Andrew Glasspool – Founder, Managing Partner

Andrew has over 20 years experience in the TV technology industry, specialising in satellite and terrestrial TV distribution, STB architecture, digital content security, contract negotiation and program management and customer management systems.
Before founding Farncombe, Andrew worked for British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) as a project manager in the Information Technology and Consumer Operations Department.

He has assumed several interim C-level management roles in leading media and telecom organisations.
He is an acknowledged industry expert in STB design and content security, providing advice to European PEs, regulators (including OFCOM) and as an expert witness.

Andrew is a graduate of Queen’s College, Oxford, a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Dr Steve Upton – Managing Partner

Prior to joining Farncombe in 2006, Steve worked at ntl – which he joined in 1994 as head of projects for ntl’s telecoms division. In 1997 he was promoted to director of network engineering and in 1999 to director of planning and implementation for the ntl Technology Division. On the creation of ntl’s Networks Division in August 2001, Dr Upton took on the role of Director of Capacity Management, responsible for all data, optical and radio systems.

In June 2002, he took over the running of the entire Networks Division. As MD, he was responsible for managing and exploiting ntl’s £9bn state-of-the-art network supporting the rapid growth of telephony, broadband and Digital Television services. In addition, Steve also managed the Wholesale Services business unit, building this to a substantial proportion of the company’s business revenues.

Prior to ntl, he worked for BSkyB and Mercury Communications.

Since joining Farncombe, Steve has worked on a variety of major projects, including overseeing the operational aspects of Tiscali UK’s triple-play rollout, reviewing the operating model of a hybrid IP/DTT service for a major European telco, and – most recently – acting as Launch Director for the UK consumer online video site SeeSaw, which went live in early 2010.

Dr Upton was educated at Southampton University and has a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry and a PhD.

Jean-Marc Racine – Managing Partner

Jean-Marc Racine started his career in the United Kingdom at ICL from 1993 to 1995. In 1995, he relocated to Paris and joined the French research laboratory for PHILIPS where he was involved in designing the first generation of real-time MPEG2 encoders.

He then joined CANAL+ in 1997 as sales manager for the Technology division and in this capacity supported the sales process to more than 20 digital platforms around the world. In 1999 Jean-Marc relocated from Paris to San Francisco to oversee the development of CANAL+ Technologies US subsidiary, which he founded and managed as CEO until late 2001.

Jean-Marc then relocated to Paris as Executive Vice-President Marketing for CANAL+ Technologies and remained a key member of the executive team until the acquisition of the company in January 2004. Following that, he then worked in the TV production industry, and prior to joining Farncombe, was working as an independent consultant for mobiflux, a company he founded in 2005.

Jean-Marc is a graduate of the Institute of Superior Electrical Engineering (ISEP) in Paris with a major in Electrical Engineering and Networking.

Adriana Menezes Whiteley – Head of Strategy Practice

Adriana has over 12 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector. She has managed projects in Latin America, the USA, Europe, Africa and the Middle East for telecom operators, financial investors and broadcasters. Her experience lies in corporate strategy, M&A, market opportunity assessment, and business planning.

Prior to joining Farncombe, Adriana was a Consulting Director at Ovum, where she concentrated on commercial strategy, especially transaction support projects. Prior to that she was a Director for Arnaud & Co, a Spanish M&A boutique specialised in telecommunications; was Program Manager – Telecoms Latin America in the Yankee Group; was a member of Telefonica’s strategic planning group; and worked for McKinsey in Brazil.

Since joining Farncombe in 2008 Adriana has focused on product strategy and M&A projects, especially those involving connected TV platforms, DTT switch-over and IPTV service launch.

Adriana is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

She is based in our London office.

Gary Marshall – Managing Partner

Gary has worked in consultancy services for the whole of his career, specialising in software development and project management in the broadcast space since the mid-1990s.

He joined Mirifice Ltd in 2005, initially working full-time as a consultant himself, and subsequently oversaw the successful growth of Mirifice Professional Services, which was acquired by the Farncombe Consulting Group in 2010.

Today, his background is in project and delivery management of complex Consumer Premises Equipment. He was responsible for the delivery of Virgin Media’s V+ Personal Video Recorder (PVR) – their first such product. This was a £6m project involving several vendors across the globe, delivered on time and to budget at a time when Virgin Media was being formed from the merger of ntl: and Telewest. Gary also delivered the first low-cost terrestrial PVR for TopUp TV and more recently provided consultancy to TopUp TV, advising on their technical strategy for the UK launch of DVB-T2 alongside the connected TV market.

Gary graduated from the University of Bath with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering in 1987, is a keen rugby fan, and lives in Bath with his family.

Lara Lerville – Director of Sales and Business Development

Prior to joining Farncombe, Lara worked at Visiware, a TV Interactive Games company based in France, where she was responsible for world-wide distribution of a range of interactive TV services.

During her 10 years with the company, Lara established the Visiware brand as the most broadly-deployed game-provider on TV platforms worldwide, setting up and commercially project-managing the launch of interactive TV services on 40-plus cable and satellite networks around the globe.

Lara is from a fine art background and has a BFA in Illustration from Rochester Institute of Technology. She is from Ohio in the United States, but has lived in Paris for the past 13 years.

She is a fluent French and Italian speaker and is based in our Paris office.

Geoff Aitken – Sales Director

Geoff is responsible for delivering the global sales objectives for the Farncombe Consulting Group.

Within the broadcast industry Geoff has built an international contact base with clients in the STB, Middleware, CA, Wireless Technology Vendor, Satellite, Cable, IPTV, DTT and large Enterprise corporate markets.

Geoff is a keen golfer and has a degree in Business and Information Management.

André Roy – Head of Security Practice

Prior to joining Farncombe, André held a number of senior management positions in the telecommunications and broadcast industries.

As Head of Security at YouView from 2010 to 2012, he was responsible for the definition and implementation of all aspects of content and platform security for the UK hybrid digital TV service. Prior to his work at YouView, André worked for Thomson, initially as CTO of the Thomson Telecom division, responsible for broadband, VoIP and IPTV products, and then as General Manager of Thomson UK & Ireland – where he was responsible for the delivery of the UK’s first Satellite HD PVR and BT’s flagship Home Hub ADSL gateway.

Prior to Thomson, he spent 18 years at Bell Northern Research and Nortel in various R&D and engineering roles in Canada, the UK and Germany, including Director of Engineering for Voice over Packet products and Managing Director of Nortel Networks Germany’s Technology Centre.

André is fluent in English and French, and also speaks Spanish and German.

He was educated at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and holds a B.A.Sc. in Systems Engineering.

Philip Clayson – Head of Technology

Philip is a transformational technology leader with technology and operational expertise including technology M&A, due diligence and post transaction operational integration and technology integration as well as new technology product development and operational improvement.

Philip’s experience across infrastructure, service and technology organisations spans the sectors of digital media, PayTV, broadcasting, satellite communications, consumer technology (STBs and mobile devices) and telecoms infrastructure, in both organic growth and acquisition based growth environments.

Philip’s major technology transformations include delivering new government voice and data networks including UK critical infrastructure and ‘blue light’ networks, smart grid energy networks and virtual world gaming applications. Philip was also the lead architect of the Freeview platform.

Philip’s has delivered major operational transformations including the restructure of BT’s TV and Media business, and the £2.5bn operational integration of a National Grid company for an acquirer.

Philip has experience operating with large organisations such as News Corp, Oracle and BT, midsize companies such as Arqiva, and several start-ups.

Philip has a B.Eng Honours degree in Electronic Engineering, an MBA, is a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered Manager and a Fellow of both the IET and the CMI. Philip is chair of the Multimedia Communications group within the IET.