Key People at Leysop

Basically, who you gonna call?

Dr. John M. Ley - Director and Founder

John began his career at the UKAEA, Aldermaston working on trials instrumentation. He won a UKAEA scholarship to take a Degree at the City University, London and qualified with a first in Electrical Engineering. He continued his studies to take a PhD on Electro-Optic Modulation at Imperial College and then returned to the City University as a lecturer, running a research group working on High Power Laser Systems and laser damage related topics. In 1968 he left to form his own company, Electro-Optic Developments Ltd. (EOD), which was eventually sold to Crossfield Electronics in 1985. In the following year he founded Leysop.

John has continuously worked on optical modulation systems and has published over twenty papers on the subject and has been a co-author for a book on optical deflection techniques. In 1999, he co-founded Advanced Optical Technology with Dr. Clive Ireland to develop novel, short pulse laser systems using proprietary Leysop Q-switching techniques.

John has now retired from full time work at Leysop but still maintains an active role in the business.

Phil Franks - Managing Director

Phil joined EOD in 1969 where he developed a particular expertise in the working of the soluble electro-optic crystals such as ADP and KDP. In the mid '80s, when EOD was sold to Crossfield Electronics, Phil transferred over with the business where he soon became Production Manager. Crossfields was subsequently sold to Fuji and Dupont in the late '80s and Phil left in 1990 to join the recently formed Leysop, later to become Leysop Ltd.

Phil looks after the day to day scheduling of work and oversees much of the processing where he maintains a very "hands on" approach.

Aleksandra Kazmierczak - Bookkeeper & Office Administrator

Alex has day to day responsibility for the accounts and purchasing processes. Please contact her for any enquiries regarding invoicing and purchasing matters.

Steve Payne - Technical Director

After graduating from the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1984 with a Degree in Pure and Applied Physics, Steve began work at the Marconi Research Centre (now part of BAE SYSTEMS) on r.f and microwave acoustic and acousto-optic devices for optical and electronic signal processing. From 1990, Steve ran the Microwave Acoustics activity at MRC, working on Bragg cells for both defence and civil applications, the latter including both ground based and orbital radio astronomy platforms.

In 2000, he joined Leysop to work on the development and marketing of new products at Leysop, as well as designing and managing the new website. For all your general technical and sales enquiries, please contact Steve.