Leadership, GOVERNANCE AND THE WIDER team
People
Behind First Light Fusion is a team of extremely talented scientists, engineers, technicians and business experts. Our team come from a range of backgrounds but are all united by a passion for realising fusion energy at scale.
Our leadership team
First Light Fusion is headed up by an Executive Management Team with unparalleled knowledge, insight and deep sector expertise and experience in a diverse range of fields, including energy, business, military, finance, and deep tech.
Mark Thomas
Chief Executive Officer
Mark joined First Light in 2025 after a decade growing and leading Reaction Engines, a multi-award-winning UK technology company known for its pioneering developments in space propulsion, hypersonic flight, and cooling technology solutions for Formula 1 motorsport.
Before joining Reaction Engines, Mark spent 22 years in the Defence and Civil Aerospace divisions of Rolls-Royce plc, most notably in Chief Engineer roles. Mark’s last role with Rolls-Royce was leading the company’s future civil aerospace programmes and technology demonstrators.
Mark is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Aeronautical Society. He graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1993.
David Bryon
Chief Financial Officer
David brings more than two decades of diverse industry experience to First Light, including over 15 years supporting UK university spinouts in senior roles.
His career has given him deep, hands-on experience of turning research and technology into commercial success – with an eye for pragmatic, real-world outcomes.
Tech start-ups are a natural fit for his skills, and his business insight helps First Light’s teams make hard things possible.
Laura Hillier
General Counsel and COO
Laura is an experienced and agile General Counsel with over 20 years of commercial and legal experience across both public and private companies.
She began her career in the City at Slaughter and May, before moving in-house in 2011 to help establish ViiV Healthcare, a joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Shionogi.
Laura supported the business from inception through scale-up to the global launch of its multi-billion-pound blockbuster drug, dolutegravir.
Dr Jonathan Skidmore
Chief Scientist
Jon is an experienced experimental physicist and Principal Investigator who has worked across numerous high-energy-density physics facilities.
He completed his PhD in plasma physics on the MAGPIE and MACH generators at Imperial College London, before moving to AWE. There, he led key academic and stockpile-stewardship campaigns on the NIF, OMEGA and Orion laser facilities.
At First Light, Jon leads the science behind FLARE, drawing on that deep experimental expertise to guide its development toward commercial fusion.
Our governance team
Board and Scientific Advisory Board
BOARD
Bart Markus
Chairman
A veteran venture capitalist and entrepreneur, Bart was a General Partner at Wellington Partners from 2000–2015, helping build it from a €50m fund into a leading European player with some €800m under management.
Stephen Brindle
Non-Executive Director
Between 2008 and 2016, Stephen was Managing Partner of Technikos LLP, an early-stage VC fund. He previously spent a decade as an equity salesman in the City and six years in management consulting, latterly with Deloitte.
Yiannis Ventikos
Co-founder & Non-Executive Director
Yiannis is the Kennedy Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at UCL, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Theo Mollinger
Board Director
General Partner, East X Ventures; specialist investor in fusion and deep tech.
Dr Mark Reilly
Board Director
Managing Partner, IP Group; 200+ technology transactions.
Adrian Jones
Board Director
Deep-tech and national-security commercialisation specialist.
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Prof. Andrew Randewich
Scientific Advisor
Andrew joined AWE in 1997 and has held senior roles across nuclear effects, thermonuclear burn modelling and computational physics, latterly leading its High Performance Computing group.
Prof. Steven Rose
Scientific Advisor
Steven has spent his career in plasma physics, with a focus on plasmas produced using high-power lasers. He was Associate Director for Physics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s Central Laser Facility, and Head of Plasma Physics at AWE Aldermaston.
Prof. Jeremy Chittenden
Scientific Advisor
Jeremy is Professor of Plasma Physics at Imperial College, with over 30 years of research in high-energy-density physics, laboratory astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion.
Prof. Rick Spielman
Scientific Advisor
Rick is a distinguished plasma physicist who spent much of his career at Sandia National Laboratories, where he was Chief Scientist and Project Manager for the Z Machine — the most powerful pulsed-power driver in the world.
Team
Wider science and management team
SCIENCE TEAM
Dr Hugo Doyle
Head of Empirical Validation
Hugo joined First Light in 2014 and leads the team that experimentally validates First Light’s technology, developing the launchers and diagnostics used to prove its results.
Dr Nathan Joiner
Head of Computational Physics
Nathan joined in 2017 to lead First Light’s computational modelling, guiding a team of computational and theoretical physicists, data scientists and software engineers.
Dr Rafel Bordas
Head of Data-Driven Engineering
Rafel joined in 2021 to establish First Light’s Data Science function, leading a team that combines simulation, experimental data and machine learning to support the design process.
Dr Guy Burdiak
Principal Scientist
Guy is an experimental plasma physicist with 18 years’ experience in pulsed-power-driven high-energy-density physics. He completed his PhD and a research role at Imperial College London.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Paul Holligan
VP Commercial and Partnerships
Paul joined in 2016 and led the pulsed-power developments and the design and construction of First Light’s three pulsed-power drivers. His team also developed a unique engineering capability for the design and optimisation of fusion systems.
Elaine Winchester
Head of Business Development
Elaine joined in 2025 to lead business development, focusing on identifying market opportunities, building industry collaborations, and shaping First Light’s go-to-market strategy.
Richard King
Head of IT, Security and Facilities
Richard joined in 2016 and leads IT, security and facilities, ensuring the First Light team is supported with robust, secure systems to deliver their work.
Martin Harwood
Head of Precision Manufacturing
Martin joined in 2020 and manages precision manufacturing, metrology and target fabrication, building the highly accurate assemblies produced in First Light’s in-house workshops.
Oli Hall
Head of Engineering Design
Oli joined First Light in 2017 and leads the team behind the engineering design of the M3 and Large Light Gas Gun facilities. He previously held design roles at the ISIS Neutron Facility and Central Laser Facility, having started his career with a mechanical engineering apprenticeship at Oxford Instruments.
Lorraine Fry
Head of Marketing and Communications
Lorraine joined First Light in 2026 to lead marketing, communications, and brand strategy, bringing over 20 years of experience across aerospace, space, and defense. She previously held leadership roles at Reaction Engines and the Satellite Applications Catapult, driving international campaigns and strategic brand growth.
Jeremy Avenier
Head of Capital Markets
Jeremy brings 15 years of Operational finance experience mostly with GE, at the time the biggest company in the world, across multiple industries and geographies. Since leaving GE Jeremy has been a Renewable Energy executive supporting Solar, Battery Storage and Green Hydrogen companies raise more than $10B in capital.