The founding team
More than 130 years of combined experience in defence safety, airworthiness, and risk management, brought to Veriten from careers spent at every level of the system, from regulatory authority to programme delivery and operational frontline.
Veriten has been built around a founding team with complementary and deep capability. Each director brings a distinct specialism that together covers the full breadth of the safety and airworthiness system, all of it grounded in careers spent delivering in the real world, not advising from a distance.
Stephen Tonks
Managing Director
Twenty years as an RAF Air Transport pilot on C-130 and C-17, followed by four years at the Military Aviation Authority, where he was responsible for MAA RA1210 and bringing BowTie methodology into mainstream use across UK military aviation. Since leaving, he has specialised in the design, implementation, and digitisation of Safety Management Systems, combining deep BowTieXP expertise with Power Platform delivery. Enterprise implementations include the Swiss Military Aviation Authority and OCIMF.
BowTieXP Advanced Practitioner — Enablon | Change Management Practitioner — APMG | AgilePM Practitioner — APMG
James Durham
Technical Director & Chief Engineer
Nineteen years in the RAF followed by senior defence consultancy roles, with exceptional breadth across airworthiness, safety assurance, and programme management. Held whole-air-system airworthiness authority for Shadow R1 before serving as Assurance Lead in the DE&S Airworthiness Team, delivering independent assurance to three-star level across all UK military air systems. His career spans surveillance, transport and training aircraft under both civil and military oversight, operational theatre experience, and Naval Base SMS delivery at HMNB Clyde.
BEng (Hons) CEng MIMechE | PG Dip Strategic Leadership & Management | AMAC | ISO 9001 Lead Auditor | Executive Mini MBA
Mike Spencer
Commercial Director
Over 36 years across the Army, MOD civil service, and senior defence consultancy, including safety and airworthiness support across A400M, Voyager, Protector, Shadow R1, Merlin Crowsnest, and multiple UAS programmes. Led the DE&S Safety and Environmental Management System rollout across the Air Directorates and the delivery of ASEMS and POSMS training to fifty MOD project teams. A co-author of peer-reviewed papers on safety and autonomy in aerospace.
BA (Hons) CEng MAPM MIET | Safety & Reliability Society | Defence Industry Security Association
Mark McCabe
Financial Director
Over 37 years spanning RAF operational flying as an Air Loadmaster on C-17, VC-10 and Tri-Star, air safety management, and five years as a Regulatory Compliance Officer at the Military Aviation Authority. He is a qualified BowTieXP facilitator, authored Air System Safety Cases, and scrutinised safety cases across the Defence Aviation Environment at the MAA. Since leaving, he has supported Royal Navy SMS implementation and is working on UAS regulatory development covering swarming, crewed and uncrewed teaming, and armed and one-way effector systems, aligned to the MAA RA 1600 Series, JARUS SORA 2.5 and UK CAA UAS regulatory requirements.
PgCert MIET MILM MCMI | Adelard ASCE Practitioner | ISO 9001 Lead Auditor | BowTieXP Facilitator
Growing our cyber capability. Veriten is expanding its cyber security and systems engineering capability through the addition of experienced senior practitioners from defence and critical national infrastructure backgrounds during 2026, further strengthening our expertise across Secure by Design, operational technology, and cyber assurance.
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