Meet the team

Penny Haire

CEO and Co-founder

Penny has had a long career in the maritime industry, as a sail trainer and Chief Instructor for the Royal Yachting Association before founding Tidetech with Roger in 2008. Having grown up near Liverpool UK which has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world, she has always been fascinated by tides. Her passion is to be able to make scientific research about weather and oceanography more accessible and usable for everyone in the maritime world and for Tidetech’s data to be used to help reduce harmful emissions from shipping.

Dr Roger Proctor

Chief Scientist and Co-founder

Roger is a coastal oceanographer with more than 40 years’ experience. Prior to Tidetech, he worked for over two decades at the UK Natural Environment Research Council’s Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (now National Oceanography Centre). He lead the Modelling and Observation Systems for Shelf Seas programme and created the Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory. He developed shelf-sea modelling system POLCOMS and was later director of the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN, part of IMOS).

Sebastien Mancini

Science and Technical Director

Sebastien is a physical oceanographer with two decades of experience in coastal and regional modelling, marine data management and digital infrastructure. At Tidetech, Seb guides scientific direction, infrastructure development and the next generation of global modelling systems. Previously director of the Australia Ocean Data Network (AODN), he led technical strategy and rebuilt the national marine data architecture. His career spans engineering consultancy, scientific data operations and national marine observing programmes.

Dr Christelle Auguste

Senior Oceanographer

Christelle is an ocean engineer and coastal modeller specialising in hydrodynamics, sediment transport and climate‑change impacts. Her doctoral research developed detailed 2D/3D models for Banks Strait, and her work at Tidetech focuses on storm‑surge dynamics, tropical cyclones and global tidal systems, with a strong emphasis on climate resilience and coastal risk.

Paul Freeman

Business Development Director

Kate Reid

Operations Manager

Kate oversees Tidetech’s operations, including contracts, customer operations and organisational processes supporting global delivery of marine data services. With more than 15 years in the marine data sector, she brings deep experience across administration, systems testing and helpdesk coordination, ensuring consistent, reliable service for customers worldwide. Kate has a Bsc in Marine Biology.

Kris Powell

Solutions Architect

Senior software engineer and solutions architect with more than 15 years’ experience designing and delivering production software systems. Since joining Tidetech in 2017, Kris has specialised in cloud-native metocean platforms, operational ocean forecasting systems, large-scale geospatial processing, ocean modelling workflows, and standards-compliant marine data products.

James Baker

Software Solutions Architect

Nick Pattle

Site Reliability Engineer

Jamie Millar

Marketing and Communications Director

Jamie leads global marketing, brand and communications for Tidetech. With more than 20 years’ B2B experience, including 15 across marine and maritime sectors, he has worked in yachting, metocean data, greentech and SaaS. Jamie has commercial experience in UK, Greece, Caribbean, and Australia.