Meet The Team

Chris is an expert Systems Thinking Consultant who is highly experienced in decision making and leading teams in stressful environments across many industry sectors. Chris is highly effective at a strategic level, developing technical and management approaches, establishing thought leadership and intellectual property, creating and training teams, and growing the engineering capability. Chris is recognised by clients for his achievements and professionalism and is well known at a national level in the Systems Thinking profession through his many activities with INCOSE.

Prior to founding Optima Systems Consultancy, Chris was an Engineering Director and Principal Consultant, where he both developed the engineering capability of the business as well as providing a wide variety of technical consultancy.

In his earlier career, Chris was Underwater Sensors Engineering Manager and Systems Design Authority at BAE SYSTEMS Submarines where he led the sonar engineering team for Astute class submarines and managed the development of an integrated multi array sonar suite, Sonar 2076, for Trafalgar class submarines.

David Bamford is a versatile Systems Thinking consultant and manager with fifteen years of experience within Defence, Aerospace and Academia. David uses his broad experience and strong technical background to quickly grasp the technical and managerial challenges facing a project and make the right decisions.

David uses his strong interpersonal skills to engage with stakeholders, lead technical discussions and developing balanced solutions. He builds trust with all parties by consistently doing what is right for the project and is able to lead negotiations and brings all parties together to address the key issues.

Prior to joining Optima, David was a Senior Consultant, where he performed a variety of technical, managerial and business roles. David has lead the development and testing of new systems as Chief Engineer for the Green-Wake project, been the Lead Technical Assessor for a £1,250M Cat A MOD project, managed a portfolio of research projects and supported the technical development and testing of many systems and sub-systems.

Steve Armitage is an acclaimed Systems Engineering Consultant and Chartered Engineer with extensive experience in complex systems engineering; engineering operations and associated management of safety; equipment and system design, integration and qualification within highly-regulated nuclear, defence and aerospace environments.

He is a proven Systems Thinker and an excellent relationship builder, with a track-record of successful delivery for demanding clients in high-tempo environments.

After 20 years’ service as a Royal Air Force Engineer Officer, Steve became a consultant in 2008 and has supported clients across Defence, Aerospace and Nuclear sectors.  He is also a member of Optima’s Business Development Team, with a particular interest in the Company’s Civil Nuclear/Fusion activities.

Lloyd Pryce is a skilled Principal Systems Thinking Consultant & Project Manager with over sixteen years experience in the defence & security sectors. He’s a qualified Chartered Engineer and holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Degree in Electronic & Electrical Engineering from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in Systems Thinking from the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. He started his career with Marconi Radar, now BAE Systems Insyte, developing signal processing software for naval radar systems before moving into Systems Thinking & Engineering Management. He then transitioned into engineering consulting in 2005 and has since supported a wide variety of complex programmes across industry and MoD.

Lloyd has provided engineering and management support to a range of Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) teams and industry suppliers. These have included programmes delivering: armoured fighting vehicles, communications systems, sensor systems, complex weapons, cyber security systems and submarine combat systems. He is an experienced Project Manager and led a multi-disciplined industry team delivering the System of Systems Approach (SOSA) support contract to DE&S as part of an industry consortium, as well as providing consultancy to tasks within Maritime, Land and Air domains.

Sue joined Optima in 2022, bringing over 15 years of digital and ICT experience coupled with a background in systems engineering and enterprise architecture.  As a highly adaptable systems thinker,  Sue enjoys working alongside clients to help them apply systems thinking and systems engineering tools and techniques to their challenges. She holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Physics with Electronic Engineering from Liverpool University and an MSc in Microwaves and Modern Optics from University College London.

Her early career was as a Training Officer in the Royal Air Force with postings including professional training of Royal Air Force Apprentice Technicians and Engineer Officers (specialising in communications and radar), the Royal Air Force’s Electronic Warfare Team and roles in what is now known as Defence Digital. On leaving the Royal Air Force she moved into consulting via Defence industry and has since then worked with clients in both the public and private sectors on systems engineering and ICT related projects and programmes covering the whole of the systems engineering lifecycle.

Her projects often involve complex transformational challenges and the novel application of emerging project management techniques such as agile.  Sue is a qualified ITIL® 4 Strategic Leader and for the past eight years has been applying systems engineering and enterprise architecture principles and techniques to digital and IT projects; where she has developed and implemented operating models for IT functions, shaped transformation programmes and delivered IT service management for clients.

As a member of Optima’s senior leadership team, Sue leads Optima’s Digital Consultancy Offering that applies Systems Thinking to broader business challenges to define, change, improve and assure.

Outside of work Sue is training to be a Pilates instructor, she also plays the oboe, regularly performing with Bath Symphony Orchestra and enjoys skiing and windsurfing.

Charlie is an experienced systems engineer with 10 years’ experience in engineering consultancy. She holds a Batchelor of Engineering (Honors) degree in Product Design Engineering from Swansea University. After starting her career in 2013, she rapidly gained experience in systems thinking and engineering consultancy. Her ability to learn quickly and adapt to change has enabled her to successfully work with a wide variety of clients, teams and technologies across the defence, civil nuclear and aerospace domains. In doing so, she has taken on many different roles from requirements management and technical assurance to knowledge management and cultural transformation.

Known for her ability to easily step in to new situations and build trusting relationships, she is able to rapidly and effectively get to the heart of challenging situations and help our customers accomplish their goals. Her diverse experience has given her a wide-ranging repertoire of skills which she has built on by completing training in project management and Agile business analysis. She has applied these skills to multiple programmes bringing an agile mindset to engineering practices. This has included programmes delivering armoured fighting vehicles, complex weapons, submarines, robotic handling systems and aircraft systems.

Charlie enjoys developing her change management expertise, applying a systems thinking approach whilst focusing on the people aspects of change. Her enthusiasm for continuous improvement and learning extends outside of work where she helps instil the younger generation with a curiosity and passion for engineering and science through her role as a STEM ambassador.

An accomplished chartered engineer, systems thinker and problem solver, Andrew rapidly appreciates situations and develops pragmatic solutions that enable clients to meet their objectives and realise benefits.  His core values of trust, integrity, commitment and good humour with a determination to get the job done, nurtured during a career in the military and as a consultant, underpin the exemplary delivery for which he is known.

Working alongside clients in the nuclear, infrastructure and defence sectors, Andrew brings particular technical expertise in requirements analysis and management, stakeholder management, model-based design, and system proving and validation.  He is particularly adept at quickly understanding the totality of the problem space and communicating it in an easily understood format to the client and stakeholders across the enterprise.  This clarity provides the team with the foundation upon which to build prioritised and achievable solutions.

Some of Andrew’s past achievements include the delivery of urgently needed capability into the hands of users; design and delivery of technical work packages to help clients achieve design and system acceptance; and the establishment of a programme management office for multiple in-flight projects.

Andrew looks forward to bringing his experience, skills and personality to clients across an expanding portfolio to help them achieve even greater success.

Justyn joined Optima in 2016 as an expert on systems thinking and techniques to improve organisation performance and delivery. He uses his facilitation skills to understand stakeholder needs and employs systems engineering to communicate complex solutions in an actionable form. Justyn leads our Technology Management Community of Practice developing our offerings, tools and techniques.

Before joining the Optima team, Justyn has worked in Systems Engineering and Operational Analysis for more than 20 years. With QinetiQ and Jacobs, Justyn delivered business analysis to support multibillion-pound business cases, engineer enterprise-wide transformation plans and develop defence-wide best practice for technology management. He has worked closely with defence and nuclear clients to deliver their programmes and implement systems thinking.

He has supported MOD to direct delivery of major programmes including Warrior CSP and Submarine upgrades, support active operations and develop and deliver Knowledge in Defence best practice improvements. Justyn has a strong track record of being able to work effectively with a wide range of clients, both in the UK and abroad including Germany, Australia and Finland.

In the future Justyn is looking forward to the next big challenge facing systems thinking and business transformation, so that he can work collaboratively with organisations who deliver and operate complex systems which make a positive difference to the people they touch.

Jim is an accomplished Consultant & Systems Engineer with 24 years of experience working in a wide variety of technical and managerial roles in the defence sector.

His current role includes providing technical and project management advice to clients in MoD, defence primes and Other Government Departments.

His prior professional experience as a chartered engineer and project manager includes having shaped, led and delivered projects in land, sea, air, weapons & C4ISTAR domains. He has experience of the full systems lifecycle from Government and Industry Research; through MoD Acquisition; to being a multimillion-pound budget holder leading 30+strong Industry teams to design, develop, manufacture and support systems in operational use.

Jim is passionate about delivering effective solutions through his tailored approach of: Challenge, Analyse, Plan, Do, Learn. His proactive, collaborative approach has yielded plaudits from customers, suppliers and partners for achieving better solutions, quicker and with less expense – resulting in many repeat contracts for his advice & support.

A Chartered Physicist with solid scientific research background in innovative Defence, John brings specialist expertise in developing architectures and requirements for Land based military and Nuclear Fusion equipment.

Prior to joining Optima John shaped complex military vehicle upgrade programmes in Defence procurement, gaining experience at both the customer and client sides of procurement programmes, so understands what information and evidence is critical to the other party. Experienced at all stages of the project lifecycle, John has conducted innovative research, requirements driven architectural design, equipment verification trials, and technical project support.

His enthusiastic, highly motivated and inquisitive nature enables him to quickly adapt to new domains, technology areas, and work environments. John thrives on delving into the detail of a project whilst keeping a strategic view of wider commercial and programmatic impacts when making technical decisions. This makes him a valuable asset on complex projects.

John continues to develop himself by applying his knowledge and experiences to new domains and solving our customer’s complex problems.