Mark Cook Email & Phone Number

La, Ca, Us

AIR is an industrial automation group, backed by Ares, focused on acquiring and facilitating the growth of leading industrial automation companies serving a global customer base from facilities located in the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Gb

Sewtec is a global leader in the design, manufacture, installation and support of bespoke industrial automation solutions for a wide range of applications in food & beverages, confectionery, pharma & medical devices and tobacco.In August 2017 Endless LLP supported a MBO with the objective of growing the business and entering new market sectors.

Bristol, England, Gb

Stirling Dynamics provides specialist engineering services and control technologies for the aerospace and marine markets. In November 2014 Endless LLP acquired a controlling share in the business and over the following 3 years the business underwent a major transformation by winning new business and significantly increasing profitability.In April 2018 the business was sold to Assystem Technologies UK.

Misas Technology is a new company in the engineering, manufacturing and management services market. The founders have several decades of experience in winning, designing, manufacturing and delivering complex technology solutions for a wide range of customers.

London, Gb

Seven Technologies specialises in surveillance products and systems for the defence, security and law enforcement market.In June 2013 Seven acquired Datong PLC to create a group structure with revenues of circa £20m and 140 employees located in Leeds, London and Northern Ireland.

Leeds, Gb

Datong designs, manufactures and supports world-leading tracking, tagging and locating systems for international defence and security markets.Located in Leeds, Datong employed circa 80 employees with revenues of £10m in UK, US, European, Middle East and South East Asian markets.

Persides, founded in November 2003, has a consultancy services business and for a period of 5 years a technology and products business which was sold to Synectics in 2010. Based in Keynsham between Bath and Bristol, Persides employed circa 40 staff.Persides main markets are defence, aerospace and security with a recent diversification into the nuclear energy market.The consultancy services business has the following capabilities which are applied widely to land, sea and air domains supporting the UK MoD, UK and international prime contractors and SMEs:• Management – bids, project, subcontract and engineering• Systems and Software Engineering – systems engineering and software development• Support Solutions – supportability engineering, through-life support, ARM, training, technical documentation, safety and human factors• Modelling – whole-life costs, support optimisation options, manufacturing processThe technology and products business was established to develop innovative surveillance technology for the defence and security markets. The R&D activities were a combination of self-funded and customer-funded which led to the UK manufacture of the following products:• Chili – a unique high performance man-pack communications surveillance product, jointly developed with Synectics, for military use. Persides was responsible for the system architecture, electronics design, DSP and software development and surveillance algorithms.• VEEcam – a unique ruggedised body-worn video system for extreme environments. VEEcam was sold extensively to international and UK military users (mainly Special Forces), police forces, security organisations, automotive manufacturers and extreme sports enthusiasts. • Scope Cam – an adaptation of VEEcam for capturing and relaying video imagery from rifle scopes.In addition to product sales Persides developed a comprehensive set of complementary support services.

Meudon, Île-De-France, Fr

Thales is an international company with 65,000 employees worldwide and an annual turnover of €12b specialising in electronic systems and services for the defence, aerospace and IT markets. The Joint & C4ISR Division had a turnover of £50m, headcount 300 covering the business areas of EW (Electronic Warfare), ELINT (Electronics Intelligence), Special Projects, Signature Management, Research.Achievements:• Bid Director for two key surveillance prospects, Soothsayer (UK) and Prophet (USA), with a combined value of over £300m.• Delivered budgeted turnover and gross margin whilst leading the two major bids.• Developed and initiated a 3 year strategic plan to increase order intake by 30% pa, improve net profit by 10%, implement site and organisational rationalisation and improve employee morale.• Improved business winning success rate by 30% – people, focus, cost and process.• Introduced and led business improvement initiatives in process (business information, project management and engineering), people development and senior management team culture.Responsibilities:• P&L and strategic direction of the division• Management of support services for several Thales businesses in the South West• Wells and Weston-Super-Mare sites and associated overhead budgets• Member of the Thales Communications UK board at Crawley – total turnover £130m p.a.• Reported directly to the Thales Communications UK Group Managing Director

Meudon, Île-De-France, Fr

Racal was a major UK company with an annual turnover of £1.1b specialising in electronic systems and services for the defence, industrial and telecommunications markets. Racal was acquired by Thomson and re-branded to Thales in 2000. The EW and Comms Division had a turnover of £10m, headcount 100.Achievements:• Appointed as Managing Director, EW responsible for UK, French, German and Italian business with a turnover of €160m. Led a multi-national team to identify and implement Racal/Thomson synergies and develop a 5 year global product and marketing strategy plan; based in Paris for 9 months. After initial integration task, the role was put on hold to allow personal contribution to the Soothsayer and Prophet bids.• Won the first phase of the £150m Soothsayer project against significant international competition.• Grew order intake by 20% by establishing 70% market share in the US and Australian markets for land EW systems.• Rescued and subsequently delivered the highly acclaimed Odette project in record time, exceeding business and customer expectations.• Contributed to the closure planning and implementation of Racal’s HQ in Bracknell and successfully led the transfer and integration of key staff to Wells.• Delivered budgeted turnover and margins and increased order intake whilst managing the transition from Racal to Thales.Responsibilities:• P&L and strategic direction of EW & Comms Systems business• Integration of Racal and Thomson EW businesses• Member of the Communications Division board at Bracknell – total turnover £110m p.a.• Reported directly to the Managing Director, Communications Division

Turnover of £5m, headcount 50.Achievements:• Cost/schedule recovery of the Merlin DCD and Cheetah projects by increasing productivity, clarifying roles and responsibilities and improving customer and supplier relationships – combined value £60m.• Opened a previously inaccessible market in Special Projects as a result of project management achievements and reputation. • Developed and implemented a sales and marketing plan to export SATCOM systems worldwide – achieved first success with Turkey.• Developed and introduced improved project management processes, tools and support network for at-risk projects.• Introduced a new financial modelling tool improving quality, accessibility and timeliness of business-critical finance information.Responsibilities:• P&L for Communications Systems business• Member of the Defence Information Systems (DIS) Division board – total turnover £50m p.a.• Divisional project management process, tools and active support of at-risk projects• Reported directly to the Managing Director, DIS Division

ADI Electronics based in Sydney supplied C4ISR systems for the defence markets and starting trading in 1990. ADI is now Thales Australia, the largest defence contractor in Australia.Achievements:• Grew electronics business from 6 employees in 1990 to 250 in 1995, turnover from 0 to A$50m, by organic growth and acquisition.• Defined and implemented the technical, engineering and project management strategies of the annual business plan.• Led numerous bids in the early start-up phase and achieved exceptional success rate of 33%. Notable successes were minesweeping system for RAN and air defence system for the RAAF.• Led the project and engineering due diligence assessments on potential acquisitions – one was implemented, forming a new software division of ADI in Perth.• Defined and launched the company project management and engineering process methodology leading to ISO 9001 accreditation and managed process harmonisation across multiple sites.• Led the early phases in setting up a UK office.Responsibilities:• Technical solution and associated implementation costs for all projects and tenders• Engineering and project management processes• Engineering dept management – headcount 180• Reported directly to the General Manager

Megadata based in Sydney supplied SCADA systems for the utilities markets.Achievements:• Cost/schedule recovery of a £5m project for the Indonesian State Railway (ISR) by increasing productivity and improving customer relationship• Led the in-country integration and training activities for the ISR project• Led a multi-disciplined team to create a standard SCADA product portfolio to minimise development cost and risk for future projectsResponsibilities:• Whole life project management – from specification to delivery and support• Customer and supplier relationship management• Future Products Plan

GEC Avionics, Rochester, was a UK company specialising in the supply of avionics systems for civil and military aircraft.Achievements:• System and Software Team Leader for the design of an innovative flight control system for an airship• Design and delivery lead of stabilisation systems for an unmanned surveillance aircraft – achieved on time and to budget• Hardware design and lead marketing support for the first digital maps in military aircraft cockpits

Diploma, Company Direction

Msc, Digital Systems And Instrumentation

Bsc, Control Engineering