Meet the Team
Leadership
Robin Sterling
CEO & Founder
Dr Robin Sterling brings nearly two decades of experience in quantum computing and deep-tech systems engineering.
He has worked across quantum hardware, control systems, and large-scale architecture design, with a track record of building and leading multidisciplinary teams delivering complex, commercial infrastructure products.
Robin holds a PhD in quantum computing and focuses on turning foundational scaling problems into defensible, category-defining software platforms.
John Clarke
Head of Engineering
Dr John Clarke brings over two decades of experience at the intersection of hardware and software to Coherence Engine. As Associate Technical Director at Broadcom, he led 50 engineers across three continents, delivering world-leading video codec silicon and firmware, shipping in over 88 million devices.
He has twice served as a 0-to-1 CTO—at Cydar Medical and Cyban—building teams, products, and regulatory frameworks from scratch, including pioneering cloud supercomputing for real-time medical devices. John’s hands-on EDA expertise spans Synopsys, Cadence, FPGA verification platforms, SystemVerilog, and HDL. He holds a PhD in Computer Vision and Robotics from the University of Oxford.
Jesse Amato-Grill
Head of Quantum Architecture
Dr. Jesse Amato-Grill (PhD, Harvard University '19) spent eight years in atomic physics research with Prof. Wolfgang Ketterle at MIT. He was a founding scientist at QuEra Computing, where he helped build Aquila, the first commercial neutral-atom quantum computer, and later led teams developing quantum control systems and hardware for error-corrected quantum computing. He is also the founder of Orchid Surgical, a startup that enables surgeons to analyse surgical video with AI. Jesse is returning to quantum to help bring powerful simulation tools to the industry.
Liz Upton
Chair
Liz is one of the founders of Raspberry Pi, and one of only three female founders in Europe to IPO in 2024. After Raspberry Pi's float she founded Negroni Venture Studios, consulting with and investing in early-stage tech businesses.
Alongside her work at Coherence Engine, she is Chair of OLO Robotics, and has worked on the board of the Centre for Computing History. Liz is a recipient of the Royal Academy of Engineering's MacRobert Award, and an Honorary Fellow of the National Museum of Computing.
Board
Katie Underwood
Katie is Partner at Cambridge Future Tech, managing a portfolio of 20 deep tech ventures built on scientific and engineering breakthroughs. In this role she oversees investment management, fundraising, governance, venture and investor relations. Katie is also co-founder and General Partner at Future Tech VC, investing in frontier technologies emerging from UK research groups.
A serial founder, operator, and strategic communications expert, Katie founded and scaled multiple companies before moving into deep tech investment.
Board of Advisors
Sami Atabani
Business & Licensing
