The Team

Gautam Mitra and  Cormac Lucas bring their experience and enthusiasm to drive this company. The company also draws upon the research experience of CARISMA: The Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Optimisation Modelling Applications, Brunel University, and benefits from the R & D support and research results of their many researchers.  Members of the team are drawn from an international background and between them speak a wide variety of languages, thus enabling OptiRisk to interact with clients from across the world.

OptiRisk has received accreditation from the "Investor in People" Initiative; the company has also been assessed and approved by certified international systems to the quality administration systems, standards and guidelines of BS EN 9000 - 2000.

Gautam Mitra
BEE(JU), MSc (London), PhD (London), FBCS, FRSA, CMATH, FIMA
Chairman and Managing Director

Prof Mitra has over 30 years' of experience in Mathematical Programming Modelling, Operational Research, Computational Optimisation, Stochastic Programming and Risk Decisions in Finance. Prof Mitra is a Distinguished Professor at Brunel University where he holds a personal chair in Computational Optimisation. He has a PhD from London University and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Jadavpur University, India.

He has held academic positions at the Institute of Computer Science London University and subsequently at Brunel University, West London, where he was Head of Department of Mathematical Sciences and is now the Director of CARISMA - The Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Optimisation Modelling Applications.

Cormac Lucas
BSc, PhD (Brunel)
Technical Director

Dr Lucas has extensive knowledge of Mathematical programming modelling, Pre-analysis and reduction techniques in linear programs and representation of logical expressions as MIPs.  Dr Lucas has a PhD and BSc degree from Brunel University. He has held academic positions at CARISMA, Brunel University, London.

Dr Lucas has published extensively in the area of optimisation modelling. He has led a number of industry projects on scheduling and decision support.

Frank Ellison
BSc(Oxon), PhD (Brunel)
Principal Consultant

Dr Ellison is also a Senior Research Associate in CARISMA at Brunel University. He has a long-standing experience of developing large-scale optimisation software and has implemented some world-class systems such as APEX and UIMP. He works closely with algorithm researchers, PhD students, and provides support towards implementing complex optimisation algorithms. Dr Ellison has a first class honours degree BA(Oxon), from the Queen's College, University of Oxford.

Dr Ellison is the main architect of the solver tools FortMP, FortSP and FortQMIP, developed and marketed by OptiRisk.

Csaba Fabian
MSc, PhD (Eotvos Lorand)
Visiting Researcher

Dr Fabian has 15 years' experience in optimisation and decision support modelling; in particular he specialises in computational models for decision making under risk.

He has an MSc and PhD degrees from Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary.
He is senior researcher at Kecskemet College, Hungary; and lecturer at the Department of Operational Research, Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary. He supervises PhD researchers at Kecskemet College and is an Advisor to OptiRisk Systems. Dr Fabian speaks Hungarian and English.

Gajen Gajendra
Operations Manager

Mr Gajendra has over 15 years of experience in the day-to-day running of Service Industry organisations, including IT Companies. He oversees, coordinates, and administers a range of operational and administrative activities, which support the successful delivery of the company's products and services. He participates in administering the strategic and operational plans of the Company.

He is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

Tong (Max) Ji
MSc (Keele)
Modelling Developer

Tong Ji has work experience in both financial modelling and software development. He obtained an MSc with Distinction in Finance and IT from University of Keele. He is also a PhD candidate in CARISMA, Brunel University. His research focus is on optimal trading strategy and portfolio rebalancing. He is a CFA candidate and has already qualified to CFA level 1. Mr Ji speaks Chinese, English and some German

Leela Mitra
BA (London)
Quantitative Analyst

Ms Mitra joined OptiRisk System as a Modelling Consultant. She is also currently completing a PhD in Financial Mathematics at CARISMA, Brunel University. Ms Mitra received a 1st Class BA (Joint Honours) degree in Mathematics and Philosophy from King's College, London (University of London) in 1998.

Previously she worked as an Actuarial Consultant for Mercer HR, and Jardine Lloyd Thomson. The jobs involved financial modelling, consultancy skills and knowledge of company pension scheme legislation. She has completed the Diploma in Actuarial Techniques.

Her research area is focused on credit risk; modelling and management, in particular investigating and developing models which incorporate regime switching through hidden Markov chains.

Diana Roman
MSc, PhD (Brunel)
Research Associate

Dr Roman has a PhD in Models for Choice under Risk, from the School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, UK; MSc in Applied Statistics and Optimisation, and BSc in Mathematics, from University of Bucharest, Romania.

Dr Roman is now a faculty member of CARISMA, a lecturer in the school of The School of Information Systems, Computing & Mathematics at Brunel University.

Formerly she was a software developer at OptiRisk Systems (KTP associate in a partnership between OptiRisk systems and Brunel University), tasked with designing a software library of scenario generators to be integrated within the SPInE system.

Her work experience comprises several years as a teaching assistant in the Department of Mathematics, Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest. Her research interests include Risk decisions in finance (portfolio optimisation), financial risk measurement and modelling, scenario generation, stochastic programming. Dr Roman speaks Romanian and English.

Katharina Schwaiger
BSc (Brunel)
Quantitative Analyst

Ms Schwaiger graduated from Brunel University in 2005 with a first class honours degree in Financial Mathematics. Her research interests are mainly in the area of Financial Mathematics, in particular Asset and Liability Management, Liability Driven Investment as applied to Pension Funds. She is also currently completing a PhD at CARISMA, Brunel University. She is researching the use of Stochastic Programming and Dynamic Programming techniques applied to these classes of financial decision problems.

Her work experience includes internships in Applied Research, Equities and Asset Management at Metzler Investments and Metzler Asset Management Frankfurt, Germany, and sponsored research of the topic Liability Driven Investment at Insight Investments London.

Her computing skills include: (i) Optimisation Modelling and Solvers: AMPL, FortMP, Barra Systems; (ii) Mathematical and Statistical Modelling: Matlab, SPSS, SPlus; (iii) Data Feeds: Bloomberg and Datastream and basic knowledge in (iv) C++ and VB/VBA. Ms Schwaiger speaks fluent German, English and Arabic and has a good knowledge of French.

Xiaochen (Michael) Sun
BA, MSc (Hull)
Quantitative Analyst

Mr Sun joined OptiRisk in 2004 as a Research Analyst. He is also currently completing a PhD in Financial Mathematics with specialisation in copula methods in finance at CARISMA, Brunel University. He graduated from the University of Hull with an MSc in Mathematical Finance from 2003/04. He also holds a first class degree in Finance and Insurance from BTBU, P.R. China. His work experience includes an internship at China Life Insurance Group, P. R. China.

His research interest includes: dependence modelling with copulas and its applications in financial markets; time series modelling. He is a candidate for the FRM Certificate.

He speaks Chinese and English.

Christian Valente
MSc (Politecnico di Milano)
Senior Software Engineer

Mr Valente joined OptiRisk in 2005 as software engineer, coming from the field of Artificial Intelligence. He has participated in the development and maintenance of many of the company’s products. Along with Dr Lucas he is main responsible in holding workshops and training sessions, and he is the main technological advisor for external projects. He is the main designer and developer of SPInE, the OptiRisk modeling system for Stochastic Programming.

He is currently completing his PhD in Mathematics at Brunel University, and his main research interests are Stochastic Programming and parallel computing. He has a first class degree in Computer Science from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy and an MSc equivalent in Artificial Intelligence from the same institution.

Mr Valente speaks fluent Italian and English and has a good knowledge of German.

Julie Valentine
BA (UWI)
Marketing and PR Co-ordinator

Mrs Valentine is a long-standing member of staff and handles the promotions and PR of Company Products and services.

Victor Zverovich
MSc (Belarus)
Software Engineer

Mr Zverovich graduated from Belarusian State University in 2003 with a first class honours degree (diploma with distinction) in Mathematics. He has several years of software development experience in large projects in areas of natural language processing and IT service analysis.

He is also currently completing a PhD at CARISMA, Brunel University. His current research interests include stochastic programming from the perspective of solution algorithms and modelling languages.

His computing skills include:
(i) Optimisation Modelling and Solvers: AMPL, FortMP;
(ii) Programming Languages: C, C++, C#.

Mr Zverovich speaks Russian and English.