Meet The Team...
Dave Jones - Director
Dave has over 30 years experience in various roles. This includes over 15 years at CIO level.
Dave has been instrumental in delivering digital transformation at a number of multinational organisations, working throughout Europe, USA, South America, Middle East, Asia and Australia. Implementing solutions across multiple language groups and business cultures.
Dave holds a MA in Leading Innovation and Change awarded from York St John University in 2013.
Dave has also been recognised as a leading UK CIO and named in the CIO 100 in 2014, 2017 and 2018.
Dave is Chairman of the Northern IT Leaders Group and a member of the Yorkshire Byte Night Board.
Alex Clixby - Associate CIO
Alex has worked in IT leadership for over 25 years and has successfully delivered digital transformation and technology modernisation within numerous sectors, including Finance, Insurance, Healthcare, Defence and Energy. He currently works as a fractional CIO and CTO, technology board advisor, and IT Consultant.
He has a proven record of successfully delivering IT Services, Transformation, Strategy, and Programmes. He is strategic in thought and ‘hands on’ in delivering success. With an accomplished military background, he has a reputation as a seasoned professional, who quickly achieves results, drives change, and improves the performance of large and diverse IT teams.
Away from work, Alex enjoys spending time with family and friends, keeping fit, walking, and is a keen rugby union follower.
Adrian Wakefield - Associate CIO
Adrian, a passionate ‘excellence’ advocate, began working life in engineering roles, before moving on to operations and IT leadership. Adrian’s executive life culminated as the CIO / Board Director of a highly respected and successful global engineering organisation.
Adrian now provides interim, consulting & advisory services focusing on Digital strategy, technology capability and operating model development; Adrian’s innovative approach is built on the application of systems thinking, operational excellence and customer satisfaction, where he is able to call on a wealth of practical experience across the full suite of manufacturing, supply chain, sales, marketing and finance.
Outside work, Adrian enjoys running, cycling, Northern Spain and the odd slice of rare soul music.
Laura Dawson - Associate CIO
Laura has a passion for making the complex, understandable and is a master of analogies, particularly equine ones. An accomplished leader in technology and digital transformation, she is a strong advocate of treating information as the third major asset class in any organization, particularly one with knowledge workers at the heart.
She has a passion for finding your internal talent and creating teams that will go from strength to strength and for making technology teams exemplars in Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion.
As a result of her time at RSPB, she has interest in nature and embarrassingly can get a bit distracted if ‘something interesting’ flies past. She is also a Watford FC fan, so is used to managing her expectations and has an extensive collection of board games (she has over 70 at the last count).
Phil Tottie - Associate CIO
Phil has over 35 years in the IT industry, with considerable international experience having worked in the UK and 7 different countries across Asia, Middle East, Europe, and Latin America. Phil is an experienced IT Director.
He has an in-depth knowledge of outsourcing, cost reduction, programme management, service management and working with businesses to transform IT in order to build competitive advantage. Phil has equal success working within FTSE 100 companies as well as SMEs.
Phil has experience of Merger & Acquisitions and performing due diligence on behalf of Private Equity companies plus a wide knowledge of the Finance, Private Equity, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Education and Charity sectors.
Outside work Phil enjoys golf and spending time with his family. He is on the board of Trustees for Harrogate and District Samaritans.
Danette Copestake - Associate CIO
Danette is an experienced CIO. With exceptional stakeholder, peer and colleague management and collaboration with high success rate of buy-in from executive teams and decisions makers. She is recognised widely as a trusted, innovative and highly experienced professional for digital transformation.
Educated at Canterbury University with a business degree, Danette originally served with the Royal Navy, before moving into project and programme management in the banking world. A customer and people focused leader, she brings more than 20 years of change management and delivery experience to the role, having worked at Commerzbank, ABN AMRO, Hewlett Packard, EDS and DXC.
Danette is passionate about emerging technologies, innovative and agile ways of working, including cloud computing, AI, data and distributed ledger technology. She is an advocate of women in technology and won the CIO London’s Prediction Panel.
Danette enjoys Skiing, running, sailing and pet rescue in her spare time.
Jane Murdoch – Associate CISO
Jane is a highly experienced and motivated Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), with 20+ years’ experience developing and delivering Information & Cyber Security to major verticals/small medium enterprises, utilising a best practice approach across multiple global regulatory requirements.
Jane is an excellent communicator, skilled in building effective long term relationships with CxO senior stakeholders, driving business benefits, managing expectations and building/leading and motivating global Cybersecurity teams in high pressure environments. Jane possesses an excellent work ethic, drive to achieve and having the adaptability and capability required to deliver consistently high quality results in the challenging and fast moving digitally connected world.
In her spare time Jane enjoys spending time with her two children, French bulldogs, cats and walking, hiking, paddle boarding and snowboarding when time allows.
Jane is also a Belief Coding® Facilitator, Full Potential Coach and currently training in Sound Healing and Reiki
Mark Dundon - Associate CIO
Mark is a commercially focussed IT executive experienced in leading, improving, and growing businesses via delivery of complex transformational change proven in multiple sectors, including highly regulated businesses in Financial Services, Telecoms, Health, Public Sector, Utilities (Gas & Electricity), and Rail Transport.
Mark is customer focussed, and has the ability to understand technical detail, and resolve complex problems, whilst also operating at a higher/board level to collaborate and define, deliver strategic value and business change. Mark is passionate about leverage the value of technology to improve business outcomes. Mark provides interim, consulting and advisory services, and is highly experienced at delivering successful programmes often in complex circumstances.
Mark is educated to masters level with an MBA, and bachelors degree in Software Engineering (BEng).
Mark is recognised as a leading CIO in the UK CIO 100.
Mark enjoys spending time with his wife and 5 children, and tries to keep an active fitness lifestyle, with cycling, running, swimming, and competing in triathlons when time allows. Also a Liverpool FC season ticket holder.
Rob Osborn - Business Continuity Consultant
Rob over 15 years’ experience in Business Continuity, Risk Management and Security solutions in addition to over 20 years IT experience in a number of technologies. Rob specialises in Business Continuity, Information Security and Crisis Management.
Working with blue chip organisations in areas including retail, manufacturing, finance, public and private sector, Rob is a Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute (FBCI) , chairs the BCI North West Chapter and regularly teaches Business Continuity courses for a leading training organisation.
Rob has extensive experience in achieving certifications for ISO 22301 & ISO 27001 (Business Continuity & Information Security standards) and is a Lead Auditor for both standards.
Outside work Rob enjoys tennis and travel.
Kevin Hayes - Associate CISO
Kevin has over 25 years in the IT industry, with 20 years specialising in information and cyber security. Kevin has experience working with small, medium, and large blue chip global organisations in several sectors and with roles across the UK, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Kevin has extensive experience in information security management, including establishing and maturing the function, accountability for strategic security leadership and long-term delivery in complex environments with mission critical security posture, change delivery, and operational activities. This includes implementing, maintaining, and auditing ISO27001 and the NIST Cyber Security Framework.
A lifelong learner, Kevin holds MBA, MSc, and BSc degrees, and several industry certifications: CISM, CISSP, CIPP/E, CIPM. Kevin is also a volunteer STEM Ambassador and Mental Health First Aider. Outside work, Kevin enjoys spending time with family, rugby league and travel.
John Court - Associate CIO
John is a leading CIO and board advisor who has operated extensively in mid cap companies, PLC's and private equity held entities. He is also experienced in IPO’s, mergers, carve-outs, acquisitions and divestments and has successfully led the technology, integration and change elements of these on numerous occasions. John’s experience includes large scale digital transformations, advanced e-commerce solutions, cost and performance optimisation and change leadership. John has twice been named a Top 100 CIO and his supply chain solutions and technology operations have received multiple independent industry awards.
John is a keen rugby follower, club golfer and traveller.
Declan Hunt - Associate CIO
Declan has worked in Technology for over 30 years with almost half of his career spent in CIO roles at Executive Board level. Prior to becoming a CIO, Declan spent 7 years as a consultant for Cap Gemini Ernst and Young.
In recent years, Declan has focussed on significant Digital and Technology transformations as part of growth strategies in a wide range of organisations both in the UK and internationally. In addition to delivering Digital and Technology change, Declan has delivered large scale organisational change as part of these transformations.
During his career Declan has worked across a breadth of sectors including logistics, retail, financial services, security, government, third sector and health.
Passionate about helping others, Declan is a Trustee at the London Irish Centre charity.
Declan likes to keep fit and is a keen golfer. He loves spending time with his family and regularly provides homes to rescue pets.
Brian Lancaster - Associate IT Director
Brian spent the first 30 years of his IT career working for large corporates, leading operational and technical support departments and projects. He has worked with colleagues across the globe and has run IT resilience reviews in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
For the last 6 years he has helped SME organisations reduce operational risk in the IT systems and processes that underpin their critical business services. He specialises in evaluating and improving the resilience of IT infrastructure and associated management capabilities that support delivery of technology services. He has published “Avoiding IT Meltdown” to share some of the pragmatic lessons he has learned over the years.
Brian’s other interests include football, architecture, walking in the Peaks, and playing the guitar.
Michael Evans - Associate CRM Expert
Michael has 15 years' in CRM/CX system project management and 10+ years' experience of marketing and sales delivery. He brings both user and tech delivery angles to for projects including selection, implementation and optimisation of CRM/CX products. Michaels career started with roles at Intel, Vodafone and NETGEAR in B2B and B2C marketing programme management roles, utilising CRM and marketing platforms. Product knowledge includes Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft, Zoho and Hubspot CRM/CX systems.
Client projects have included Regus, Rabobank, NHS Supply Chain and Travelport, plus adoption programmes for Verizon and HP. Strong communication skills, engagement and management of expectations with users, senior management and partners has been key to the successful delivery of projects.
In his spare time Michael enjoys gardening, especially growing own food, learning about foraging and getting out in nature on walks and cycling.
David Threlfall – Fractional CIO/ IT Director
David has over 30 years experience building and managing IT
& Digital teams in a wide variety of industries such as
Manufacturing, Battery innovation, R&D, Financial Services
and Medical devices.
His exposure in both complex international corporations and
private equity backed start-ups and merges allows him to
quickly deliver value whatever the size of your organisation.
Extremely commercially aware and passionate about driving
real business value from IT People, Processes and technology.
Driving the digital agenda to assist in driving Revenue,
reducing cost and mitigating risk throughout an organisation.
A keen cyclist and sailor.. although we understand not at the same time!
Nik Southworth - Fractional CTO / CIO
Nik has over 20 years of experience of technology experience, having spent the last 10+ years in C-Suite positions.
With a varied experience across multiple sectors both in B2B and D2C businesses, Nik has a wealth of experience enabling him to bring value to any business.
Starting out his career in Software Development, Nik has continued to ensure that he has a relevant and updated knowledge of bleeding edge technology and is a hands on leader of technologists across all disciplines.
Nik has 2 small children that keep him very busy, and he loves to stay active when not behind the keyboard or in the boardroom.
