About Reconnaissance International

Martyn White

Chairman

Martyn White started working in the banknote industry in 1972 with Portals Ltd and has worked in Sweden, Singapore and Switzerland. In 1995, Martyn founded Secura Monde International Ltd (SMI) now widely regarded as the world’s foremost technical and commercial advisory company focusing on the banknote and high security printing market. In 2012 Martyn acquired Reconnaissance International and is now Chairman of Reconnaissance and Director of Currency Publications Ltd.  

Astrid Mitchell

Chief Executive Officer

Astrid Mitchell is Chief Executive of Reconnaissance International. After gaining a degree in politics at Durham University, Astrid began her career in the industry as a researcher and analyst in the M&A; department of De La Rue in 1983. She subsequently worked in a variety of marketing positions for the company before joining Applied Holographics (now OpSec) as Marketing Director. She then joined Security Printing Systems, the UK passport printer, and its parent, German banknote and passport printer Bundesdruckerei, working in marketing and the international expansion of its new business groups, including border management, biometrics and the Authenticare brand protection division. She joined Reconnaissance in 2002, and was responsible for the inception and launch of Currency News in 2003, a joint venture publication that covers currency (banknotes and coins) from cradle to grave. She is the Editor of Currency News, and Managing Editor of its sister publication Cash & Payment News. Astrid was also responsible for the company’s expansion into tax stamps and identity and is a regular contributor to Reconnaissance’s other monthly publications covering authentication, ID and secure documents, tax stamps and holography. She is also Conference Director for the biennial Coin Conference. Her particular strengths are strategic development, business development, marketing and communications.

Nicola Sudan

Regional Director, ITSA Secretary General

Nicola Sudan has been with Reconnaissance International since 2010 and currently holds the title of Regional Director, in charge of the company’s tax stamp business. She is the editor of Tax Stamp & Authentication News™, programme director for the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ and General Secretary of the International Tax Stamp, Authentication and Traceability Association – a position she has held since the association’s founding in 2015. Nicola’s experience in the tax stamp, security printing and authentication industry comes from a career with SICPA in Switzerland where she held senior marketing and copywriting roles within both the security inks and government security solutions divisions. Prior to that, Nicola worked for 13 years at JTI, in the marketing departments of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Worldwide Duty-Free regions, which has given her a broad knowledge of the global tobacco industry. Nicola holds a BA in Marketing and Accounting.

David Tidmarsh

Director

Dr David Tidmarsh has 50 years corporate experience, virtually all of these were at executive level and for 18 of these years he was a board member of companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange. In those roles he was directly involved in a significant number of acquisitions and disposals and business start-ups. In 2001 he joined the Crane group (banknote paper makers and printers and supplier of all paper for US currency), initially with Technical Graphics Inc (manufacturers of security threads for the US and other currencies) as Commercial Director with responsibility for its overseas activities, and in 2002 he took on the additional role of Sales Director, Europe for Crane AB. From 2007 to 2010 he was Sales Director for Crane for banknote paper, banknotes, passports and security features for all countries except the USA. His eleven years in holography were as Chief Executive of Applied Holographics PLC which became Applied Optical Technologies plc on its acquisition of OpSec, a market leader in product protection devices, and before that was a board director of security printers Bemrose Corp plc, for whom he worked for 17 years, 13 as managing director of various companies including a three year period in the USA. David was the first chairman of the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA), was a board member of the British Printing Industries Federation and holds a BSc and PhD in Chemistry, a degree in Business Administration and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Samantha Burns

Director of Business Development

Samantha Burns is Director of Business Development at Reconnaissance. She is responsible for the company’s activities in business growth, relationship management and international event management. She is also Conference Director for our flagship High Security Printing™ events. She has more than 20 years of experience in business administration, project management, marketing and communications. She is based in Northumberland (north-east England). Samantha is a graduate of Northumbria University in Management Development and during her career has held project and communication positions in both local government and commercial organisations. She joined Reconnaissance in 2016.

Chander S Jeena

Regional Director, IOTA Secretary General

Chander joined Reconnaissance International as Regional Director in 2023, supporting publishing, events, consulting, and related services acrossauthentication, brand protection, currency, secure identity, and optical and digital security markets. He also serves as Editor of Holography & Optical Technology News™. Prior to Reconnaissance, Chander led the India-based Secretariat of the Authentication Solution Providers’ Association (ASPA) from 2006 to 2023, guiding itsevolution from a holography-focused body into a broader platform for authentication and traceability technologies. In 2025, he became Secretary General of the International Optical Technology Association (IOTA), contributing to its mission of fostering a more inclusive and innovative global community for optical security technologies, solutions, and systems. He holds a Bachelor’s in Industrial Relations and a Master’s degree in Mass Communication and Public Relations.

John Winchcombe

Consultant, Currency & Payments

John Winchcombe has worked with central banks on the design, issue and circulation of banknotes from joining De La Rue in 1988 to today.  His De La Rue career has included working in banknote paper mill and print works, responsibility for new product development of paper, polymer, print, machine readable and optical features for banknotes and marketing strategy.  John’s last job at De La Rue was four years as Product Development and Marketing Director for the Currency business. In 2016, after leaving De La Rue, John worked for CCL Secure and in 2018 he started work as a consultant firstly for 7 Layer Solutions and then also with Reconnaissance International.  John’s work with 7 Layer has been working with central bank issue departments to develop a market leading data analytic tool based on serial number reading to understand cash usage and performance. John’s work for Reconnaissance is to bring this knowledge of central banks, banknote manufacture, banknotes and the entire cash cycle into the business, including putting this into the wider payment context as alternative and digital payment methods develop and grow in popularity.

Francis Tuffy

Consultant, Optical & Authentication Technologies

Francis Tuffy has held senior business and technical management positions at Oberthur Fiduciaire, DuPont Authentication, API Security Products and Light Impressions International. A selection of projects that Francis has led include anti-counterfeit programmes in China (tobacco), Turkey (tea), Scandinavia (mobile phone batteries) and security documents projects in Kenya (tax-stamps), Vietnam (banknotes) and Pakistan (ID – cards) He has also managed large science programmes at the National Physical Laboratory – one of the leading measurement and testing laboratories in the world and has been called on to advise international anti-illicit trade bodies such as the Kimberley Process, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region and the OECD. He was Chairman of the International Hologram Manufacturer’s Association from 1998 – 2000. He has been a Chartered Engineer since 2014 and is a Member of the Institute of Physics. Early in his career, Francis was awarded a British Council Research Scholarship at Budapest Technical University, Hungary and was a finalist in the Young Science Writer competition run by the Sunday Telegraph. Francis has business, academic and professional qualifications. He now runs an online science tutoring service (he is a qualified teacher) and is Consultant Editor at Reconnaissance.

Kerre Corbin

Currency and Counterfeit Specialist

With a deep background in banknote examination and forensic counterfeit analysis, Kerre Corbin provides expert guidance on currency integrity and security feature effectiveness. She began her career with the U.S. Secret Service, where she specialised in counterfeit investigations, currency authentication, and field‑level forensic analysis. Kerre later expanded her expertise at De La Rue, working across banknote production, security feature evaluation, and global currency projects, giving her a comprehensive understanding of both the investigative and manufacturing sides of cash. Her work spans the full lifecycle of cash — from circulation quality assessment to counterfeit case investigation — enabling central banks and issuers to strengthen their currency management strategies. At Reconnaissance, Kerre supports research, training, and industry engagement, helping stakeholders navigate evolving threats and maintain robust, secure cash environments.

Weronika Komorowska

Head of Conferences

Abigail Courage

Conference Manager

Alison Bell

Conference Manager

Hannah Shildrake

Conference Manager

Alex Sadler

Research and Editorial Executive

Alex Sadler is the Editor of Coin & Mint News, Reconnaissance International’s specialist publication covering circulating coins, the minting industry, and the global numismatic community. She joined Reconnaissance in 2020 and has led the publication as Editor since 2022, reporting on developments in coin design, production, circulation, security, sustainability, and market trends. Through Coin & Mint News, Alex provides insight into the technologies, policies, and innovations shaping the use of coins within the cash cycle, while also covering industry news, commemorative coin programmes, and public engagement initiatives. She has a background in political science and history and is particularly interested in how both historical and contemporary trends influence the future of currency.

Edward Alaszewski

Subscriptions and Membership Executive

Eddie has working experience in Australia and the UAE, as well as 15 years in the United Kingdom. Prior to joining Reconnaissance he spent 3 years working in the DACH market (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) for a large software company. He completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Librarianship at Charles Sturt University before going on to focus on library IT systems and development of electronic content.

Daniel Simpson

Account Executive

Linda O’Rourke

Director of Finance and Business Administration

Zuzana Riley

Account Assistant

Karen Hayward

Account Assistant

Philippe Sudan

Digital Media and Systems Manager

Philippe Sudan has been with Reconnaissance International since 2018 and currently holds the title of Digital Media and Systems Manager. He is responsible for the company’s full digital portfolio — encompassing six specialist newsletters, the DataVault banknote and currency intelligence platform, association and conference websites, and associated infrastructure. Philippe’s work spans full-stack web development, database architecture, cloud infrastructure, and the automation of editorial and data workflows. He leads the ongoing development and migration of Reconnaissance’s newsletter publishing platform and continues to build out DataVault — a subscription-based intelligence platform serving institutional clients including central banks — with modules covering banknote security features, denomination-level cash data, and supplier intelligence. He also manages the technical setup and delivery of the company’s webinars and virtual events. Philippe is of Swiss nationality, with French as his mother tongue. A certified information systems engineer with over 40 years’ experience gained at a private bank and United Nations organisation in Geneva, Switzerland, he is also certified in digital marketing. This combination of deep technical expertise and communications knowledge gives him an all-round command of the digital domain — from infrastructure and backend development to content strategy and product design.

Justin Ives

Senior Graphic Designer

Justin Ives has over 30 years’ design experience using a wide range of software and hardware.

Raeburn Ward

Social Media Manager

With a background in music technology, Raeburn has worked in Tokyo, London and Brussels, moving from the copper industry into cash and currency, specialising in digital communications and social media.

Francisco Mandiola

Consultant (Latin America)

Francisco Mandiola holds a BSFS degree from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, as well as political studies at the University of Essex. He also has a Master of Business Administration from the University of California. He is fully bilingual in English and Spanish, as well as proficient in French. Following university, Francisco began his career at a lobbying firm in Washington, DC, where he worked for one year, before entering the banking world as an officer in charge of Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay for Lloyds Bank, Plc. On his return to Chile in the early 1990s, Francisco worked at the Chilean Stock Exchange for Banedwards (now Banco de Chile) and oversaw technological innovations to trade stocks and other financial instruments across the country. As a result, he was hired by El Mercurio, the oldest running Spanish-language newspaper in the world, to develop and commercialise its new web offering (www.emol.com). Since then he has worked at a series of executive roles in regional companies and been Managing Director for SKY TV, DIRECTV, Turner/TimeWarner Chile and the Chilean State Mint and Printing Company. In this last role, Francisco was in charge of changing the company culture, re-building and modernising the banknote plant and subsequently promoting CMCh’s availability as the best commercial alternative for the Caribeean and Latin American security market. Also during his tenure at CMCh, he was influential in promoting the use of tax stamps on cigarettes, which resulted in the eventual adoption of such a system by Chile’s Tax Authority in 2019. Francisco serves as a board member for Chilean companies and is also head of FMA, a strategic transformation advisory firm that helps both private companies and government entities in their adaptation to the latest digital and business environments. Due to his past experience, Francisco is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences or as an industry expert on transformation and other issues regionally. He is a registered consultant for ITSA (International Tax Stamp Association) and Reconnaissance International.

Ian Lancaster

Consultant (UK)

Ian Lancaster founded the first successful display hologram producer, Third Dimension Ltd, in 1982, then moved to New York as the Executive Director of the Museum of Holography (1986-88). Returning to the UK, he co-founded Reconnaissance International Ltd to publish Holography News® and was Managing Director for 25 years. He was founder-editor of Authentication News™, director of Reconnaissance’s anti-counterfeiting, product protection and holography conferences, and chief analyst and writer of the company’s holography industry reports. He led the company into the pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting field, as consultant, director of the Global Forum on Pharmaceutical Anti-Counterfeiting and editor of Pharmaceutical AntiCounterfeiting News. He was Reconnaissance’s lead on consulting projects, in which capacity he guided and drafted development or business plans for numerous companies, as well as advising on and conducting due diligence for mergers and acquisitions. All such work was done in confidence but clients that can now be named include multinationals such as DuPont, Honeywell, Arjo Wiggins, NatWest, Sony and Beiersdorf, and start-up or specialist companies such as OpSec, Hologram Industries, Hazen Paper and Global Images. Ian was instrumental in establishing the International Hologram Manufacturers’ Association and was its General Secretary from 1993 to 2015. He was a specialist reader on all three editions of Rudolf van Renesse’s Optical Document Security and since 1996 has been a member of the programme committee for the Optical Document Security Conference, which he now chairs, as well as chairing the Digital Document Security Conference. Ian served on the International Organisation for Standards’ Working Group on Authenticity, integrity and trust for products and documents, contributing to ISO 12931 Performance criteria for authentication solutions and ISO 14298 Management of security print and security foil production. And was project leader for ISO 22382-2018, Requirements for the content, security, issuance and examination of excise tax stamps. He is an expert assessor for the EU’s Horizon 2020 small and medium enterprise (SME) R&D; fund and the fast-track to innovation fund. Ian’s work in support of secured documents and product anti-counterfeiting has been recognised with the IHMA’s Award for Business Innovation, the Russian Optical Society’s Denisyuk Medal and the Chinese Security Identification Union’s Blue Shield award for lifetime achievement in combating counterfeits.

Xiu Ding Chen

Consultant (China)

Xiu-Ding Chen was born in Shanghai and raised in Germany. She holds a degree in International Business and has lived and worked in France, Australia, and Mexico. These extended international stays have shaped her into a true global citizen, fluent in navigating diverse cultural and business environments. Her professional journey began in 2004 in the international sales division of the Bundesdruckerei Group, now part of Veridos, where she specialized in secure government solutions for global markets.  Since 2016, Xiu-Ding has been supporting Reconnaissance International in its business activities in China, playing a key role in bridging cross-cultural partnerships and expanding collaboration with the Chinese currency and identity community.

Aftab Baloch

Consultant

Aftab Baloch is a strategic public sector leader with over 35 years of experience driving institutional reform, tax modernisation, and economic policy at the highest levels of government. He is a former Chairman of EPZA (BS-22) and senior figure at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Finance Ministry, and Pakistan’s diplomatic corps, and has a proven track record in successfully leading multi-agency programs, contributing to international legislation, and publishing on national economic issues.   Aftab’s core competencies include tax policy and administration, public finance and budgeting, institutional governance, international diplomacy, regulatory strategy, economic reseracah, cross-border trade, tobacco and excise legislation, legislative affairs, capacity building and training.  He is the co-author of ‘Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Taxes in Pakistan’, and led FBR–WHO studies on tobacco taxation, resulting in increased tax revenue by Rs. 10 billion in one year. He has also published articles on tax enforcement, digital governance, and economic reform in leading global journals. In addition, he has spoken at numerous conferences and is a regular contributor to Reconnaissance’s publications,  including serving on the advisory board of Tax Stamp & Traceability News.