Piers is a serial entrepreneur, technology executive, and corporate strategist with a career built at the intersection of innovation and commercial delivery. He has been a founding director of four technology companies — in wireless communications, electronic document management, mobile communications, and industrial digitalisation — and has served as Chief Technology Officer in three of them, with three successful exits to date.
Industrial AI & Energy
His most recent operating role was as founder and CTO of Dashboard, a company built to provide AI-enabled real-time monitoring of critical infrastructure including pipelines, bridges, tunnels, and wind turbines. The company's Intelligent Pipeline Management Solution (IPMS) combined advanced sensor hardware with machine learning to provide leak detection, security monitoring, and asset optimisation for hydrocarbon infrastructure.
Commercialisation & Investment
Across his career, Piers has raised over £15 million in innovation finance, negotiated major commercial contracts and partnerships, and advised boards at both startup and enterprise level. He brings a particular strength in commercialisation — translating technology capability into investment cases, commercial models, and revenue.
At Ballista
Piers leads Ballista's commercial and strategy practice, and conducts the commercial and governance track of our due diligence service. He is available for fractional and interim CEO, CCO, and commercial director engagements.
Lu is one of the few people in the UK who is both an active AI researcher at the academic frontier and a commercial practitioner with direct experience of taking AI research to market. He is an Associate Professor at Northumbria University, where he leads cross-disciplinary research on the application of AI in energy systems and materials — a Chartered Engineer with over 15 years of global experience across North America, Asia, and Europe.
Research Depth
Lu's research spans smart grids, battery technology, hydrogen production, fuel cells, and sustainable energy storage — areas central to the energy transition and increasingly to the commercial AI opportunity in the energy sector. He has published over 70 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences, with a Google Scholar citation count exceeding 2,100.
Commercialisation Experience
Lu served as Chief Scientist of Continuous Power, a battery spin-out company developed through the Innovate UK ICURe Programme. He was the principal scientific advisor on the project and has been principal investigator on multiple industry-funded research collaborations.
At Ballista
Lu provides the academic and technical depth underpinning Ballista's AI strategy and CTO-on-Demand services. His knowledge is current — he is working at the frontier of AI and energy research today, which informs everything Ballista advises on in those sectors.
Anthony is a senior technology executive with broad experience building and managing technology platforms for complex, high-transaction businesses. Most recently he served as Head of Technology at Aston Barclay, the UK's leading independent vehicle remarketing business, managing the company's technology infrastructure and digital platform through a period of significant commercial development.
Transaction Experience
Anthony led the technology function through Aston Barclay's acquisition by BCA (Constellation Automotive Group, Europe's largest automotive vertical), navigating integration planning, platform assessment, data governance, and the technical due diligence process from the target company's side.
Platform & Architecture
Anthony brings a practitioner's perspective to technology architecture decisions. He has managed the real tensions between commercial urgency, technical debt, data infrastructure, and team capacity that define the experience of a technology leader in a growth business.
At Ballista
Anthony leads Ballista's technical due diligence practice and is available for fractional CTO and Head of Technology engagements, particularly for businesses managing technology through a transaction or transformation programme.
The right team for the right challenge.
We are selective about the engagements we take on. That means when we commit, we commit fully.
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