Stephen Choate, Non Executive Chairman
Stephen Choate has been CEO of ValueLink Information Services Limited, a market data services group, since 1997. ValueLink invested in Trident Energy in 2006.
Prior to this between 1995 and 1997 Dr Choate was Managing Director, JPI Group and before this he spent seven years with NatWest Investment Bank, mostly with NatWest Ventures.
He holds a BSc and a PhD from Bristol University and is a Chartered Accountant and a Member of the Securities Institute.
Steve Packard, Chief Executive Officer
Steve Packard is the Chief Executive Officer of Trident Energy.
Prior to his appointment with Trident, Mr Packard was the founder and CEO of whereonearth Ltd. whereonearth was a software vendor, providing “location enabling” technology for Internet search services. As CEO, Mr Packard raised £8m in venture capital funding and assembled a strong management to grow the business.
Mr Packard was awarded “Innovator of the Year” in 2001 at the CSSA’s Annual Gala Dinner and the company secured a top ten place in the Sunday Times “Tech Track 100” in 2002. He exited the company via a successful trade sale exit to Yahoo! Inc in 2005.
Prior to wheronearth, Mr Packard was part of a three man start-up team of a company named San Serif. San Serif secured the exclusive rights to produce Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary Board Games worldwide and Mr Packard was Group Production Director. Mr Packard was part of the team which successfully completed the IPO of Serif PLC in 1987.
Jonathan Armstrong, Chief Operating Officer
Jonathan is the Chief Operating Officer of Trident Energy.
He is responsible for the day-to-day running of the company, including team leadership, technology programmes, business development, procurement, business systems and HSEQ. He has extensive experience of the energy sector gained in utility and consultancy organisations.
Prior to joining Trident Energy, Jonathan spent eight years working within systems and engineering technology consultancy. He set up a consultancy office and grew it into a multi-£M turnover operation with over fifty staff. This included the development of a sustainable energy business, with a focus on offshore renewable energy. Over that period he worked on nearly twenty wave, tidal and offshore wind technologies.
Previously, Jonathan worked with the energy utility British Energy. His experience included delivery of a multi-£M portfolio of technology programs to reduce both nuclear fuel costs and radioactive waste.
Jonathan holds a first class BSc in Physics from the University of Edinburgh.
Malcolm van den Bergh, Engineering Director
Malcolm van den Bergh is Trident Energy’s Engineering Director and joined the company in 2004.
Mr van den Bergh is a Mechanical Engineer who was originally involved with the application of gas turbine engines. Prior to joining Trident Energy, he had been Managing Director of West Engineering Limited, a sheet metal and light engineering company. The business supplied companies in a number of fields including the nuclear, power generation and petrochemical industries. The business received investment from 3i in 1991 and was sold via a successful trade sale in 2003.
He holds a BSc from Bristol University, is a Chartered Engineer and is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Hugh Parnell, Non Executive Director
Hugh Parnell became a Non Executive Director of Trident Energy in 2006. He has extensive corporate finance advisory experience and specialises in advising businesses active in the energy and environment sectors.
He joined the NW Brown Group in 2000 to manage corporate finance, business angel and “VC” investment activities. Before this he had been active in oil-sector corporate finance and was a Director at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and a corporate financier at Robert Fleming.
Prior to this Mr Parnell had a 16 year career at BP where he assumed responsibility for strategy implementation and planning for downstream Europe.
He is a chartered accountant and holds a MA from Oxford University.