Sean Edwards
Chief Executive Officer
Sean has a degree in International Business Management from the University of Birmingham which included a year studying International Business and Finance at EDHEC Business School in Nice, France.
Sean has spent the previous 10 years working in a variety of International Trade and Finance roles in London which included a secondment to Tokyo for four months. Most recently Sean worked for Santander Corporate Bank as a Director within their International banking team focused on supporting UK manufacturing businesses.
Sean joined Silvertel as Chief Operating Officer in February 2021 and his primary focus was managing the supply chain to support the company’s significant growth, and leadership of the management team. Sean stepped up to the CEO position in August 2023.
Steve Edwards
Founder & Chairman
Steve has a 1st Class honors degree in Electronics from Reading University. He started his career with AB Electronics and then moved to Mitel Semiconductor. Here he was quickly promoted from Senior Engineer to Product Development Manager and then Head of R&D, where Steve ran Mitel’s team of over 20 design, product and test engineers.
Steve was instrumental in starting Silvertel with 2 Mitel colleagues when he recognized an opportunity to develop high quality, low cost electronic modules for the worldwide telecoms industry. Steve has been the key figure in driving Silvertel’s growth over the last 2 decades.
His excellent grasp of international business and finance has seen him direct the company to its current position as a significant exporter. Steve has set the operating standards on which the company was founded and still operates.
Laura Steele FCCA
Finance Director
Laura has a degree in Business from Cardiff University. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2008 and in 2013 became a fellow member which is the highest achievement awarded to ACCA members.
Laura completed 13 years in private practice with 2 companies before moving into industry as Finance Director where she worked for a large fast-paced Technology company for 6 years. She was instrumental in building and overseeing all the key financial controls, such as strong internal controls, management accounts, budgets, forecasts and product profit margins.
Laura has developed a strong understanding and expertise in finance and other aspects of running a successful business. Laura joined Silvertel in 2024 and is working with the rest of the team to achieve our future growth.
Outside of work Laura enjoys travelling and swimming. She has 4 children who keep her busy.
Mike Lewis
Sales & Marketing Director
With a HND in Electronics, Mike has over 30 years of product development experience, notably occupying both technical and commercial management roles at Mitel Semiconductor (now Microsemi). Mike had previously played a key role in developing Mitel’s Telecom Module product line before moving into technical management within the Network Timing & Synchronisation business unit. More recently he was Technical Director for a German-owned company developing electrical heating and cooling products for a wide variety of industrial applications.
Chris Binnie
Sales & Marketing Director
Chris has a degree in Electronics from Swansea University. He started as a project engineer with EADS before moving into product marketing with Mitel Semiconductor. Chris joined Silvertel in 1999 to head the marketing department and was responsible for much of the company’s early sales success particularly in the USA. In 2012 Chris relocated to the USA, becoming Sales Director to eastern and central North America for Silvertel’s US distributor. Chris returned to the UK in 2016 and has been Head of Sales at ASL and recently Director of Distribution Sales, EMEA for Rochester Electronics, a major US corporation.
Operational Management Team
Ian Richards
Design Manager
HNC Electronics, 27 years’ experience at Hitachi and Thomson Digital TV design centre. Ian joined Silvertel in 2006 and is an expert in power design which includes digital programming of microprocessors as well as analog electronics and RF. As well as heading up the design team Ian is the company’s lead designer and is responsible for a significant proportion of our PoE product range. Ian also ensures his team provides first class applications support to our customers.
Andrew Pugh
Quality Manager
BTEC plus City & Guilds in Engineering. Andrew has been Silvertel’s Quality Manager for the last 11 years. Andrew has extensive manufacturing and quality engineering experience with Thomson Broadband, Grundig and Race Electronics. Andrew has been instrumental in implementing and enforcing most of Silvertel’s quality systems and controls. This has resulted in exceptionally low customer returns down at ppm levels.
Eugen Albu
Test Manager
Eugen has a Master’s degree in automation and computers and has 30+ years of experience with Timteh Electronics, Rada Electronics and British Airways. He joined Silvertel in 2020 and is an expert in equipment test design using microcontrollers, and programming as C++, Embedded C, Labvindows CVI, Python. He uses these skills to design and develop the test equipment that is used by our subcontractors to test, characterise, and verify our products.
Emma Jones
Finance and Operations Manager
Degree in English from Swansea University plus ONC in Business Administration. Emma is the company’s longest serving employee, joining in 1999. Previously she was a buyer in Quantum Electronics. She heads up our Customer Service team who book and schedule all customer orders. She is also responsible for placing and scheduling all our production orders with subcontractors. Emma is also Silvertel’s Financial Controller.