• Managing Director

Mike Penman has nearly 40 years’ experience in managing toxicology, regulatory affairs and information technology within major companies (ICI and ExxonMobil), associated trade associations and, since 2007, Penman Consulting.

He has experimental background, initially working on alternatives to long term cancer testing at the ICI Central Toxicology Laboratory in the UK. Later he moved to provide toxicological and regulatory information services to the whole ICI Group, and then to specific businesses on Teesside. During this time he was awarded a UK civil honour for “Services to Environmental Safety”. For nearly 10 years Mike worked for ExxonMobil in the US and Belgium as Senior Toxicology Adviser for Europe, and later as the Technical REACH / GHS Implementation Manager. During this time he worked on the ECETOC TRA exposure model, IUCLID and chaired the REACH Implementation Project responsible for the initial EU guidance on Information Requirements.

• Principal Developer

Borja studied Computer Engineering at Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain). He completed the last year of his degree and the Final Project at the University of Pisa (Italy).

He is a proficient programmer in Java and C++ with experience in all the stages of the software development life-cycle.

Previously, Borja worked as a programmer analyst for communication and audiovisual companies. He has worked as the support engineer for integrated development editors as Delphi or C++ Builder. Within Penman Consulting he works as a software developer and quality engineer of Active Steward™.

Borja was born in Spain and joined Penman Consulting/Active Steward™ 2016.

• Principal Software Developer

Ross graduated from the University of Lancaster with a first-class honours degree in Computer Science, alongside a gold Lancaster Award, recognising outstanding extra-curricular work.

After exploring solutions for energy optimisation in smart cities, he became an Oracle certified programmer, working with large e-commerce clients, before joining Active Steward™ in 2018. His role involves maintaining and extending code written in Java, JSP, JavaScript, CSS and associated frameworks.

Ross loves the outdoors and travel; he previously volunteered as a park ranger and hopes to continue completing annual ‘Tough Mudder’ events.

• Senior Software Developer

Richard earned a BSc (Hons) degree from the University of the West of England, Bristol, in Computing for Real-Time Systems.  He spent the Industrial Placement Year at the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in Reading, UK.Richard is an experienced software developer, specialising in Object Orientated Design and Coding.  Previously he has worked for companies with a technological or scientific focus.  Since November 2017, he has worked as a Software Developer on Active Steward™, where he maintains and extends code written in Java, JSP, JavaScript and CSS.

• Java Developer

Matt Cunliffe has joined the Active Steward™ team with a wealth of experience as a Senior Java Developer, a role he has excelled in since 2008. Most recently, he has contributed to projects spanning planes, trains, and automobiles, delivering solutions for border control systems, National Rail modernisation, and online private hire insurance. With a strong interest in technology, he has also developed AI-driven insurance price optimisation tools.

Passionate about building robust, scalable systems, Matthew thrives on collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to bring innovative ideas to life.

When he’s not writing code, you’ll most likely find him hurtling down a mountain on skis, ideally staying upright.

• Java Developer

Jonathan joined Penman Consulting in 2025 as a Java Developer within the Technology & Product team, contributing to the ongoing development of the Active Steward™ platform. He brings over six years of experience designing and delivering scalable, cloud-native systems across the sports technology and GIS domains. His expertise includes Java, Spring Boot, AWS, and Terraform, with a focus on building reliable microservices and modernising infrastructure.

Before joining Penman Consulting, Jonathan held engineering roles at CreateFuture and Esri, where he developed distributed APIs, geospatial SDKs, and cloud-based services. He is an AWS Certified Developer – Associate and holds a PhD in Petroleum Geosciences from the University of Manchester.

• QA and Support Engineer

Rhianon graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Mathematics in 2014. After working briefly as a finance assistant, she joined Penman Consulting in 2015. Previous roles at Penman Consulting include Biomathematician, and Environmental Scientist.

She has a detailed understanding of REACH and joint submission group management, product stewardship and regulatory science i.e. environmental, exposure, toxicology, physchem, C&L and PBT.

Currently she works closely with the Active Steward™ team, testing new releases, supporting regulatory work, and providing training to internal staff. She has extensive knowledge of QA tools, a good understanding of software development lifecycle, and experience with Java/writing automated tests.

• Junior Developer

Lucy Timpson graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a degree in Mathematics in 2021. She joined Penman Consulting in 2022. Lucy works in the Active Steward team as junior developer, testing new releases and updating the Help Centre.

• IT Manager

Marsh has a Masters (MA) degree specialising in various aspects of computing, hypertext and literary textual analysis, and a postgraduate diploma in computing. He plans to complete his MSc (computing) in 2021.

Marsh began his career in Health, Safety and Environmental management in the nuclear industry. He holds the NEBOSH National Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety, and NVQ 3 Advice and Guidance.

Later he became a CEDR-accredited mediator as part of an award-winning team, focussing on SHE and ITIP (Information Technology Intellectual Property) mediation for, among others, the U.K domain name registry Nominet and the County Courts.

Before coming to Penman Consulting Marsh worked for the Open University, Europe’s largest university, in a team providing Higher Education for students in prisons and secure hospitals.

Professional body memberships: Tech IOSH, MISTC, MIIRSM, MBCS

• Regulatory Affairs Manager

James graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a First-Class Honours degree in Biomedical Science.

He is a member of the Product Stewardship and Regulatory Affairs (PRSA) team and has been working with Penman Consulting since August 2016.

James’ main responsibilities include overseeing Penman Consulting’s Only Representative services and consulting on REACH and Product Stewardship and Regulatory Affairs queries.

Since joining the company, he has gained additional experience in the creation of Safety Data Sheets, SIEF management and the use of IUCLID.

• Senior Linux Engineer

David joined Active Steward in November 2022 as an Assistant Linux Administrator.

He is a qualified Red Hat Certified Engineer for Linux and Microsoft Certified Systems Associate for Windows Server with a background in both Windows Domain Management and Linux Systems Administration.

He has spent the last 12 years working at the University of Oxford and Jisc, the UK’s National Research and Education Network (NREN) provider – managing various physical and virtual infrastructure systems with a strong focus on IT Security, automation and infrastructure as code.

Away from the office he enjoys reading, exploring the wilderness with his family and playing various games with boards, cards and computers