TEAM
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.“
– Alan Kay
Leadership Team
Andy Tidy Head of Composite Design
Andy has developed a specialist knowledge in composite design from his impressive career portfolio. You can tell how much he loves motorsport, just from looking at the experience he brings to the team! He also makes time for some tennis and MTB.
Education: Engineering Technology / Manufacturing & Production Engineering – Chichester / Worthing College
Experience: 14 years in automotive; IAD, McLaren Cars, G Force Technologies. 22 years in motorsport; McLaren, Honda, Williams, Super Aguri.
Career Milestones: Switching from a roadcar design consultancy to F1 and subsequently being involved with the design of Formula Nippon, Indy Car & LMP1 Sportscars.
Chris Harris Head of Calculations
Chris is charged with leading stress and aerodynamics groups and responsible for supporting across all projects. He’s motivated by working an F1-style environment, and working across a range of different projects. Outside of work, he likes to restore classic cars, play guitar and travel!
Education: Master of Automotive Engineering at the Chalmers University in Sweden
Experience: 15 years in motorsport; Ford Motorsport, GM Motorsport, Lotus/Renault. 8 years in automotive; General Motors.
Career Milestone: “Super simple one, joining MGI.”
Cris Hiche Commercial Director
Cris is a man with many hats at MGI; overseeing marketing, finance and business development. A Stress Engineer by trade but can also be found playing baseball internationally for the Chilean National Team.
Education: Mechanical Engineering at Arizona State University with a B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering and a M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering (Equiv. to a MRes in UK)
Experience: 5+ years in motorsport; Force India, Lotus/Renault. 3+ years in healthcare; Siemens Healthineers. 3+ years in eVTOL consultancy.
Career Milestone: “Working in F1 was definitely a career milestone as it was always my dream job. To achieve this straight out of university made it much more special. Pivoting from an engineering to a commercial role has also been a significant milestone as I have studied and searched opportunities to switch to a commercial role as it’s been one of my passions for a while.”
Mike Gascoyne CEO, CTO and Founder of MGI Engineering Ltd
The boss, the visionary, the founder. Mike defines the very principles on what MGI is founded on, the Formula 1 mindset and his desire to bring F1 expertise in design and engineering to mainstream engineering sectors and especially green sustainable sectors such as EV and EVTOL. Outside of work, you can find Mike playing cricket, off-shore sailing or on walks with Merlin.
Education: University of Cambridge, UK — BA in Engineering, Fluid Mechanics, 1982 – 1988 and Wymondham College 1974-1981
Experience: 25+ years in F1; McLaren, Tyrell, Sauber, Jordan, Renault, Force India and Caterham. 3+years in eVTOL consultancy.
Career Milestone: “In 2009, through MGI consultancy, I started an F1 team from scratch, Caterham F1, a feat completely unheard of in this modern era of Formula 1. We were a small team, with limited budget, but we were able to design a car that could compete at the highest level of motorsport.”
James East Head of Systems Integration
James is our Head of Systems, having spent many years in F1 working on Powertrain installations and their associated sub-systems such as cooling, fuel, hydraulics, and electronics packaging. His career in F1 also covered several years designing structural composite components.
Education: B.Eng. (Hons) Automotive/Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes University, HND Automotive Engineering at Coventry University
Experience: 21+ years in motorsport and automotive; Scuderia Toro Rosso, Marussia, Williams, European Formula Racing / European Minardi. 3.5+ years in aerospace.
Career Milestone: “Taking my experiences from F1 and leading a small design team at MGI on the installation of a twin-turbo V6 engine into the back of a 2016 F1 car to create one of the fastest privately-owned track day cars in the world.”
Sean Briscall Head of Mechanical Design
Former “Deviants” band member, now Head of Mechanical Design at MGI, Sean is responsible for mechanical concept creation, managing projects, mentoring our brilliant youngsters and design/drawing sign off. He supposedly can read, cook, listen to music, run and play guitar all at once…(we’re yet to see this).
Education: 1st class degree: Mechanical Engineering with Automotive Design – Brunel University
Experience: 12 years in motorsport; Tyrell, Honda, McLaren, Toyota. 10 years in defence and 5+ years in consultancy.
Career Milestones: “Some of my personal career highlights include my time in F1; from, working at Tyrrell where we were working with limited budgets and getting a car to the track was an achievement in itself; to Honda, where we designed an F1 test car in record time.”
Merlin The Dog
The family dog and Mike’s chief confidant and always by his side, even during the test flights!