Team
Three founding directors
The CIC has three founding directors. All three work on projects, and none is a non-executive director. Between them they have several decades of experience in software development, hosting and infrastructure, cyber security, business continuity, compliance and training. Together they cover finding projects, building systems and handing them over, and there is no management layer between the directors and the project work.
| Director | Focus |
|---|---|
| Allen Coombs Director — Engineering |
Engineer and software developer with thirty years of experience. Founding Director of the National Videogame Museum, overseeing a mechanical and technical build during a period of institutional change. Previously ran the technical department, then Special Projects, at Confetti Media Group. At the CIC: leads on system design, works on delivery, and works with public bodies and community groups to establish what a system needs to do. Also covers projects that combine software, hardware and connections between existing systems. |
| Jae Forrester Director — Compliance and Training |
Co-founder of Custodia Continuity. At the CIC: leads on training clients’ staff, on working processes, and on explaining technical matters to non-technical colleagues. Assesses how a proposed system is likely to be received within a client organisation, and whether it is likely to cause new problems. Also responsible for the CIC’s compliance, governance and documentation. |
| Chris Tebb Director — Technical and Security |
Founder of Sugar Cube, which has provided bespoke software development, hosting and managed support for twenty-five years. Co-founder and technical and security director of Custodia Continuity. At the CIC: technical lead and responsible for security on every project. Also works with clients to decide what should be built, including telling a client when software is not the right answer and a paper form or a change of process would do the job. Works with engineering teams and with non-technical managers such as human resources directors. |
The directors’ areas of work overlap. Significant decisions are made by at least two of them. In an organisation of this size this is the main quality check, and it means work can continue if one director is unavailable. Compliance and security are each the responsibility of a director, and both are covered on every project from the first meeting with the client onwards.
Detailed individual bios are on the public site at website / Directors.
The associate network
We also work with associates: software developers, hardware engineers, data scientists, user experience researchers, compliance specialists, clinical safety officers, legal advisors, and specialists in particular sectors. Associates are engaged for individual projects against agreed deliverables. They are not employees and are not paid a retainer.
This lets us bring specialist skills into a project without employing those specialists full-time, and means that spending on associates rises and falls with the amount of project work.
How associates engage
- Scope, deliverables, timescales, and rate agreed before work begins.
- Intellectual property assigned to the CIC and then to the client, in all cases.
- Confidentiality covering client information, project detail, and CIC operational information.
- Background checks where projects involve personal data, health data, or government data; security clearance where required.
- Engagement terms designed to fall outside the off-payroll working rules (known as IR35) where the working practices support that; where they do not, the extra cost is reflected in the agreed rate.
- Associates carry their own professional indemnity insurance; the CIC’s professional indemnity insurance covers the project as a whole.
Building the network
We find associates through the directors’ existing contacts, professional communities and referrals. Every associate is someone a director or an existing associate knows and is willing to recommend.
The Phase One target is a network of at least ten active associates spanning software, hardware, data, user experience design, and at least one regulated-industry specialism. The longer-term target is twenty or more, with deeper coverage across regulated domains and specialist compliance roles.
Hiring
When hiring, we assess whether a candidate can define a problem, build working software within a project’s constraints, and hand it over to the person who will run it. We give this more weight than formal qualifications.
Our working arrangements are:
- Flexible working hours and locations, with staff assessed on the work they deliver.
- Work set out in written briefs and documentation, with meetings arranged in advance.
- Projects with an agreed start date, end date and deliverable.
- Staff are expected to raise problems and disagreements directly.
Growth
In Phase Two the CIC is funded by project fees, and we do not plan a second round of outside investment. The three directors continue to run the CIC. Further engineers are employed when there is confirmed work for them, and new associates are added through referrals or after they have worked with us successfully on a project. We intend the CIC to stay small and to be led by people who do the project work.