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Meet The
Afon Technology Team

We are fortunate to have a team of individuals with a wealth of knowledge, skills and expertise in their respective fields, all passionate about delivering a game changing device in the world of Diabetes and beyond.

  • Non-Invasive Glucose Monitoring
  • Continuous Glucose Monitor
  • Accurate Blood Glucose Readings
DR SABIH CHAUDHRY

DR SABIH CHAUDHRY - BSC(HONS), PHD

CEO/Founder

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DR JOHN SHILLINGFORD

DR JOHN SHILLINGFORD - BSC(HONS), PHD

Board Director
Clinical Affairs

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DR JOHN HIRST

DR JOHN HIRST - CBE, DSC, BA, FCA, ACT, CCBIM

Non-Executive Chairman

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PROFESSOR MELANIE DAVIES

PROFESSOR MELANIE DAVIES - CBE, MB ChB, MD, FRCP, FRCGP, FMedSci

Clinical Advisor

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PROFESSOR DR. DAVID C. KLONOFF

PROFESSOR DR. DAVID C. KLONOFF - MD

Clinical Advisor

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PROFESSOR DR. LUTZ HEINEMANN

PROFESSOR DR. LUTZ HEINEMANN - PHD

Clinical Advisor

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DR ISAMAR CARRILLO MASSO

DR ISAMAR CARRILLO MASSO - BED, MAAL, PHD

Quality, Regulatory, and Clinical Trials Manager, Risk Coordinator

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CONSUELO HANDY

CONSUELO HANDY - BE, MSCPM

Software Developer

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HUW HOPKINS

HUW HOPKINS - MSC

Usability and Human Factors Specialist

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LISA GRIFFITHS

LISA GRIFFITHS - BSC (HONS), MBA

Office Manager

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BETH HODGE

BETH HODGE - LLB

Office Manager

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DR MUHAMMAD RAFAQAT

DR MUHAMMAD RAFAQAT - PHD

RF/Microwave Engineer

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DR DANIEL FOWLES

DR DANIEL FOWLES - MSCI, PHD

AI Data Analyst

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KIRSTY NORRIS

KIRSTY NORRIS - BSC (HONS), FIAB

Finance Assistant

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JULIA RYAN

JULIA RYAN

Quality Administrator and Junior CRA

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MADDIE WILSON

MADDIE WILSON

Project Coordinator

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DIANA LITWIN

DIANA LITWIN

Purchasing Assistant

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DR SABIH CHAUDHRY

Sabih holds a PhD in Microwave and Telecommunications from the University of Wales; awarded in 1993.

During his career he has worked extensively in senior management roles.

He co-founded a medical start-up which developed three distinct and novel cancer related treatment technologies. He played a lead role in the launch of the UK’s first Wavelength Division Multiplexing Telecommunications system and project managed the world’s first large glass substrate format holographic printer.

Sabih has been working on non-invasive blood glucose monitoring since 2005. He has received a number of awards during his career of which the most recent was the Bionow Healthcare Project of the Year 2014 award for the non-invasive blood glucose monitor.

DR JOHN SHILLINGFORD

John Shillingford holds both a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Biochemical Pharmacology from the University of Surrey. He is an experienced clinical researcher whose career in the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and CRO industries has stretched over 40 years. John has both lived and worked in the UK, a number of European Countries and additionally the USA. He currently lives in Germany.

His wide experience of Drug and Medical Device Development in Europe and the USA has been acquired during the management of both Clinical and Data Operations for major Global Programmes.

John has held senior positions in Management, Clinical Operations and Project Management for Aptiv Solutions, Averion International (a Medical Device Research Company), PRA International and Imform GmbH. In addition to his board duties, John’s role at Afon Technology is to oversee the clinical trial activities. His considerable expertise in this sector will ensure that all the trials are designed to strict guidelines to satisfy the appropriate global medical directives.

DR JOHN HIRST

John Hirst, CBE, is currently Chairman of BSI (British Standards Institution) and SMi Systems. He was formerly chairman of NOC (National Oceanography Centre) and Anglian Water Group.

He has served on major company boards for the last 20 years. After a long and successful career with ICI Plc and as CEO of Premier Farnell until September 2014 John Hirst was Chief Executive of the Met Office, which he joined in September 2007. As part of this role, he was the UK’s permanent representative to the World Meteorological Organisation where he was a member of the Executive Committee and chaired the Audit Committee.

He also sat on the councils for ECMWF and EUMETSAT and was member of the UK Space Board. 

During his time as Chief Executive he renewed and reinvigorated the strategic direction of the Met Office, establishing collaborations on science and service with public, academic and private sector organisations worldwide including the UK’s Flood Forecasting Centre, National Hazard Partnership, Environmental Science to Service Partnership and the UK Met Office Academic Partnership. Major successes for the UK Met Office, widely recognised as the best weather and climate service in the world, included helping the Government and its clients appreciate and mitigate the impact of environmental risk, and being named three years in succession in the top 20 social brands in the UK. 

John was awarded a CBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours List for his national and international services to Meteorology. He holds and honorary doctorate from Exeter University. 

John has a degree in Economics and is a chartered accountant. He is a trustee and chairman of epilepsy charity SUDEP Action. 

PROFESSOR MELANIE DAVIES

Professor Melanie Davies CBE, MB ChB, MD, FRCP, FRCGP, FMedSci is Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Leicester and an Honorary Consultant Diabetologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. She is the Co-Director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

 

In 2016 Professor Melanie Davies was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the New Year’s Honour’s List for services to Diabetes research. Her research interests include the causes, screening, prevention, self-management and treatment of type 2 Diabetes mellitus. During her career so far she has published over 800 original articles and has had over £86M of grant funding awarded.

She is a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator Emeritus and Director of the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre and co-chair of EASD/ADA’s Consensus Report on T2DM Management. Professor Davies provides clinical advisory services to Afon Technology. 

PROFESSOR DR. DAVID C. KLONOFF

Professor Dr. David C. Klonoff MD, is an endocrinologist specialising in Diabetes technology. He is a clinical professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and medical director of the Diabetes Research Institute of Mills-Peninsula Medical Center (Sutter Health) in San Mateo, California.

Dr Klonoff received the American Diabetes Association’s 2019 Outstanding Physician Clinician Award. He received an FDA Director’s Special Citation Award in 2010 for outstanding contributions related to Diabetes technology. 

Dr Klonoff received the IEEE Standards Association Conformity Assessment Award in 2022. 

He is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the American College of Physicians, and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Dr Klonoff has been invited to speak to the US Congressional Diabetes Caucus, participate in the White House Health and Cybersecurity Roundtable, and speak at the European Parliament.

He is the founding editor-in-chief of Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology and he also founded Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics. He founded the Diabetes Technology Meeting and the Hospital Diabetes Meeting. He is senior editor of the world’s first three books about Diabetes digital health and published the first article to show that, in COVID-19, correcting the hyperglycaemia of Diabetes enhances recovery.

PROFESSOR DR. LUTZ HEINEMANN

Professor Heinemann sits on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies and holds memberships of both national and international Diabetes associations. His background of scientific research has been focused on insulin pharmacology and Diabetes technology.

After qualifying as an Engineer and Biologist, Professor Heinemann became an Assistant Professor in the Neurophysiology Department at Düsseldorf University and 

 

then spent over a decade at the Clinic for Nutrition and Metabolism in the Centre for Internal Medicine and Neurology.  In 1999, Professor Heinemann founded the Profil Institut für Stoffwechselforschung in Neuss, Germany and was CEO until 2009.

Professor Heinemann has won two prestigious awards from the Diabetes Technology Society. In 2007 he was recognised for ‘Leadership in Diabetes Technology’ and in 2012 won the ‘Artificial Pancreas Research Award’.

Since 2011 Professor Heinemann has been the Managing Editor of the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology and continues to play an active part as member of the Program Committee of the Diabetes Technology Meeting and Member of the Program Committee of the ATTD Meeting. Professor Heinemann provides clinical advisory services to Afon Technology. 

DR ISAMAR CARRILLO MASSO

Isamar is the company’s Quality, Regulatory, and Clinical Trials Manager, Risk Coordinator, Management Representative, and Person Responsible for Regulatory Compliance.

She is responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining quality management systems for Afon Technology. She also leads the regulatory affairs document submission, and is responsible for Risk Coordination, supervising the Product Risk Manager, Health and Safety Officer, and Enterprise Risk Management team. Isamar also performs the duties of Afon’s CTM in all of Afon’s clinical trials.

 

She is experienced in Quality and Regulatory affairs, clinical trials management, protocol testing, and work design in the medical device industry.

Isamar has been involved in research at an international level. She obtained a studentship and graduated with a first-class degree and went on to do a Master’s degree at the University of Reading, where she graduated with distinction. Isamar received a scholarship (125th Anniversary Scholarship) at Bangor University to read for a PhD in Research Methods and Game Research, from which she graduated in 2019.

Isamar is also a qualified Lead Auditor under the Medical Device Single-Audit Programme (MDSAP), and she leads all audits at Afon Technology. She is also in charge of performing MDSAP audits on Afon Technology’s suppliers and CROs. She is conversant with the European Medical Devices Regulation of 2017, ISO 13485:2016 and ISO 14971:2019, as well as other relevant key legislation.

Isamar is a type 1.5 Diabetic (L.A.D.A. – Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults) and will be the first in the queue to test the Afon Technology device!

CONSUELO HANDY

Consuelo is a Software Developer, responsible for writing the software code used during in-house trials and testing.

 She is also involved in developing a new (patentable) testing method for Afon’s technology which will be implemented into the glucose monitoring device. Consuelo helps to coordinate the Medical Device Software Validation and Compliance, along with the Quality Manager.

Consuelo has been involved in projects in Mexico, Chile, and the UK. She graduated as a Cybernetics and Computer Systems Engineer from La Salle University in Mexico City where she also studied a Master’s Degree in Project Management. She has experience in project management, and workflow design of projects on an international level.

HUW HOPKINS

Huw joined Afon in 2023 as a Usability and Human Factors Specialist taking responsibility for all aspects of usability engineering throughout product development.

 

Working towards developing user friendly products and managing the necessary regulatory compliance for usability.

Huw completed a master’s degree in Advanced Product Design at Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2016 and has since had 6+ years’ experience in the medical device industry in design and development roles. He is particularly interested in the non-invasive technology being developed at Afon, and the prospects of improving the lives of people with Diabetes. Huw says, ‘It’s great to be a part of the team at this stage’.

Outside of work Huw is interested in cycling, running and some DIY.

LISA GRIFFITHS

Lisa is the Office Manager alongside Beth and together they are responsible for overseeing the smooth running of the office, running the HR and finance functions, providing administrative support to the team, PA to the CEO and being a point of contact for Afon Technology shareholders. Lisa is also the appointed compliance officer for GDPR, is a first aider and fire warden.

Lisa holds a Masters in Business Administration and also a Business with Legal Studies degree. Lisa has worked in several office environments, mainly in administrative positions within Sales, Compliance, Customer Relationship Management and more recently working on temporary projects.

Lisa has family members who have Diabetes and is therefore particularly interested in the development of a non-invasive glucose monitoring device.

Lisa is married and has three children, Isabelle, Jasmine and Eric. She enjoys spending time with her family and her two dogs Poppy and Daisy.

BETH HODGE

Beth rejoined the team at Afon in 2022 to share the Office Manager role with Lisa Griffiths, after initially working with CEO Sabih Chaudhry back in 2015 when the company first started.

Beth and Lisa support the CEO in the smooth running of the company, including day to day HR, finance, shareholder relations.

She loves how varied and interesting the work at Afon Technology is.

As a Type 1 Diabetic herself, Beth has a personal interest in the work the company is doing to develop a non-invasive glucose monitor. As a busy mum, Beth really believes this device will remove a huge element of the day to day hassle that comes with having Diabetes. She also has family members with Diabetes for whom a non-invasive device will be life changing.

Beth is married to Tim and they have 3 young children, Noah, Emily and Jude. Outside of work and general ‘Mum’ duties, she enjoys playing netball and trying to keep fit and healthy!

DR MUHAMMAD RAFAQAT

Muhammad Rafaqat Ali Qureshi is an RF/Microwave Engineer. He is responsible for conducting research and development activities at Afon Technology. He is also accountable for conducting medical trials on volunteers.

Dr. Qureshi is a Gold medallist in his undergrad from Pakistan and went on to do a master’s degree at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), where he graduated with distinction and secured Principal award. He also received fully-funded studentship for his PhD at QMUL.

Dr. Qureshi has been involved in conducting research for Public Health England (PHE) and University College London (UCL). 

He has vast experience in the field of antennas and bioelectromagnetics. He is also reviewer for various journals and research papers.

DR DANIEL FOWLES

Dr Daniel Fowles joined the team as an AI Data Analyst; responsible for developing AI models for use in glucose monitoring, analysis of clinical trials and the support of general software development. 

Having graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2019 with an MSci degree in Applied Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Dan later obtained a PhD in Computational Chemistry. During this time, Dan focussed on the development of physics-based and deep learning models for use in small molecule property prediction relevant to the pharmaceutical industry.

He is especially interested in the technology being developed at Afon, and having the opportunity to contribute towards its development. Dan is looking forward to exploring Wales, and in his spare time enjoys following the rugby and trying to keep fit and healthy.

KIRSTY NORRIS

Kirsty is the Finance Assistant for Afon Technology. She joined the company in 2018 to oversee the finance functions and provide support to CEO Sabih with cashflows, grant applications, and financial reporting.

Kirsty graduated from the University of the West of England in 2000 with an Accounting and Finance degree. She went on to gain her ACA Professional Certificate and has become a Fellow of the International Association of Bookkeepers. Over the last 20 years, she has worked in both Practice and Industry performing management accounting for companies in a wide variety of sectors.

Away from work she enjoys skiing, cycling and walking with her dog. She is married and has two children, Arthur aged twelve and Hannah aged two.

She is very excited and feels privileged to be part of a team that will be producing a product that will radically change the lives of people who have Diabetes.

JULIA RYAN

Julia is the Quality Administrator and Junior CRA. She is responsible for the company’s documentation management system and assists Dr Isamar with regulatory compliance.

 

As Junior CRA, she works closely with Dr Isamar to prepare and submit documentation in preparation for clinical trials and makes visits to carry out on-site clinical monitoring. She is also one of the office’s first aiders.

Julia has a background as an English teacher and, more recently, has provided proofreading and training services to businesses.

Julia lives in the countryside outside Chepstow and likes to spend time walking and learning Welsh. She lives with her partner and Bowzer the cat.

MADDIE WILSON

Maddie Wilson initially joined the company to support the administration team, however since then her role has developed considerably and  she is now 

predominantly focused on Project Coordination, data analysis and managing the in-house clinical trials.

Maddie also assists the Office Managers and the rest of the team with any general administrative work in the office and laboratory.

Maddie is one of our appointed fire wardens and first aiders and also assists with the day to day health and safety for the company.

Maddie is currently studying for her BSc (Honours) Mathematics and Statistics with the Open University.

DIANA LITWIN
Diana joined Afon in 2023 to assist with the day-to-day administration and logistical requirements within the company as well as taking on the role of purchasing assistant. She will also be creating and implementing new streamlined processes to assist with the smooth running of the business. She is keen to learn and provide support to the team. Diana is a great asset to the team with her strong work ethic and organisational skills.