Management Team

Richard ("Ric") Piper (Chairman)
Ric read Economics at Cambridge University and then qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1977. He held senior finance roles in ICI, Citicorp and Logica, becoming Finance Director of Logica UK in 1990.

He was Group Finance Director of WS Atkins from 1993 to 2002, being closely involved in its successful London Stock Exchange flotation. He was Senior Independent Director of Synstar from 1999 to 2004. Since 2003 he has been involved at board level and has advised on the growth and development of several companies, including various listings on AIM.

He is currently Chairman of Granby Oil & Gas and a non-executive director of both Matchtech Group and SGL Vietnam Development, all three of which are admitted to trading on AIM, and Chairman and non-executive director of a number of privately owned businesses.

John Kingsford (Operations Director)
John spent 26 years at Comex, starting as a commercial diver and ending up as Managing Director for survey, deepwater exploration and cargo recovery. This included locating wrecks in water depths from 300-3,600m in conjunction with many international governmental bodies.

John has worked for many of the major oil and gas companies and has commissioned a wide range of vessels and equipment, with significant front-line management responsibility. Over the years, he has pushed the boundaries for locating and recovering wrecks.

David Charters (Non-Executive Director)
David read Modern Languages at Cambridge University and the University of Freiburg. He served in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1983 - 88, at both the UK Permanent Representation to the EU and the Embassy to Belgium. In 1988 he joined SG Warburg Securities and worked on some of the largest UK and international share sales and privatisations.

He moved to Deutsche Bank in 1988 as Managing Director in Equity Capital Markets, and in 2000 left the City to pursue a variety of other interests. He is a partner in the investment banking firm Partner Capital, chairman of Vostok Mining Ltd, a privately held gold mining company with operations in Kazakhstan and Russia, and in addition sits on a number of other private company boards as Chairman or non-executive director.

Edward Cox (Chief Financial Officer)
Qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1975 and MBA graduate 2001 (Manchester Business School/University of Wales). A specialist in the start up and SME arena, Edward has held a number of senior roles including Chief Executive and Finance Director in a range of unquoted companies encompassing international commodity trading (hard and soft), media (TV, audio and publishing) agriculture and bio tech.

Sir Tim McClement (Non-Executive Director)
Appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director on 19 July 2007. Assisting John Kingsford, the Operations Director, Tim oversees the Group's research, survey and salvage operations in a non-executive capacity. He is also the inaugural Chair of the Health Safety & Environment ('HSE') Committe.

For two years, until his retirement from the Royal Navy in December 2006, Tim was Deputy Commander-in-Chief Fleet, where he was responsible for delivering a £2.1 billion annual budget, with assets of £17 billion and employing 30,000 people.Tim joined the Royal Navy in 1971, and during his 35 years' service had five commands: two submarines, two frigates and a Naval Task Group. In 1996 he was an inaugural member of the Permanent Joint HQ, where he was responsible for delivering the UK's global military contingency plans. Tim was promoted to the rank of Admiral in 2001, and served as the Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff, which included being a member of the Admiralty Board.

Since leaving the Royal Navy he has worked as an independent consultant, delivering training in strategic planning, risk management, as well as senior executive leadership, management tuition and mentoring. In August 2007 Tim was appointed as the Managing Director of Flagship Superyacht Academy, which has been created to meet the demands for well-trained Superyacht crew.

Karen Wyatt (Non-Executive Director)
Karen qualified as a Chartered accountant in 1984 with Hayes Allen. In 1990 she set up her own chartered accountancy practice, Wyatts, specialising in small and medium size enterprises and management consultancy. Karen has wide experience of many different businesses.

Karen has a beneficial interest in Fulham Management Limited which is SubSea's Company Secretary. Karen is a partner in Wyatts Chartered Accountants which provides accounting and payroll services to the Company.