Our Team
Tim Thomas
Tim Thomas is a former asset management executive with 15 years of experience in the City of London as Head of Equity investments at Aviva Investors and Investec Asset Management. Subsequently, he was a management consultant at McKinsey, advising financial institutions. Most recently, he has been involved with advising the UK NHS. Tim has degrees in Theoretical Physics from University of Cambridge and King’s College, London and holds an MBA from INSEAD, France.
Robert Cumming
Robert Cumming is a former investment banker with over 15 years’ experience in the City of London as an investment analyst for UBS and Dresdner Kleinwort. Robert has degrees in Physics from University of Cambridge and a degree in law from City University, London after which he qualified as a Barrister. Robert is also an experienced programmer in C++, Python, and the emerging quantum SDKs.
Darren Banfield
Darren Banfield is a former derivatives trader and partner at the asset manager CQS, with over 20 years’ experience in different finance roles, and is a qualified chartered accountant. Darren holds two doctorates: a DPhil in pure Mathematics from Oxford University, and a PhD in quantum error correction from Royal Holloway, University of London. Darren also holds a BA from Oxford University and an MSc from Royal Holloway, University of London.
Puya Mirkarimi
Puya holds a PhD in quantum optimisation and a master’s degree in Physics from Durham University. He has prior experience as a software engineer at BT Group and the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering. Puya is proficient in a variety of programming languages and has worked extensively with leading quantum software frameworks.
Ethan Davies
Ethan is currently pursuing a PhD in Blind Quantum Computation at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research has earned awards for applying quantum algorithms to enhance the resilience of telecommunication networks. Ethan holds both BA and MMath degrees in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.
David Headley
David is a postdoctoral researcher at Newcastle University alongside his position at AQC, working on the use of gate-based and continuous-time quantum computers to solve combinatorial optimisation problems. Prior to his current roles, David obtained his PhD as an industrial PhD student at Mercedes-Benz AG and holds an MPhys in theoretical physics from Durham University.