Our Specialists

MIRICO Board of Directors

The MIRICO board of directors has a wide range of expertise, from finance to technology. MIRICO’s operational team consists of a highly diverse range of backgrounds and combines specialist technical capabilities in engineering and the sciences, which brings about a strong culture of innovation. Our commercial team has in-depth understanding of sector applications, helping to create truly unique solutions. If you would like to join our team, please get in touch.

  • David Denny

    Partner and Founder, Longwall Venture Partners. MIRICO Non-Executive Director

    David started his career as a graduate engineer in Carnaud Metalbox (now Crown Cork), working in a range of roles from R&D to production and project management. David spent much of his career living and working overseas in Spain, Argentina, USA, Belgium and France. David did his MBA at Harvard Business School, after which he joined Z Corporation, an MIT licensee start up. He spent several years growing the European and Asian businesses before entering the venture industry in 2004. David is a partner and founder of Longwall Venture Partners and predominantly focuses on physical science and engineering opportunities.

    “Longwall is the lead investor in MIRICO and is delighted to see the progress being made towards full commercialisation of a powerful new spectroscopy technique which will transform the global gas sensing market.”

  • Dr Andrew Muir

    Midven Investment Director & Fund Principal of the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund and Early Advantage Fund. MIRICO Non-Executive Director.

    Dr Andrew Muir is a director of specialist fund management company Midven where he is Investment Director for the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, the founding investor in MIRICO. After an initial scientific career at Zeneca he went on to roles in research and business development at the medical device company Biocompatibles and then Vice President of Technology for a US start-up in disinfection of medical equipment. He started his career in venture capital with NESTA (the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts). He has a degree and a DPhil in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

    “The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund investment in MIRICO perfectly reflects our investment philosophy of investing at the very earliest stage in disruptive technology solutions and we are committed to helping the team realise its ambition.”

  • Dr Elizabeth Kirby

    Director of Innovation at STFC.
    MIRICO Non-Executive Director

    Liz started her career at Opsys Limited (a spin out company from Oxford University) before joining the University of Reading as IP/Legal adviser. She joined STFC in 2012 as IP Licensing Manager and was appointed as a Director of STFC Innovations Ltd. in 2018. Liz is a board Director on several start-up companies which have been spun out from STFC physical science research activities. Liz has a degree and DPhil in Physical Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

    “The STFC Innovations Ltd investment in MIRICO follows the potential we saw for innovative technology derived from STFC’s cutting edge Space research programmes to transform the gas sensing markets.”

  • Andrew Bloxham

    Senior Investment Manager, Foresight Williams. MIRICO Non-Executive Director

    Andrew is an experienced venture capital investor, having spent nearly twenty years advising and investing in early-stage UK technology businesses. Andrew joined Foresight Williams in 2018 and sits on MIRICO’s board as its investor director. He began his career at JPMorgan in the technology corporate finance team and subsequently worked for London-based boutique advisor, Strata Partners and then, EIS investor, Committed Capital. Andrew has a MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the University of Surrey.

    “Foresight Williams invested £1.6m into MIRICO in early 2018 to help grow the business and accelerate the commercialisation of its pioneering technology.”

  • Dr Damien Weidmann

    CSO

    Damien founded MIRICO in December 2015, and for over twenty years, has been delivering research and development in the field of novel laser-based sensing instrumentation and applications for trace chemical analysis. He has worked in research laboratories in France (IPPHÉ, Marseille; University of Reims), the USA (Laser Science Group, Rice University), and the UK (Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford). He joined Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s Space Science and Technology division in 2004, where he established and lead laser spectroscopy R&D activity. 

    “I founded MIRICO with the vision of providing transformational novel laser spectrometry approaches to challenges facing gas analysis.”

  • James Hobby

    Director of Technology

    James joined MIRICO in July 2019. Prior to MIRICO, James has had thirty years of experience in the use and design of industrial and medical gas instrumentation most recently at Servomex where he held a number of senior roles most recently as CSO. James is an inventor on over a dozen patents and has led the successful market introduction of tens of gas analysis products, including those based on laser spectroscopy, over the last twenty-five years. James holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Reading and has specialised in metrology.

    “I joined MIRICO as I wanted to be part of  the most innovative spectroscopy technology to come to the market for the last 25 years!”