Software developer Codefarm has appointed Frank Rose as a non-executive director to guide its rapid growth as a supplier of evolutionary computing products and solutions to the financial and other sectors.
Codefarm is the first UK company to commercialise "evolutionary computing" - software that mimics the processes of biological evolution to optimize solutions to intractable quantitative problems, such as those found in financial modelling, engineering design, bioinformatics and drug design.
The company is currently focusing on sales to customers in the financial sector, where Codefarm's Galapagos toolkit is used to make quantifiable improvements to pricing models in the convertibles, equity and credit derivatives markets.
Frank Rose, a founding director of management consultancy Forbes Kemlo, has 17 years' experience assisting high-tech start-ups to grow into sound, profitable businesses positioned for rapid expansion, acquisition, or IPO.
Rose has been instrumental in the early positioning of several software companies for their most appropriate exit routes. These have included starting up LBS Financial Software Ltd and laying the foundations for its eventual acquisition (as Monis) by SunGard. In contrast, as Chief Operating Officer at Quantec Ltd, he restructured an existing owner-managed business which later became part of Thompson Financial.
"Codefarm is proving that evolutionary computing is now mature enough for commercial applications," says Rose. "There are enormous opportunities for the deployment of this exciting technology - and for Codefarm to grow into a key software supplier to the financial sector and indeed to other industries."
"To have access to Frank's experiences of company growth and his knowledge of the highly-specialised software market for the investment banking sector will be of huge benefit to our growing enterprise," said Jeremy Mabbitt, Managing Director of Codefarm. "We are excited to find a non-executive director who not only has an impeccable track record with growing software companies, but also brings an intimate knowledge of our highly-specialised markets."