1602 GROUP - Key Persons
Adrian joined Solid State in 1985 from the gaming industry and is responsible for many of the designs over the years. He also manages the most challenging projects for us. Adrian is training as a Licensed Lay Minister and takes part in Sunday service in St Peter's in Brandon.
Alan, who sometimes goes by the name Billy, as we had a lot of Alans at the time, provides TLC to around 10,000 systems and their service techs. Alan joined us in 1995 and was originally based in the UK factory before moving to Alexandria in 2000. Between helping organ technicians through setting up our systems and making changes to the layouts, often on demand while the tech is on site, Alan programs the screens for the new touchscreen products like Organist Palette and Portal.
Ben joined us in 2022, with a broad background in organ building and a degree in Music (Organ Performance) from the University of Northern Iowa. As an organ builder, he is already very familiar with our systems and equipment, having previously installed it in a wide variety of instruments. Ben works with our customers to translate their needs and requirements into completed systems that combine the best of the art of organ building and technology.
Job Titles:
- Test Engineer and Designer
Choe joined us in 2018 to strengthen our technical team in the UK. As a musician and engineer she brings a great combination of skills to help us build better products. Chloe works with Adrian to final test our systems and provide UK customer support. Chloe is also busy designing a new range of intelligent controllers for the console and automating more of our small assembly testing.
Chris is an accomplished organist amd music director but also configures systems to customer specifications. As Director of Music at St. Paul's Methodist Church in Houston, Chris adds experience as a musician to check that the desires of the organ builder are fully realized in our systems as we build them to your specifications. A native of the United Kingdom, Chris was raised in the English Cathedral tradition as a boy chorister in Lichfield and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Magdalen College, Oxford. He came to the U.S. as Artist-in-Residence and later Director of Music at First United Methodist Church in Lubbock, Texas.
Debbie joined us in 2003 she is responsible for everything you get from us at sometime. Purchasing the parts, organising the assembly and shipments. Debbie is well known to our UK, Australian and South African customers and supports the US office. Managing the conflicting challenges of capacity, workload, staff, sub-contractors, customers and machines is all in a days work. At the same time Debbie gained a degree in Business from the Open University while working for us.
Job Titles:
- Chartered Mechanical Engineer
- PRESIDENT and SYSTEMS DESIGN
Duncan is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and met Philip while completing an aircraft engineering apprenticeship. After time as a recording engineer and project engineer for recording studio construction Duncan joined SSL in 1984 to customize mixing consoles. Later he moved to the Organ Division and purchased the company in 2002 together with Philip. After a few years running the factory in Brandon Duncan moved to the USA and now helps with customer service and project manages new product development. He also picked up an MBA on the way to add to the skills of running the firm.
Lisa joined us from high school when we made the Diode Coupling System and has hand soldered several million diodes let alone all the other parts. As our products have evolved she has added new skills but always kept the old ones because we still make the old stuff from time to time. Lisa works with our subcontractors to add the large or difficult parts after the robots have completed their work. Faster to reprogram than a CNC machine Lisa also makes short runs for urgent requirements or low volume needs.
Mark joined us in 1999, as an accomplished organ builder with a degree in Music from University of North Texas. Mark has guided our customers through specifying and installing our systems for many years. He recently moved back to Texas and so is now also available in the area for hands on support when requested. In addition, Mark has held organist/choir director positions in many churches since University.
Monika attended the WSB in Gorzow Wlkp Poland and joined us in 2018. An electronics company is filled with small parts many of which look exactly the same, we have hundreds of thousands and Monika keeps them tamed. Monika issues kits of parts to our in-house team and also for our partners who do our automated assembly work.
Natasha worked in a GM plant in Detroit as a project management consultant and advised on international business development for many high-profile clients with her own company. She played a significant role in the management of the company for over 25 years, and her charm and personality will be remembered by many customers who met her over the years.
Job Titles:
- COMPANY SECRETARY
- Charted Production Engineer
Philip is a Charted Production Engineer, he studied at Brunel University in London with Duncan and has run several companies in the automotive sector. He joined Duncan on the management team when they purchased the company from SSL in 2002 and works in the UK. Philip brings the organizational skills of high volume production to our small firm allowing us to produce high quality systems at competitive prices.
Tracey joined us from high school when we made the Diode Coupling System and has hand soldered several million diodes let alone all the other parts. As our products have evolved she has added new skills but always kept the old ones because we still make the old stuff from time to time. Tracey specialises in the MultiSystem Planes which is where the individual parts are asembled to the organ specification. Tracey works with our subcontractors to add the large or difficult parts after the robots have completed their work. Faster to reprogram than a CNC machine Tracey also makes short runs for urgent requirements or low volume needs.