Lucid Staff – all experts in their fields

The most important factors in training are the skills and experience of the trainer. At Lucid, all of our trainers are very highly qualified experts within fibre optics, communications cabling and their specialist fields, with many years of industry experience. They are reliable, friendly and patient. Training professionals who provide not only the best possible training, but also technical support that is second to none!

Furthermore, our trainers are long-term members of staff, involved in developing and updating “their” courses. They are not just contract trainers who come in to go through the motions, although we now have the flexibility of some trainers we use on a contract basis as their situation and requirements changed from previously working full-time for us. Our staff are rightly proud of the quality of training they deliver as expert Lucid trainers.

In total our staff have a combined experience of communications cabling (both fibre optic and copper) of over 150 years, each bringing their extra special skill-sets with them. Topics such as performing field dispersion measurements may seem relatively new to many fibre test engineers, but our trainers were involved in field Polarisation Mode Dispersion measurements and report writing in 1995, and Chromatic Dispersion measurements some years before this.

John Colton, BSc (Hons):
Technical Director

John’s background is in optical fibre instrumentation, measurements, calibration & troubleshooting. He has worked with most fibre measurement instruments over the years, and is an expert on OTDR, PMD and chromatic dispersion measurements, not to mention a few less well known fibre measurements!

John is also a director of the Fibreoptic Industry Association (FIA) with responsibility for training and joint responsibility for qualifications. He is an invited member of the National Advisory Council for ICT, and a member of the Telecommunications Sector Action Group (TSAG) organised by e-skills. John is currently working more on skills and industry qualifications for various organisations, primarily the FIA, City & Guilds and the OCN.

Recently John was retained as an expert witness in a major telecoms dispute that has now been successfully resolved. He is currently retained as an Examiner/Moderator by City and Guilds for the development of their 3667, 3666, 3662 and 3663 programmes. John has also assisted in the development of several awards, at different levels, through the Open Awards and Open College Network (OCN), for both the cabling industry and the ICT industry.

Alistair McMeekin, BSc(Hons): Technical Trainer

Alistair came into fibre optics from a background in IT cabling and datacoms networking. From very early in his career Alistair has been involved in training, gaining experience with a wide variety of training development and delivery including both conventional and online training materials. Alistair first started working as a specialist fibre optics trainer in 1998, and has been responsible for course development and delivery in both fibre optics and copper communicationss cabling for several employers, gaining a wide ranging experience of different industry sectors. Alistair has worked on course development and qualifications in a wide range of fibre optics fields, but in particular was responsible for developing one of the first fibre optics training courses aimed at the umbilical cable industry with specialist subsea cables.

William Thompson, BSc (Hons): Technical Trainer

William has an extensive background in training worldwide, and is the lead trainer on several of our programmes aimed at getting trainees from challenging backgrounds into work as fibre installers.  William has also taken on our duct installation courses, and is working with Annette on the development of our port-folio based qualifications.

Annette Colton, MSc, PhD: Director, Internal Verifier

Annette is involved in the development of our advanced courses and consultancy work. Her Master’s degree is from the Danish Technical University where she won several scholarships. Her PhD thesis was on work carried out at the prestigious European JET Joint Undertaking project near Oxford, on secondment from Risø the Danish National Laboratory.

Annettes background is in experimental plasma physics, radiation transfer, and Earth observation by satellites for environmental monitoring. She has authored several peer-reviewed journal and conference papers on these subjects, much of this work having involved mathematical and computer modelling. These talents have been applied to several of Lucid’s client consultancy projects involving the mathematical modelling of optical and fibre optic problems, as well as laser and LED safety where Annette has been working with Geoff for many years.

In addition, Annette has taken on the Internal Verifier role for both Open Awards and City & Guilds, and most recently she been developing our new NVQ style qualifications and our Open Awards qualification scheme.

Steve Dobson: Senior Trainer.

Steve is responsible for our new copper courses, both structured cabling and telecoms, and also works on Lucid’s City & Guilds and optical fibre cable installation courses. Steve has been in the telecoms/cabling industry for over 28 years, in both installation, project planning and auditing for both copper & fibre optic networks.

In addition to his telecoms cabling background, Steve has developed several datacoms training courses and has considerable experience of copper datacoms cabling. For the last 8 years Steve has worked as a full time fibre optics, copper telecoms and structured cabling trainer.

Dave Gallivan: Technical Trainer

Dave has a very wide experience in the communications sector, having been responsible for overhead, underground, internal and external cable installation and testing both in UK and overseas. He has worked with both fibre and copper cables for both telecoms and datacoms applications and has carried out blown fibre installations.

Dave’s career has taken him from hands-on splicing and testing to supervisory, management and training roles, plus some technical sales work for a specialist product manufacturer before joining Lucid as a professional trainer. Having worked as a technical trainer prevously, it was nice to hear Dave express his surprise at the quality of the training Lucid deliver and the levels and range of equipment we have for each course. Working with Steve and Peter, Dave has already contributed significantly to the further development of our copper D-side courses.

Geoff Davies, Professor:
Senior Consultant.

Geoff started his career as a research scientist in ICI, working on the electrical properties of organic solids. He then moved to the University of Leeds, first as a physics lecturer, then reader and finally Professor of Polymer Science. His experimental interests include mechanical and electrical properties of polymers, side-chain liquid crystalline polymers for non-linear optic applications and ionically conductive polymers. He has also worked with laser-doppler velocimetry. At Lucid, Geoff is working on new training courses; consultancy projects; and forging closer links with universities.

Amongst his first work for Lucid was developing our LED safety training course together with other staff. This course was well-received by industry and has helped to highlight the emerging hazards with high-brightness LEDs. Geoff is an expert on many aspects of laser and LED safety, and wrote an article on LED safety and hazards for Photonics Spectra magazine. This article has been received many favourable comments and has been recommended by many people as a reference article on the subject of LED safety and hazards. Currently Geoff is mostly spending his time on laser safety issues, training and consultancy work, but has also spent some time on developing some of our electrical training courses.

Peter Rossall, Cert. Ed. (FE):
Internal Moderator, Internal Verifier.

Peter is one of our City & Guilds experts. Prior to joining Lucid, Peter was head of a national communications training centre for 10 years, and was closely involved in setting up the original City & Guilds fibre optics qualifications and course syllabus. Before turning to training full-time, Peter gained valuable experience installing cables and managing a wide range of installations around the world.

Peter has now retired, after a some very busy and hectic years at the beginning of Lucid. Peter has until recently acted as our internal moderator, for both City and Guilds and Open Awards, but has gradually handed this over to Annette, and must take some of the credit for the outstanding reports we get on our training centre from these respected awarding bodies. Additionally, Peter’s wide-ranging experience in the industry is a particularly valuable resource to us when we are developing new material or courses.

Mike Regan: BSc MSc CEng MIET, Certificated Laser Protection Adviser (LPA)

As a certificated Laser Protection Adviser (LPA), Mike is well qualified in laser safety and able to provide the required LPA expertise to medical and cosmetic clinics, including dental surgeries. Such clinics need to employ the services of a suitably qualified LPA if they are working with laser or intense pulsed light (IPL) treatment devices, and Mike has audited a large number of clinics in the past few years, gaining a reputation for providing a thorough and appropriate service. Mike is an established member of several UK and international standards committees, with the British Standards Institution (BSI) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). He is particularly active in the aesthetic / medical and fibre optics laser safety sectors. Mike holds the position of Chair to BSI Committee CH403 Aesthetic Surgery Services, and is also Secretary to the Association of Laser Safety Professionals

Peter Colton: Director.

After retiring from BNFL, where he was in charge of a world-class mass spectrometry laboratory, Peter took on a Lucid Directorship. In this quite different role, Peter is responsible for our new premises, as Architect, Clerk-of-Works, chief Plumber and Electrician! He also gets involved in any aspect of the business that requires planning or an extra pair of hands.

Denise: Hospitality Manager

Denise helps on a voluntary basis, and is responsible for arranging lunch and refreshments when we have courses at our training centre. These are responsibilities she takes very seriously as we attempt to ensure that every aspect of your time with us is as comfortable as possible. Also the one who remembers to water the plants and let the rest of us know when we have neglected them!

This could be you?

Interested in a career with Lucid? If so then visit our careers page to see current openings or send us a CV to put on record for any openings we may have in the near future.