Monitra Names Engineering Specialist Alex Polley as New CEO

Monitra, a globally recognised company in high-voltage condition monitoring and asset management, has appointed Alex Polley as Chief Executive Officer.

Alex brings to the position a rich blend of technical knowledge and leadership acumen, supported by decades of experience across engineering, research, and product innovation.

A First-Class Honours graduate in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from The University of Manchester, Alex later obtained a Master’s in Instrumentation Design and Application from UMIST, where he was also awarded an MPhil.

Before joining Monitra, Alex worked on the development of high-performance data systems for scientific instrumentation, contributing to projects in bioinformatics, chromatography, and mass spectrometry.

His professional background has provided him with in-depth expertise in real-time systems control, analytical data interpretation, and software design — skills that have defined his career in multidisciplinary technology 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.