Safety Expert Professor John McDermid OBE appointed Rapita Systems Chairman

Rapita Systems has announced the appointment of Professor John McDermid as company Chairman. He succeeds Professor Alan Burns, who is stepping down after ten years in the role. Professor McDermid is a widely-respected authority of high-integrity systems. He has been Professor of Software Engineering at the University of York since 1987, where he set up the High Integrity Systems Engineering (HISE) research group in the Department of Computer Science and was Head of the Department from 2006 to 2012. He is author or editor of six books and has published over 370 papers. He has advised companies and government departments on several continents. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year’s Honours list. McDermid said “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to influence the future direction of this rapidly expanding company, which combines providing a valuable verification solution to the aerospace and automotive markets with innovation from the research projects in which they participate. Furthermore, I look forward to maintaining the mutually beneficial link between the University of York and Rapita.” Rapita Systems CEO, Dr Guillem Bernat commented “We are delighted to welcome John McDermid as our new company chairman. He is widely respected in both industry and academia for his work in the area of high integrity systems, a background which perfectly complements Rapita Systems’ target market”. Bernat continued “we are also grateful to Professor Alan Burns who has been with us as chairman since the foundation of the company 10 years ago. We count ourselves as very fortunate to benefit from the wisdom and experience of two of the world-leading authorities in the area of safety-critical and real-time software.”

Notes to editors

Rapita Systems develops on-target verification software solutions for customers in the avionics and automotive electronics industries. Our tools help to reduce the cost of measuring, optimizing and verifying the timing performance and test effectiveness of their critical real-time embedded systems.

Professor John A McDermid OBE FREng

John McDermid has been Professor of Software Engineering at the University of York since 1987. He set up the High Integrity Systems Engineering (HISE) research group in the Department of Computer Science and was Head of the Department from 2006 to 2012. HISE studies a broad range of issues in systems, software and safety engineering, and works closely with government and industry, e.g. Airbus, BAE Systems, the Civil Aviation Authority, the MoD, QinetiQ and Rolls-Royce. He is author or editor of six books and has published over 370 papers. He has advised companies and government departments on several continents, e.g. advising the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on software safety. He has set up and run a number of small companies, and became Chairman of Rapita Systems in January 2014.He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year’s Honours list.