About Firefinch
At Firefinch, we’re committed to delivering excellence in software development. With our best practices and extensive experience, we provide you with customized, high-quality solutions designed to maximize value and address your unique needs.
Why choose us?
Our experienced and flexible team provide bespoke solutions to help you navigate the complexities of industry regulations and design processes. With Firefinch you can access a range of specialist skills from across the life sciences, engineering, and manufacturing sectors to help you reach commercial success as soon as possible.
Meet the team

Darren Troy
Director

Barry McHoull
Director

William Acton
Director

Ruaidhrí Primrose
Director

Matt Connelly
Director

Sophie Read
Head of Marketing

Isabel Vincent
Market Development Manager

Lauren McHoull
Executive Assistant

Adam Ostrowski
Project Manager

Raminta Kazlauskaitė
Project Manager

Steven Swan
Software Engineer

Richard Addison
Software Engineer

Noura Elhakim
Software Engineer

Jonny Reading
Software Engineer

Andrew Kirkwood
Software Engineer

Jimi Wills
Software Engineer

Phil Tolland
Software Engineer

Hansel Kang
Software Engineer

George Trenev
Software Engineer

Katy Smith
Software Engineer

Matt Probert
Software Engineer

Savan Agrawal
Software Engineer

Kevin McHugh
Software Engineer

Bryan Ghosh
Software Engineer

Harry Maxwell
Software Engineer

Matt Brammall
Software Engineer

James Carter
Software Engineer
Our board of advisors

Dr. James Hopgood
James is the Director of Electronics and Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. He works in the disciplines of Data Science and Machine Learning within the field of Statistical Signal Processing. Since September 2011, James has been the Editor-in-Chief for the IET Journal of Signal Processing. James has worked closely with the Firefinch team since 2014 on a Data Science research project.

Dr. Donna McDade Walker
Donna is Vice President, Global Marketing & Product Management at biomodal. She is an accomplished Commercial Leader with nearly 20 years’ experience in the biotechnology & life science industries. Skilled in go-to-market strategy, product commercialisation and brand development within fields such as molecular diagnostics, sequencing, and synthetic biology, Donna has worked with the Firefinch team since 2020.
"We cannot speak highly enough of the role that the Firefinch software development team have played over the course of this project. From the outset, project management, communication and delivery have met and exceeded our expectations."
Dr Foteini Manolaraki
Health Planning Development Manager, SRUC
"The team at Firefinch have been outstanding partners on this project. Their ability to engage with a diverse mix of industrial, academic and technical stakeholders, coupled with their unparalleled grasp of key software solutions has been critical."
Kim Cameron
Senior Business Engagement Manager, IBIOIC/C-Sum
"Throughout the process Firefinch have and continue to provide a friendly and personal service taking the time to truly listen to our needs as well as learn how we operate in order to provide the best solution possible."
Doug Mutter
Manufacturing & Compliance Director, VPZ
"Firefinch have been supreme from start to finish, professional, attentive and handled everything with an excellent degree of communication."
Alan McLevy
Business Dev Manager, Absolute EJuice
"Firefinch brought a range of skills, vital for product development and proved to be knowledgeable, trustworthy, and a supportive partner. Every member was a pleasure to work with and I'd recommend them highly.”
Dr Tiffany Wood
CEO, Dyneval
"Firefinch integrated quickly and easily into our project with excellent communication throughout. This enabled us to rapidly progress our project whilst ensuring that the scope was closely adhered to. We would happily work with Firefinch on other projects in the future."
Dave Forrest
Project Engineer, Swift TG Energy
Carbon audit
We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint and are on track for our Net Zero plan targeting 2030. We actively engage in regular carbon audits to identify and implement effective strategies for cutting emissions. We strive to not only meet but exceed industry standards for sustainability, ensuring a greener future for our planet.
“Firefinch have a commendably low emissions footprint. As a company they clearly prioritise efficiency and have instituted savings across their carbon footprint through conscious choices in the ways they travel, produce and work as a company. They are a clear exemplar for the ways that lean, efficient technology organisations can embed sustainability principles and act responsibly to minimise their impacts on the surrounding environment and economy.”
Robert Williamson
Founder of Williamson Consulting
Darren Troy
Director
Darren has years of experience in managing both small and large software projects. Through this he has learnt a few things: that maintaining software quality during development is critical, that good communication is essential to ensure that the software meets the user’s needs, and that simplicity in design leads to long term maintainability.
Barry McHoull
Director
Barry is the tech evangelist for the team. He’s motivated to find and explore new technologies to see what he can bring back to the world of serious programming. His previous life as a software project manager at a biotech company gives him a great understanding of the whole process of designing software, from conception to delivery.
William Acton
Director
Will’s keen attention to detail and consistency has led him to become the team’s UI/UX champion, ensuring that customer-facing software is elegant and painless to use. Experienced in instrumentation communication and control, he can usually be found bridging the gap between R&D teams and the end-users.
Ruaidhrí Primrose
Director
Ruaidhrí is an experienced architect and developer with a record of leading Agile development teams and comfortable working on all elements of software development, from product design and development through to production deployment and on-going maintenance. He specialises in cloud projects and has an extensive background working in heavily regulated fields.
Matt Connelly
Director
Matt is the systems analyst in the team. From his previous role as a scientist he brings significant experience in developing and testing products and processes. And as a dedicated R advocate, he is often happiest when sifting through data to find solutions to real world problems.