Andrew Lucas’ first job as what we now call a ‘knowledgebase engineer’ was back in 1997, bringing to the role experience in web development and a deep understanding of language having gained an MA in English from Keble College Oxford.

He has been involved in developing conversational AI systems ever since, working with a variety of different platforms and proprietary NLP scripting languages

Andrew joined Creative Virtual in 2005, and his wealth of experience in the development and design of virtual agents is probably unrivalled, at least in the UK.

He has served as lead author and primary content developer on numerous high-profile projects, and particularly enjoys working on more experimental builds and novel integrations.

Outside of work Andrew is a published author in the field of military history and has co-written two volumes in English and one in German on First World War subjects.   He has also authored numerous articles, contributed to research undertaken by publications and academics, as well as to  archaeological digs.

Björn Gülsdorff is a physicist by education, but he began working on automated conversations, during his time as a researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Neurophysics in Bremen

His involvement, both academically and practically, with AI and chatbots spans close to 30 years. Having worked in leading positions in departments as varied as Knowledge Engineering, Project Management & Operations, Partner Management, Product Development and as CEO of chatbot-pioneers kiwilogic, Björn knows the world of virtual assistants from nearly every angle.

He joined Creative Virtual in 2013 as Chief Business Development Officer overseas the company’s expansion into new markets and connects partner, clients and product development to shape Creative Virtual’s Roadmap.

Chris has been working in the world of virtual assistants since 2000 and founded Creative Virtual in November 2003. Prior to this, Chris worked for a US software company in various roles (starting as a Software Engineer, then as R&D manager and then as Sales & Marketing Director).

Employing his technical and entrepreneurial skills, and through the development of the enterprise level V-Person™ technology, he has established Creative Virtual as one of the world’s leading providers of virtual assistants.

He has a passion for creativity, innovation, technology and physics, and in his spare time enjoys skiing, snowboarding, and watching his beloved West Ham (where his optimistic nature is sometimes stretched to the limit!).

Karan joined Creative Virtual in Oct 2013 and is a member of the Research and Development team creating our product suite, namely V-Studio and V-Person. Prior to joining Creative Virtual, Karan worked at an Oracle Financial Software Services Company in Bangalore India.

He is actively involved in Designing, Developing and Testing product enhancements for our V-Studio platform.

Liam Ryan has over 25 years of sales experience, starting in FCMG Field Sales and  progressing to head large National Accounts, before he joined the dotcom revolution by starting his own online business in 1997.

After selling the business in 2001, he worked on a freelance basis with various companies within the Financial Services, Information and Retail industries helping them define and implement their internet strategy.

Liam joined Creative Virtual in November 2007 and currently holds the position of Sales Director. In this role he has responsibility for sales activity across all industry sectors as well as developing relationships with and working alongside Creative Virtual’s channel partners. He is also directly involved with planning and implementing the company’s go-to-market strategy.

Away from work Liam enjoys playing 5-a-side football and a game of golf.

Olaf Voß has a background in physics and has been working in the Chatbot field since 1998.

As lead application designer he’s busy with thinking about the future of Creative Virtual’s products and as part of that has been experimenting with large language models since 2020.

In his spare time you might find him on an Improv stage or bent over a Go board.

Always an early adopter, Peter Behrend cut his technical teeth writing 6502 machine code on the original UK101 kit computer with its massive 3k of RAM, and has been trying to stay ahead of the game ever since.

A graduate of the Universities of Manchester and Wales, and having worked initially for many years in Library Automation Systems, Peter became involved with Natural Language Processing systems in 2000.  Having survived the dot com bubble he joined Creative Virtual in August 2004.

For nearly two decades has led an ever-expanding international technical team and driven the development effort which has seen Creative Virtual emerge as one of the leading suppliers of conversational AI solutions in the world. When not tethered to a piece of technology, he likes to find time for a game of squash, a bit of DIY, or simply exploring the countryside with his camera.

Peter joined Creative Virtual in 2013 and holds the positions of Account Manager, Senior Knowledgebase Engineer and Trainer. He manages the knowledgebases of many of Creative Virtual’s large international accounts and leads both in-person and online training for internal and external knowledgebase engineers. Peter is involved with building knowledgebases, demonstrations and proofs of concept.  He is also responsible for creating conversational flows, data analysis, and testing management.

Rajkumar Mehra joined Creative Virtual in May 2013 and has been involved in setting up and leading the R&D/Dev team in Mumbai, India.
He has over 25 years of experience. Prior to working with Creative Virtual he was working in other leading IT companies.

Scott Tompkins is General Manager for Creative Virtual USA with responsibility for sales and operations activities.

He joined Creative Virtual in 2015 as an Enterprise Account Director coming from a highly successful sales and account management career in the Telecommunication and Cloud Contact Center industries. He became Vice President of Sales a few years after joining the company, and now overseas Creative Virtual’s presence in the US as General Manager for region.

Scott holds a BA in Economics from the College of William and Mary where he also was a member of the football team. Today he spends the majority of his free time running his children to practices and games.

Shantanu Purandare heads up Creative Virtual India. He has a strong development and sales background and has been in the information technology industry for over 25 years.

Prior to Creative Virtual, Shantanu was responsible for solution delivery, and later business development, for the health, education and aviation sectors within the UK for Mastek – a global software development company.

He has a Masters in Information Technology from RMIT Australia, and a Masters in Business Administration from IIM Kozhikode in India.

Having developed language compilers in the early part of his career, he is a developer at heart. He continues to be intrigued by innovative solutions that impact our daily lives, and looks forward to contributing towards making a positive impact on people and businesses.
In his free time, Shantanu enjoys photography, drawing portraits, and playing the harmonica.

Patrick Gallagher is the CEO for Creative Virtual in APAC and a key member of the global executive team. Before joining Creative Virtual, Patrick was APAC Managing Director for Enghouse, a global leader in Contact Centre and Unified Communication software. During his 13 years with Enghouse, he was responsible for key business units including software development, project delivery and customer support, working in the UK and Europe.

In 2006 Patrick returned to Australia as Managing Director in order to establish the APAC presence and develop new market opportunities across the APAC region.

Patrick has over 30 years’ experience in Contact Centres, IVR and Customer Experience applications.

He is a graduate of the University of Sydney and continues to be active in the IT and Telecommunications industry in Asia.