We are turning 40!
With this, our founder Martin, reflects on our history and path forward as we prepare to celebrate entering Cairn’s fifth decade…
“Yes, that’s right, we really have been around for rather a long time.
Cairn Research Limited was incorporated on 29th January 1985, so as I write this, we are proud to celebrate our fortieth anniversary. As a bonus, I also seem to be still around to help celebrate!
So, as well as preparing for the decade ahead, this is also a good time to look back on our history and to try to answer some of your most frequently asked questions.”
Why are you called Cairn Research?
“We rather liked the idea of a company name that didn’t have any direct connection with what we were doing (think Apple for example) – so that way, we could do whatever we liked.
That novel approach to business and relationships resulted in us being warmly referred to in many circles as simply ‘Cairn’.”

Why are you on a Farm?
“Cairn is no longer a one-man band.
Over the years we have outgrown my personal home, then a unit on the Faversham Brents and finally found ourselves at School Farm.
I saw a farm on the outside of town for sale. Too small to be used commercially. Too big to be taken on personally (by most). But the perfect fit for us!
Oh dear, the farmhouse and outbuildings were in a terrible state, but the location was superb, and the ‘potential’, as they say, was enormous.
We now enjoy generous offices and 70 acres of beautiful Kentish countryside as a place we call work, and which I am lucky enough to call home.
Many of the team, including myself like to make the most of this by exploring the land with our four-legged friends. My vizsla boys – Bertie and Eddie know every square inch!”
How have you become Employee Owned?
And what does it mean?
“We share a wonderful sense of team in a wonderful setting here at School Farm and I wanted to ensure this continued in perpetuity – even after I’m gone!
We feel we’ve found our ‘Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything’ and it’s not 42… It’s family. I am delighted to say some of our longest serving recruits have been heard saying recently, ‘we are closer than ever’, though I may be paraphrasing.
With this and the question of succession, in 2021 I decided to gift my ownership of Cairn Research Limited to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) which would ensure our ongoing independence and see generations working here for years to come.
The EOT model creates a great sense of equality and fairness within the business. An elected Board of Trustees formed from members of our team oversee the Management Team of Cairn Research Limited; guardians of the business and its EOT members, they safeguard our values and principles into the future.
I continue to enjoy serving as the Founding Trustee, appreciating those around me and excited by the prospects of what our future holds…”
Why hasn’t Martin retired?
“All this of course raises the “retirement” issue. Why should I stop working when I like what I’m doing, and I’m going to be staying around at the farm anyway?
Whenever I am directly asked, I tell people that I retired in 1989, and I have no need to do so again. That’s certainly what it feels like.
I’m the sort of person who always wants to be doing things; I might just as well continue to do them for Cairn as for anybody else!
In 2025, I look forward to writing further blogs, working on several projects (they are a story for another time) and attending scientific meetings. I am particularly keen to continue my involvement with the Cell Physiology Workshop in its new home, Liverpool, and my regular involvement in the Paris Neuro Workshop.
All whilst maintaining our farm and the proud traditions of Friday Pub Meetings.
As we enter our fifth decade, our story continues, and we hope that you will be, or will continue to be, a part of it….
Best wishes.
Dr Martin V. Thomas
(in many circles simply ‘Martin’)”