Monitra, a global innovator in high-voltage condition monitoring and asset management technology, is pleased to announce the appointment of Alex Polley as its Chief Executive Officer.
Alex combines deep technical expertise with a long-standing understanding of Monitra’s mission and values, making him ideally suited to steer the company through its forthcoming phase of development and expansion.
He graduated from The University of Manchester in 1994 with First-Class Honours in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, before completing a Master’s in Instrumentation Design and Application at UMIST, where he later earned an MPhil.
His early professional experience centred on developing sophisticated data systems for analytical instrumentation, including applications in bioinformatics, chromatography, and mass spectrometry.
This diverse background has given him a strong command of real-time control systems, data management, and software engineering, as well as a proven track record of product development in multidisciplinary technical environments.
Alex joined HVPD as Software and Electronics Manager, leading several major development projects that transformed how the company delivered diagnostic insights to clients worldwide.
His leadership in software engineering and applied machine learning was instrumental in redefining the company’s digital capabilities. He was promoted to the board as Director of Instrumentation Systems in 2015.
Playing a pivotal role in the transition from HVPD to Monitra, Alex headed the development of a cloud-based data management platform that redefined how condition monitoring data is stored, processed, and visualised.
This platform evolved into
Atlas by Monitra™, a powerful, machine learning-enabled system that allows asset owners and maintainers to monitor the health of their high voltage plant anywhere in the world.
Under Alex’s technical direction, Monitra also launched ML-42, an advanced data-processing engine that automatically analyses thousands of data points per minute, enabling engineers to make faster, more informed maintenance decisions and dramatically improving operational productivity.
As CEO, Alex will continue to drive Monitra’s mission to maximise the uptime of every high voltage asset worldwide. His vision focuses on advancing real-time monitoring, AI-driven diagnostics, and predictive maintenance solutions.
“It’s an honour to lead Monitra at such a transformative time for our industry,” said Alex. “Our focus is on using our technology to make condition monitoring simpler, providing actionable insights quickly and efficiently for our customers”.
Monitra’s Chairman, Gavin Ryder, commented:
“Alex’s deep technical expertise, strategic vision, and passion for innovation make him the ideal leader to guide Monitra’s continued global expansion and continued technological evolution”.
About Monitra
Monitra designs and manufactures sensors and products for HV networks principally for measurement partial discharge – a key indicator of HV asset health. Monitra’s Kronos products, software, cloud and AI technology maximise HV power system reliability, avoiding unplanned power outages. Monitra’s offices are in Manchester UK (HQ), USA, UAE, China and Australia.
