Monitra, a global authority in high-voltage condition monitoring and asset management, has announced that Alex Polley has been appointed as its Chief Executive Officer.
Bringing years of experience in engineering, technology development, and strategic innovation, Alex is well positioned to steer Monitra through its next growth phase and further enhance its leadership in the energy and infrastructure sector.
He earned a First-Class Honours degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from The University of Manchester in 1994 and subsequently completed a Master’s in Instrumentation Design and Application at UMIST, where he was later awarded an MPhil.
Alex began his professional journey working on data systems for analytical equipment used in bioinformatics, chromatography, and mass spectrometry.
This work equipped him with advanced knowledge of hardware control, data acquisition, and software development — expertise that continues to inform his leadership in cross-functional engineering 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.
