Who We Are

We're a group of experienced software engineers and problem solvers based in Edinburgh. With a combined 50+ years in biotechnology, engineering and manufacturing we have a wide range of skills to rely on to get the job done.

Firefinch started in 2017 when four senior R&D members from a biotech multinational decided to go their own way. Founded with the aim to get software development right we use best practice and experience to get the right balance between cost and complexity for every customer.  We've since grown to six people by bringing in specialist skills from other sectors.

Team Firefinch

Darren Troy

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.
Matt Connelly

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.
Barry McHoull

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

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. He is also experienced at instrumentation control and keeping old software running through maintenance of legacy systems.
Ruaidhri Primrose

Ruaidhri 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.
Steven Swan

Steven has years of experience working on fintech projects and B2B cloud and on-premise solutions. He has worked both on in-house developed products and as a consultant for both small and large projects giving him a breadth of experience of different software processes and development practices over a wide range of technologies.

Our Board of Advisors

We asked the mentors who guided the development of our careers to help oversee and advise the Firefinch enterprise. With strong backgrounds and expertise in product and business development, engineering, marketing, and academia, our board of advisors continue to provide us with their insight and wisdom.

Stuart Polwart

Stuart is an Engineering Consultant with more than 40 years’ experience of product development and business management across the defence, automated banking, mobile communications and life science sectors including management roles with Unisys, Motorola, and most recently as Technology Director for the Microfluidics Division of Agilent Technologies. He was also Co-founder and Director of three separate successful start-up ventures, the most recent being Lab901 which was acquired by Agilent in 2011.

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.

We'd love to hear from you, send us a message!

Contact Us
Firefinch Software
20 Jan
Firefinch Software
@firefinchsw

Great discussion of interpretable ML in the latest @TheOfficialACM magazine, it's a topic we keep seeing coming up, particularly with regard to deep learning cacm.acm.org/magazin… #xai #ml

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