Meet the team behind Crisp Telecom and Mayes Consulting. To learn more about how the company began and our values, visit our About Us page.
Keith Mayes - Managing Director
Keith Mayes B.Sc. (Hons) Ph.D. CEng FIET ACIIS, is the managing Director of Mayes Consulting and received his BSc in Electronic Engineering in 1983 from the University of Bath and his PhD degree in Digital Image Processing in 1987.
During his first degree he was employed by Pye TVT (Philips) which designed and produced TV broadcast and studio equipment. His PhD was sponsored by Honeywell Aerospace and Defence, where he worked on completion. In 1988 he started work for Racal Research where he worked on a wide range of research and advanced development products and was accepted as a Chartered Engineer. In 1995 he joined Racal Messenger to continue work on a vehicle licence plate recognition system (Talon) and an early packet radio system (Widanet/Paknet).
In 1996 Keith joined Vodafone as a Senior Manager working within the Communication Security and Advanced Development group, under Professor Michael Walker. Early work concerned advanced mesh radios and involved participation in international standardisation (ETSI SMG2). Later he led the Maths and Modelling team and eventually took charge of the Fraud and Security group. During this time he was training in intellectual property and licensing, culminating in membership of the Licensing Executives Society and added responsibilities for patent issues in Vodafone UK. In 2000, following some work on m-commerce and an increasing interest in Smart Cards he joined the Vodafone International organisation as the Vodafone Global SIM Card Manager, responsible for SIM card harmonisation and strategy for the Vodafone Group.
In 2002, Keith left Vodafone to set up Crisp Telecom (which also trades as Mayes Consulting) and in November 2002 he was also appointed as the Director of the Smart Card Centre at Royal Holloway University of London, reporting to Professor Fred Piper in the world renowned Information Security Group (ISG). In 2015 he became the Head of the ISG and shortly after, the Head of the School of Mathematics and Information Security; followed by a sabbatical in 2018. In 2020 he served as the ISG Director and then in 2021 became the Founder Director of the Royal Holloway Digital Research Catalyst and successfully proposed"Omnidrome" the Royal Hollloway drones and robotic vehicle centre.
In 2022 Keith became an Emeritus Professor of Royal Holloway, and remains an active academic, with 150+ publications; havng taught and supervised, hundreds of post-graduate students.
Keith is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Information Security, a former Member of the Licensing Executives Society and an experienced company director and consultant. He is active in the UK All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Cyber Security, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County USA, a Guest Professor at Keio University Japan, and the former Chairman of the International Cyber Security Centre of Excellence.
Dr Sheila Cobourne - Senior Consultant
Sheila Cobourne M.A.(Oxon), M.B.A., M.Sc.(Open), M.Sc (London)) read Physics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and went on to work as a systems analyst developing financial systems for various multi-national organisations.
She has an MBA from Henley Management College and an M.Sc. in Mathematics. She gained an M.Sc. in Information Security (Distinction) from Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) in 2010, and her PhD in 2017; within the Smart Card Centre / Information Security Group at RHUL. Her doctoral research was concerned with the secure use of NFC phones and smart cards in challenging environments. She was first employed by Crisp Telecom (now Trading as Mayes Consulting) in 2013, and now has the role of “Senior Consultant”.
Susan Mayes - Company Secretary
Susan Mayes B.ed (Hons) studied fashion and textiles at Bath College of Higher Education. She worked as a secondary school teacher for 12 years. In 2002 she became the Company Secretary for Crisp Telecom Limited (now Mayes Consultancy), with added responsibilities for financial accounting and HR matters.