The Company

Founded in late 2002 Genemation has taken world leading, patented Facial Computer Vision Technology, researched and developed over many years at the University of Manchester's Imaging Science & Biomedical Engineering department (ISBE), and developed commercial applications, software tools and solutions for the video games, post production, web authoring, mobile phone and digital content market.

Management Team

John Bickley - CEO
John joined the company in January 2003. Prior to Genemation he was senior vice president, EMEA for Celoxica, a spin-out from Oxford University . From 1992 to 2000 John worked in the video games industry for Psygnosis, a UK based video games company. He joined when it was privately owned and worked with the founders to sell the company to SONY in 1993. Psygnosis went on to become Europe 's largest video games development and publishing company. John was also involved in running the publishing division for Psygnosis's sister company, SONY PlayStation Europe. Before joining the video games industry John was managing director of CIC Video, a joint venture company owned by Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios,

Dr Gavin Wheeler - Programming Director
Prior to founding Genemation, Gavin spent three years within the ISBE (Image Science and Bio Medical Engineering) division, working on 'U-Face', a face recognition application based on the same underlying technology. This EU-funded project involved collaboration with industrial partners. Prior to this, in parallel with his academic studies, Gavin was Station Director of Forge FM, a community radio station, run largely by volunteers in Sheffield . This role included forming and leading an experienced management team, applying for charity funding and managing budgets. Gavin holds a first class honours degree in Control Engineering and a PhD from Sheffield University .

In addition to the board of directors, the company maintains close links to the University research team and the following act for the company as technical advisors:

Professor Chris Taylor
Chris is the Research Division Leader in the ISBE (Image Science and Bio Medical Engineering) division at the University, and has led the research in computer imaging since the early 1970s. This research field has led to a number of applications of the technology, including Genemation. Chris holds a BSc and a PhD in Physics, both from the Victoria University of Manchester. Chris was awarded the OBE in 2000 for services to healthcare and Foresight 2000 Health Information Task Force.

Dr Tim Cootes
Tim is a Lecturer in the ISBE (Image Science and Bio Medical Engineering) division at the University, having joined the Division in 1991. Tim is engaged in research to develop algorithms to locate deformable objects (e.g. faces, body organs, mechanical assemblies etc) in digital images and has been directly involved in the research that underlies the Genemation products. Tim holds a BSc in Combined Mathematics and Physics from the University of Exeter and a PhD from Sheffield Polytechnic.

Genemation Company Details:

Company registration no: 4486488
Registered in the UK
Registered Office: Liverpool Science Park, 131 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool L3 5TF