Meet the Landways Team
Management Team
Chris Smedley
Chief Executive
Chris is the Chief Executive and co-founder of Landways.
Chris has over 25 years’ experience in the telecoms and in-building technology sectors. He is the former Chief Executive of Geo Networks which he co-founded in 2002. Geo was the first specialist provider of leased optical fibre in the UK, originally owned by Hutchison Whampoa and latterly Alchemy, a UK private equity fund. The business grew from zero turnover to over £40m in just over a decade and in 2014 was sold to Zayo, a US fibre infrastructure provider for $294m.
Prior to Geo, Chris started life as a solicitor at Linklaters & Paines where he practised in the firm’s litigation department. In 1997, he was appointed Legal Director of Colt Telecom where he was a member of the senior management team, eventually with responsibility for the Property, Public Policy, Project Office and HR departments, as well as the Legal team.
Chris holds a degree in European Law (LLB Hons) from the University of Warwick; a Diploma in Legal Practice from the College of Law; and was a Solicitor of the Supreme Court.
Mike Ainger
Chief Strategy Officer
Mike is the Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder of Landways.
He has 30 years’ experience in the transport, communications and engineering industries, including 10 years in the UK rail industry and over 15 years in senior management roles in the telecoms sector.
Mike was Chief Operating Officer of Geo Networks from 2004 to 2014 and is the Founder Director of nuron, which delivers innovative monitoring and management technology for utility networks.
Mike is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.
Ruth Stafford
Chief Financial Officer
At Landways Ruth is our Chief Financial Officer, ensuring that the financial resources of the business are being optimally managed to enhance the performance and innovative ability of the company.
Ruth is a Chartered Accountant with over twenty years of multi-sector experience. Having started off in practice before moving into industry with roles in private equity-backed companies in industries such as travel, healthcare, professional services and SaaS. Within her prior roles as Chief Financial Officer and Financial Director, Ruth has regularly built and restructured finance teams that have helped with cash flow management, and the successful implementation of governance and compliance programmes as well as cross-functional transformation projects.
Meri Braziel
Chief Commercial Officer
Meri Braziel is the Chief Commercial Officer of Landways.
Meri has over thirty years experience in the global telecommunications industry, beginning her career with Sprint International as Finance Manager of EMEA. She has held several Managing Director and CEO roles at European technology companies including PSINet, Skyware Radio Systems, and Keycom plc. Most recently, Meri was Chief Operations Officer and Chief Commercial Officer at Glide, a specialist ISP, between 2017 and 2022. With commercial experience in both utilities and telecommunication industries, she has created consumer and business opportunities for technology companies. She is a co-founder of WiTT, the Women in Telecom and Technology networking group. She also serves as a Trustee of Unipol Student Housing, a charity,, and chairs its IT and Communications committee. Meri graduated with a BSFS from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in International Economics (Phi Beta Kappa and Magna cum Laude) and has a master's degree in European Studies from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Avik Datta
Technology Director
As Project Director, Avik is responsible for ensuring Landways has the optimal capabilities and structures in place to ensure smooth and timely delivery of high-quality infrastructure projects and services to its customers.
Avik has over 26 years of experience in the telecoms industry of which, 20 years was spent at Vodafone Group Services. Delivering in various engineering, strategy and business development roles, Avik completed his service as Head of Technology for Partner Markets and CTO of Vodafone French Polynesia. Latterly, Avik spent 6 years at Cable & Wireless and their parent Liberty Latin America LLC, as CTO and Mobile Operations Director for the Caribbean and Latin America region, returning to the UK in 2020.
Avik holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Bristol and an MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures from Imperial College, London. Avik is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.
Stephen Chivers
Project Director
Stephen leads the company’s delivery of projects in the UK and Europe along with responsibility for the procurement of suppliers, contractors and overall health and safety. He has a wealth of 40 years of experience and expertise in the telecommunications sector and the excellence of astute commercial and project management. During this period, he has held director positions at Cable and Wireless, Kelly Group, Lattice/Thames JV, and Fujitsu Telecommunication, driving strategic growth, competitive positioning, and operational performance.
Stephen has pioneered and expedited fibre infrastructure deployment from the early cable company’s investment, the first UK fibre in the sewers, facilitating commercial and residential smart buildings, IoT application deployment and delivery of exceptional market-leading solutions and service. His expertise in this sector, and ability to exploit innovation and deliver, are key attributes in this highly competitive sector.
Michelle Coffman
Operations Director
As Operations Director, Michelle is responsible for ensuring the engine of the business runs smoothly. Michelle leads the team who manage the asset portfolio working closely with our customers. Michelle also takes responsibility for IT, Facilities and HR.
Prior to joining Landways, Michelle worked at Geo as the Facilities and HR Director and has also held various HR roles spanning over 20 years in companies such as PwC, Hutchison Whampoa Vodafone and IDI Gazeley (a Brookfield owned company). Michelle holds a BA in Psychology and Management from University of Wollongong and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Commercial Team
Matt Richards
Commercial Director
Matt has over twenty years’ experience in the IT industry and has been cultivating relationships within the sporting, technology and communications sectors while providing customers with a variety of innovative connectivity and communication solutions. Amalgamating customer requirements and digital strategy with new and existing partners, Matt demonstrates our core passive infrastructure’s ability to enable the business case for enhanced venue profitability, market engagement and connectivity to ensure a future-proofed smart venue for stakeholders.
Historical roles have included working at a global manufacturer of RF products which provide mobile and private mobile radio coverage. This involved working with mobile network operators across EMEA and large venues, such as Wembley and Heathrow to provide 2G/3G and 4G multi-operator coverage.
Ben Campbell-Smith
Commercial Manager
As Commercial Manager Ben will be focusing on helping clients access quality, performance guaranteed technology solutions ready to scale and adapt with their business with a focus on Net Zero Carbon objectives.
Ben has over twelve years’ experience providing a range of turnkey technology and software solutions. With a strong technical and commercial knowledge developed over the last 8 years working in the smart parking and transportation sector. Providing access control, revenue management and digital commerce solutions that operate on cloud-based infrastructure and fibre optic networks. He has experience in many areas of commercial property both in the public and private sectors. Including Airports, Shopping Centres, Local Authorities, Hospitals, Office Parks, Transport Hubs, Construction projects and many others.
He holds a degree in Business Management BA from the University of Kingston and a postgraduate qualification in Direct and Digital Marketing from the Institute of Direct Marketing.
Solution Design Team
Hugo Read
Head of Solution Engineering
At Landways Hugo is jointly responsible for customers’ infrastructure design, including amongst other things radio modelling (Wi-Fi, DAS and small cell), traffic modelling, surveillance equipment, smart screens and LED lighting.
Prior to joining Landways, Hugo worked as a Business Architect for the Civil Service and before that as a software designer and engineer in several different industry sectors. Hugo holds a Masters degree in Telecommunications and Networking from UCL and a BSc Joint Honours in Maths and Physics from the University of Manchester.
Teodora Marian
Senior Design Engineer
Teodora is our senior design engineer responsible for customers’ infrastructure design, and developing new capabilities including LED lighting. In over 20 years in the power systems, telecommunication, renewable and lighting industry Teodora has gained experience vital for designing our digital base and delivering our customers the most effective and profitable solutions.
Previous roles have seen her join one of the first developers of wind energy in Romania, Gestamp, which developed green field projects. She has experience working in the telecommunication industry as a project manager supervising the power provision of new sites and in sales positions working with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry like Disney.
Phil Edgley
Senior Design Engineer
As part of our pre-sales team, Phil researches and designs various aspects of customer projects, steering them from initial concepts and requirements to formulating specifications for supplier tendering. Phil’s experience in the industry and his skill in solution engineering and business development help deliver Landways’ guarantee of the highest quality customer solutions.
Phil has previous experience as an Engineering & Design Manager with a major service provider and subsequently with a global equipment vendor. Phil went on to a global undersea cable company involving rolling out city-to-city networks and managing services using utility infrastructure.
Lina Salim
Pre-Sales Engineer
Lina has joined Landways as a Pre-Sales Engineer following completing her studies in Aerospace Engineering (BEng) and Automotive Engineering (MSc). Her interest in the world of electrical engineering, combined with her dedication to succeed enables her to provide essential support in designing and delivering customer projects.
Damion Sutherland
Project Engineer
Prior to joining Landways, Damion had over 15 years of telecommunications industry experience with Cable and Wireless PLC (now Liberty Latin America) and Ericsson AB Managed Services, 8 of which were in the service support delivery engineering and technology operations engineering capacities. He has been involved in the planning, implementation, and operation of 2G, 3G and 4G-LTE networks, including their supporting power and transmission systems, in the Caribbean.
Damion holds a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from London South Bank University and is a Member of the IET and IEEE.
Projects Team
Mark Arnold
Senior Project Manager
Mark is our Senior Project Manager who has successfully managed and delivered projects for our clients. Mark keeps our clients and stakeholders updated on projects and their timelines, ensuring Landways delivers on our premium service. Working with innovative and market-leading technology and utilising their sustainability, Mark helps to implement solutions that support our clients’ operations.
Mark has over 10 years of experience across IT, Property and Market Research Industries. This involved working in New Zealand for a large Government Ministry managing a large-scale office fit out and delivery, as well as working with Project Managers to deliver a large-scale data collection and processing platform.
Daisy Dickson
Junior Project Manager
Daisy is our project assistant and is responsible for supporting the project team through procurement, administration, finance and planning. Having previously worked for an Events agency, Daisy is familiar with the foundations that are essential to delivering a successful project. These include planning, budgeting, resource allocation and stakeholder management. By helping to maintain a positive and close-knit work culture for the team, Daisy helps Landways to ensure quality and clarity at all stages of the project.
Operations Team
Leon Morgan
Operations Manager
As Field Engineer Manager, Leon is responsible for site management of customers’ projects, from the initial project kick-off through to site operation once the installation and commissioning are complete. Leon leads a team dedicated to ensuring installation, solution monitoring and continued maintenance are conducted in a timely manner with minimal disruption to the customers’ ongoing activities on site.
Nigel Morgan
Senior Field Engineer
As a Senior Field Engineer, Nigel is responsible for customers’ infrastructure design, with a focus on Operational and Management design.
Nigel has over 20 years’ experience in the communications and networking industry. He started his career within the rail industry working on telecommunications systems in an operational support role. His role became more network focused and this led to him joining a newly formed network management group. He moved to Reuters and continued to work in network management, which then became a part of Radianz, a joint venture between Reuters and Equant. Radianz was sold to BT in 2005. Nigel left in late 2007 to pursue a career in Music Composition. Needing a more family-friendly role, he re-trained as a teacher in 2010 and worked as a math specialist in a primary school for 7 years. Missing the challenges and buzz of working in a leading edge technology team, he joined Landways in the summer of 2018.
Nigel has a degree in Electronics and Music and a PGCE.
Gurpreet Gill
Field Engineer
As a Field Engineer, Gurpreet is responsible for on-site activity at customers’ projects. Based at Adams Park, Gurpreet supports site access from the initial project kick-off through to site operation once the installation and commissioning are complete. Gurpreet leads a team dedicated to ensuring installation, solution monitoring and continued maintenance are conducted in a timely manner with minimal disruption to the customers’ ongoing activities on site.
Marketing Team
Jade Love
Marketing Manager
As Head of Marketing, Jade is responsible for all of Landways' marketing facets including strategy, communications, brand management and company innovation market education. She ensures Landways messages and resources align with the values and direction of the company and strives to identify and action opportunities to expand in the market.
With over 15 years’ of experience in diverse marketing, events and administrative roles and a flair for creativity, Jade's ability to visually articulate ideas and produce professional resources is appreciated by the team.
Jade holds a Bachelor in Tourism Management and has studied Prince 2 Project Management at both Foundation and Practitioner levels.
Finance Team
David Castledine
Commercial Finance Director
As Commercial Director, David is responsible for identifying investment opportunities and then structuring long term partnerships with both property owners and our customers.
Prior to joining Landways, David worked as a Finance Director within Capita, and before that at Geo for over 10 years, latterly as the Commercial Finance Director. He has also held various Commercial and Finance roles spanning over 20 years in companies such as Hutchison Whampoa, Deutsche Bank and EDF Energy. David holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Nottingham and is qualified with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
Kuresa Kaji
Finance Manager
Kuresa is responsible for the day-to-day financial operations of the company. These responsibilities include reporting monthly management accounts on a timely basis all the way to producing year-end statutory accounts.
In over 18 years Kuresa has worked across a diverse range of industries, such as Manufacturing, Retail, Wholesale, Insurance, Practice, Local Council, Export & Import and Charity. She also has an accounting degree in Business and Finance form UEL and is qualified with ACCA. This experience in accounting and financial management has allowed her to provide advice and analysis on key financial data to support and aid Landways.
Board
Chris Smedley
Director
Chris is a founding Director of Howard Holdings.
Mike Ainger
Director
Mike is a founding Director of Howard Holdings.
John Siegel
Director
John is a founding Director of Howard Holdings.
John focuses on Internet Infrastructure and Enterprise IT Services investments. John is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Contino, euNetworks, Landways, Lemongrass, New Signature, SummitIG, and TerraPact. John previously served on the boards of ICG Communications (acquired by Level 3), New Global Telecom (acquired by Comcast), Presidio (acquired by American Securities), GTS CE (acquired by Deutsche Telekom), mindSHIFT (acquired by Best Buy), FDN Communications (acquired by NuVox), Virtustream (acquired by EMC), Cologix (majority stake acquired by Stonepeak), Cloud Sherpas (acquired by Accenture) and Zayo (NYSE: ZAYO) and represented Columbia Capital’s interests in Mpower Communications (acquired by TelePacific). Before joining Columbia Capital, John worked in Morgan Stanley’s Private Equity Group, where he specialized in investments in the telecommunications/data services arena. He also held positions with Fidelity Ventures, the private equity division of Fidelity Investments, and the Investment Banking Division of Alex. Brown & Sons, Incorporated. John received his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Evan DeCorte
Director
Evan is a founding Director of Howard Holdings.
Evan focuses on Broadband Infrastructure and Cloud/Enterprise IT Services. Evan is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Landways and TerraPact. Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Evan was the Head of Marketing and led the Voice Business for Roshan TDCA, Afghanistan’s largest telecommunications provider. Before joining Roshan, Evan was as an analyst with JPMorgan Chase’s foreign exchange and interest rate derivatives group in New York. Evan received his B.S. from The George Washington University, where he double majored in Economics and Political Science.