The Team

The Anaconda Team at Checkmate Seaenergy

Paul Auston, Chairman

Paul started Checkmate’s manufacturing businesses, of which he is now Chairman. He has more than 27 years’ industrial and commercial experience.

Des Crampton BSc (Eng), Chief Executive, Checkmate Seaenergy

Des started his career as a mechanical engineer in the steel making industry before taking up the challenges of the UK ports industry, most recently as managing director of Medway Ports and director of Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, and Peel Ports. His technical and commercial skills are of particular benefit to the Checkmate Seaenergy. Des is a lifelong offshore sailor who last year single-handedly raced his yacht from the UK to the Azores .

Richard Price, FCA

Richard qualified at KPMG and is company secretary and financial director. He has been closely involved with the Anaconda project since its inception bringing his significant financial and commercial experience to bare.

Mark Prentice BSc, MIME, C Eng

Technical manager of Checkmate Flexible Engineering LLP, and now seconded to Checkmate Seaenergy, Mark brings an unrivalled knowledge of rubber fabrication and flexible structures to the Anaconda project. He also has vast experience in mechanical and structural design.

Steve Rimmer BSc, Project Manager

Steve trained as a chemist and has worked in technical and managerial roles in the rubber industry for more than 30 years. Steve has extensive knowledge of rubber compounds as he is responsible for rubber compound characterisation, optimisation and testing. As well as having extensive knowledge of materials, Steve is also experienced in rubber manufacturing and fabrication.

Ushpal Thind BEng, Project Engineer

Ushpal joined Checkmate some years after graduating in engineering from Imperial College London. Seconded to the project, he works on all aspects of the design, manufacture and testing of our products. He contributes to all aspects of the Anaconda project, most notably to model design and testing.

Professor Rod Rainey, MA MSc DIC CEng FIMarEST, Co-Inventor of Anaconda

Professor Rainey is head of floating structures at WS Atkins plc Oil and Gas Division. Rod is one of the UK’s leading experts on floating offshore structures, and has a unique combination of practical and theoretical know-how in this field. He has been employed by WS Atkins for more than 30 years. Prior to this he was employed by Yarrow Shipbuilders and was a research fellow at Imperial College. He is an internationally recognised authority in the field of hydrodynamic loading, and hosted the International Workshop on Water Waves and Floating Bodies at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He has published extensively in the field of international technical literature. He is a visiting professor at University College London and at Southampton University.

Professor Francis Farley, ScD, F Inst P, FRS, Co-Inventor of Anaconda

Professor Farley is an experimental physicist with wide experience of making things work: wartime microwave radar which controlled the Dover guns; innovative experiments in particle physics at CERN and Brookhaven; and new wave energy devices. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, who awarded him the Hughes medal. Francis has worked on wave energy since 1976 and has filed 14 patents in this area.