About Aspect Scientific

Phil Emsley - Managing Director

Brief working history

Phil Emsley has over 18 years of experience in the service and repair of medical diagnostic instrumentation, within both Service Centre (Workshop) and Field Service based roles as an Engineer. In addition Phil has many years’ experience within Service Centre management and Field Service Management roles and prior to starting Aspect Scientific Phil was the Service Manager for Alere Ltd managing nationwide field service activities provided by the Alere Technical Support team. Over the years he has gained experience in providing direct customer support and managing technical services being provided for a huge range of instrumentation, across many different laboratory disciplines.

Fun Fact

When he’s not at work Phil enjoys spending time with his family, especially his nieces and nephew. He also likes to spend time working on classic car restoration projects and is the proud owner of a DeLorean and a Lotus Carlton. When he’s not working on his own cars, Phil enjoys going to motoring / classic car shows and events. He loves listening to music, especially progressive rock and metal and has been playing the drums for the past 8 years on and off when time allows! He enjoys winding down by going for long walks in the countryside.

Dave Wilkinson - Operations Director

Brief working history

David Wilkinson began his career in the Medical Diagnostic Industry in 1999 as an apprentice Service Engineer while studying Electronics at Mid Kent College. Over the last 18 years he has accumulated a wealth of customer support experience and worked on a vast range of instrumentation which cover many different laboratory disciplines. Previous to becoming Operations Director at Aspect Scientific, David spent 9 years with Alere Ltd. originally as a Field Service Engineer and later being promoted to Senior Service Engineer. In more recent years his role has allowed him to gain a huge amount of team management and coordination skills.

Fun Fact

When he’s not at work, David is an all-round music lover, and enjoys listening to a wide variety of musical styles and artists. When not taking on vocal and guitar duties with a few likeminded colleagues, he can often be found perfecting his ever growing list of celebrity impersonations! David loves spending time with his family – the recent four legged addition means that they are all now keen countryside ramblers.

Andrea Horridge - Technical Support and Quality Manager

Brief working history

Andrea Horridge was a Biomedical Scientist in an NHS Microbiology Laboratory for 13 years and rotated around all aspects of routine bacteriology, serology, mycology and parasitology.

In 2006 she moved on to a Technical Support Specialist role at Bio-Stat Diagnostic Systems / Inverness Medical UK / Alere Ltd. Andrea’s role involved troubleshooting and helping users of the lab instruments that she had experience with and indulged her passion for helping others. Over the years Andrea’s experience of a wide range of laboratory and Point Of Care instruments used in various settings within healthcare diagnostics increased. Andrea’s role developed to Technical Support Team Leader, where she helped to train and mentor the members of the wider team. She joined Aspect Scientific in 2015 to head up the Telephone Technical Support of the Dynex Technologies ELISA Automation systems, this has since extended to other instrumentation also. Andrea has taken an interest in the Quality Management systems of the business and in doing so ensured that Aspect Scientific were certified to ISO9001 within the first year of business.

Fun Fact

When she’s not at work, Andrea enjoys keeping fit by going to a boot camp class once a week and occasionally getting involved with local Park Runs, which she claims help her to feel less guilty about her longstanding Cream Egg addiction. She loves going to the movies with her son Lucas (she’s secretly addicted to good animated films involving Minions, Penguins or Lego!) and consuming as much popcorn as possible while she’s there. Andrea is a keen skier and she and her family try to go skiing once a year, mainly to enjoy the Glühwein/Vin Chaud!. Andrea’s claim to fame is that she appears 3 times on  Peter Kay’s ‘Live at the Albert Halls’ performance!

Nigel Harrison - Field Service Engineer

Brief working history

Nigel Harrison has spent the last 26 years in Medical Engineering and Technical Service having worked for companies such as Motorola, Gambro Lundia, Alere Ltd and Eppendorf. Nigel joined Aspect Scientific in early 2016 as a Field Service Engineer, although he has worked with other members of the team for many years previously at Alere.

Fun Fact

When he’s not at work, you can find Nigel half way up a mountain in North Wales, freezing cold and photographing front line fighter aircraft flying through the valleys below.

Ian Morton - Field Service Engineer

Brief working history

Ian Morton served in the Army for 23 years as a Weapons Systems Engineer with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. During this time he was deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Kuwait where his daily duties involved repairing and setting up weapons systems involved within the British Army. Ian was also involved in the Army Weapon Development Branch whereby he would go and train and work in collaboration with the civilian weapon systems companies to develop defence systems.

Once retired from the Army Ian joined Alere Ltd as the Workshop Supervisor where he was responsible for the pre-delivery inspection, setup and testing of all Alere laboratory and Point Of Care instruments and the Workshop repair processes of laboratory instruments.  Ian joined Aspect Scientific in 2017 as a Service Engineer, where he has a dual role within both the Service Centre and on-site field service in the Northwest.

Fun Fact

Ian was a very keen sportsman and represented the Army in both Rugby and Athletics, he still keeps himself fit and can be found at the gym every morning before work.

Archie Valdez - Field Service Engineer

Brief working history

Fun Fact

Mike Lower - Field Service Engineer

Brief working history

Fun Fact

Rui Oliveira - Field Service Engineer

Brief working history

Rui Oliveira previously graduated from the Portuguese Air Force Academy with an electrical/electronics degree.

He has 25 years’ experience within medical diagnostics, providing technical support and service on biochemistry, immunology, HPLC, ESR, Haematology and Urine analysers with companies such as Sysmex and Beckman Coulter.  Rui joined Aspect Scientific in February 2019 as a Service Engineer covering Northwest England.

Fun Fact

When he is not at work, Rui loves spending time with his family, watching and playing sport, and also travelling and reading.

Scott Sawicz - Field Service Engineer

Brief working history

Scott Sawicz has 27 years’ experience within the reprographics industry working for companies such as Toshiba and Kyocera as a Field Service Engineer. The 6 years previous to starting at Aspect Scientific were spent as a Senior Engineer, providing support to colleagues and liaising with customers, and project management on major installations. Scott has also trained in management and leadership skills.

Fun Fact

In his spare time Scott likes to travel with his partner, and is a keen darts player, “although definitely no Phil Taylor!”.

Chris Ford - Field Service Engineer

Brief working history

Chris Ford served his apprenticeship at GEC Marconi Avionics in the early 1980’s.  He became a Development Engineer working on advanced head up displays for fighter aircraft and night vision goggles for air and ground crew. Chris later moved into medical electronics and diagnostics as a Field Service Engineer looking after equipment across the UK, Europe & Scandinavia with specific experience in robotic liquid handling and flow cytometry.

Fun Fact

When he’s not at work, Chris enjoys spending time with his wife, daughters, and grandson. He can often be found out walking with his dog, enjoying the countryside and coast near his holiday home in Kent. He has an interest in aviation, having learnt to fly light aircraft when he was younger. Chris also has a keen interest in local & military history, and enjoys a nice pint of real ale in his local pubs in Kent.

Liz Emsley - Customer Service Administrator

Brief working history

Liz Emsley has an Early Years degree in child psychology and sociology, and started her career in the Early Years/Education sector. She decided to take on a quieter career path(!) and moved into an Office Administration role in 2014. Her career progressed on to a role in the busy Contracts/Tenders/Office Support Team for a diagnostics company which involved call handling, dealing with customer enquiries, contract administration and sales team support tasks. Liz then moved to Aspect Scientific in April 2015 to take on the role of Customer Service Administrator.

Fun Fact

When she’s not at work, Liz spends most of her free time (and money!) on her beautiful Connemara horse Finn and loves taking him for rides out. Liz loves reading, her favourite authors being Philip Pullman and George R.R. Martin. Her claim to fame is that when she was 7 years old she met Robbie Williams at a meet and greet, but was too terrified to speak to him.

Lizzie Ennis - Technical Support Specialist

Brief working history

Lizzie studied Microbiology with Immunology at the University of Leeds, followed by Liverpool John Moores University to study Biomedical Science, graduating in 2015. After graduating she joined QIAGEN, working within the Next Generation Sequencing department as a Technical Assistant, developing diagnostic assays as well as instrument and chemistry validation. After progressing to Senior Technical Assistant, she became involved with improvement processes, which included developing continuous improvement strategies for onboarding, training and health and safety. Lizzie gained her Yellow Belt LEAN process management qualification and also has an interest in health and safety and is heading up Health and Safety coordination at Aspect Scientific. Lizzie joined Aspect Scientific in September 2019 as a Technical Support Specialist, providing first line instrumentation technical support to our customers.

Fun Fact

Outside of work, Lizzie loves to go on adventures with her son, visiting new places and countries. Weekends are spent visiting castles and national trust properties, often taking her nephew along with them. During rare child free time, Lizzie enjoys seeing friends, enjoying spa days, afternoon teas and shopping.

Joanne Smith - Customer Services Administrator

Brief working history

Jo has joined the Aspect Scientific team after working in both legal administration and financial roles for many years. Jo has varied experience in office administration, data handling and customer services and now assists with general customer enquiries, service administration and scheduling, record keeping and order processing.

Fun Fact

In Jo’s spare time she enjoys arts and crafts, upcycling furniture and gardening during the summer months.

David Lawrence - Service Coordinator

Brief working history

David has spent the last 30 years working in Administration & Field Service Co-ordination. Primarily for various divisions of Siemens in the UK, allocating field service resources throughout the UK & worldwide for Automation & Drives, PLC’s, Gas Turbines & Water Technologies instruments. Having spent over 20 years at Siemens David moved onto Evoqua Water Technologies until the company head office relocated to Sevenoaks in Kent.  From there David moved onto projects with a smaller company in the domestic waste water pumping industry & more recently in the construction equipment arena with the UK dealer for Volvo Construction Equipment.

Throughout his working career in customer service & field service coordination David has gained an excellent working knowledge of procedures & processes, systems & ways of working.

Fun Fact

David has been happily married for 27 years, and has 4 daughters. He loves spending time with his family and is an avid Liverpool FC fan. When he has time to himself he is a keen reader, and loves nothing better than escaping into good crime fiction – getting through around three books a month has resulted in owning enough books for a small library!

Steve Pollitt - Service Centre Engineer

Brief working history

Steve Pollitt started his career working for Sharp Manufacturing as a Trainee Technician, working there for many years across several different roles and departments. Steve has over 25 years of experience as an Engineer repairing electronic equipment, primarily in Service Centre based roles within the Precision Manufacturing, Telecommunications/Data-Communications and IT Service sectors. In his previous role he was heavily involved in the successful set up of a brand new repair facility within a Global IT Services & Telecommunications company.

Fun Fact

Steve enjoys spending time outdoors, walking in the countryside with his wife, son and Siberian Husky. He loves listening to music of all genres and has a keen interest in landscape photography, film editing and web & graphics design. Also when time allows, he enjoys flying RC drones and is aiming to acquire his Civil Aviation Authority license so he can fly them both commercially and responsibly.

Grace Williams - Graphic Designer/Marketing Support

Brief working history

Grace Linnell started her career in the world of diagnostics when she was hired to help Bio-Stat rebrand to Inverness Medical. She then continued her career progressing to Marketing Communications Specialist, providing graphic design and marketing support across the UK and Europe. Grace has over 10 years of experience across various different business sectors and joined the Aspect Scientific team in early 2016.

Fun Fact

When she’s not at work, Grace enjoys keeping fit – usually done with a combination of Body Pump classes, chasing around after her daughter Alana and going horse riding when she can find the time. Keeping fit ensures that she can take part in an annual Cancer Research ‘Pretty Muddy’ event, raising money for a charity that is very close to her heart. She is also a member of her local ladies cricket team – making history as the first ever ladies team of the club, who went on to win their league in the first season.

Tom Clarke - QA & RA Consultant

Brief working history

Tom Clarke has over 11 years of experience working in roles related to quality and regulatory compliance, predominantly in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors.  This has provided a depth of understanding of the requirements for compliance with industry specific regulations, as well as more broadly applicable international standards for quality, environmental and health & safety management.

Tom’s most recent role was as the Head of Quality and Assurance and Regulatory Compliance for the largest Toxicology testing provider in the UK.  More recently Tom started his consultancy company related to quality and regulatory compliance and works with companies across a broad range of industries.

Fun Fact

In his spare time Tom likes to keep active. He plays football 2-3 times a week (as much as his joints can handle!), plays golf when he can and goes mountain biking regularly at the weekends.  Tom loves going on holiday, but rather than lying on a beach he tries to incorporate activities such as skiing, wakeboarding, windsurfing and hiking into holidays to keep him occupied.