliament.
January 2014 Dilemmas of Big Data. Public lecture for BCS Mid-Wales branch
May 2014 Resilience Lessons. Keynote for NPL/DSTL Conference Quantum Timing, Navigation & Sensing.
September 2014 The Elusive Dream of Software Engineering. Keynote: High-Integrity Software 2014, Bristol UK.
November 2014 UK/Canada Colloquium The Challenges of Cyberspace: Living in a Digital Society. Quebec.
March 2015 Smart Infrastructure. Technical Keynote, European Investment Bank Conference (following keynote speeches by Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker).
June 2014 Big Data. Cheltenham Science Festival, UK
June 2015 UK/Canada Colloquium The Challenges of Cyberspace: Living in a Digital Society London
Broadcasts
Formal Methods, BBC Radio 3 Spectrum, 1990; Computers can't fail, can they?, BBC 1 Electric Avenue, February 1990; Computer Software Safety, BBC 2 Antenna, September 1990; The Network BBC Radio 4, May 2nd 1994, June 28th1994, July 12th1994, July 26th 1994; Cafe Internet, Meridian Television, June 1996; CNN Interview on Intranets and Futures Technology, March 1997. Evidence (on behalf of UKCRC) to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee on ID Cards: BBC Parliament, February 29th 2004. Several interviews relating to the National Programme for IT in the NHS from 2006/2009. Several interviews on privacy and technology from 2007/2009. More than 30 broadcast interviews on the UK’s over-reliance on GPS in March-July 2011. Several televised evidence sessions to parliamentary Select Committees, most recently on Digital by Default and on the Smart Meter Rollout Programme.
Books:
The Fell Revival, Describing the casting of the Fell Types at the University Press, Oxford, and their use by the Press and others since 1864. Martyn Ould and Martyn Thomas, 186pp. Old School Press, Hinton Charterhouse 2000.
Harry Carter – Typographer. Martyn Thomas, Anne Rogers and John A Lane,120pp. Old School Press, Hinton Charterhouse 2005.
Three Pieces. Three previously unpublished articles by Harry Carter, edited and with an introduction by Martyn Thomas and Anne Rogers.
Software for Dependable Systems: Sufficient Evidence? Edited by Daniel Jackson, Martyn Thomas and Lynette I Millett, National Academies Press, Washington 2007.
Industrial Deployment of System Engineering Methods. Edited by Alexander Romanovsky and Martyn Thomas, Springer 2013. SBN: 978-3-642-33169-5 (Print) 978-3-642-33170-1 (Online). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33170-1
last updated 23 March 2015.