Leadership

Martin Hellawell

Independent Non-Executive Chair

Martin joined the Existing Group in July 2019 as non-executive chair and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 29 July 2019.

He is chair of musicMagpie PLC and chair of Gamma Communications Plc, and was formerly senior independent director at Team17 PLC, both AIM listed organisations. He was also formerly chair of Softcat PLC, a leading FTSE 250 organisation.

Martin was previously managing director and then chief executive of Softcat between 2006 and 2018 and was chief executive when Softcat listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2015.

In his earlier career Martin spent 13 years at Computacenter plc, where he was responsible for the marketing function, ran Computacenter's French subsidiary and led acquisitions in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany. He was part of Computacenter's initial public offering team in 1998.

Martin has a BA degree in Management and French from Lancaster University.

Dr Eben Upton CBE

Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Dr Eben Upton CBE DFBCS FREng is a founder of the Foundation and serves as the CEO of the Group. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2017, appointed a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society in 2019, and elected an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge in 2020. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to business and education in 2016. He was previously a Technical Director and Distinguished Engineer with fabless semiconductor company Broadcom, and co-founder and CTO of mobile games and middleware vendor Ideaworks3D. From 2004 to 2007 he held the post of Director of Studies for Computer Science at St John's College.

Eben holds a BA in Physics and Engineering, a Diploma in Computer Science, a PhD in Computer Science, and an MBA from the University of Cambridge. He is a member of the UK Semiconductor Advisory Panel and Prime Minister's Business Council.

Richard Boult

Chief Financial Officer

Richard joined the Existing Group as chief financial officer in October 2019 and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 4 October 2019.

He was previously the chief financial officer of Dovetail Games Limited, having previously served as the chief financial officer of Time Out Group plc at the time of its IPO and subsequently until March 2018. He was previously group finance director at BCA Marketplace plc, including at the time of its listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

Prior to joining BCA Marketplace, Richard held a number of senior finance roles at both group and divisional levels in major listed companies, including Wolseley plc, Darty plc and 21st Century Fox Inc.

Richard holds an MA in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in London.

Sherry Coutu CBE

Senior Independent Non-Executive Director

Sherry joined the Existing Group in December 2012 as a non-executive director and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 18 December 2012. She is a former trustee of the Foundation.

Sherry has 30 years of experience serving on the boards of companies, charities, government departments and universities, focusing on consumer digital, business information services, and education.

As an entrepreneur, Sherry founded Interactive Investor International plc, Founders4Schools, Digital Boost and the Scape-up Institute. She is a non-executive director at Pearson plc, the world's largest learning company where she chairs the remuneration committee and serves on the nomination and governance committees. Previous plc board experience includes RM plc where she was senior independent director, London Stock Exchange Group plc and Zoopla plc where she chaired the remuneration committees.

She was commissioned by the UK government to author the Scaleup Report on UK Economic Growth, was awarded a CBE for services to entrepreneurship, and has four honorary PhD's, one MSc in economics from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

David Gammon

Independent Non-Executive Director

David joined the Existing Group in September 2016 as a non-executive director and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 6 September 2016.

David has over 15 years' experience as an investment banker, having worked for Baring Securities, Salomon Brothers, Robert Fleming & Co, Challenger East and Credit Lyonnais. Since 2001, David has focused on developing, advising and investing in disruptive high growth technology companies. In 1988, David founded Rockspring, an advisory and investment firm, where he continues to be CEO today. In 2017, David was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. David's previous experience includes advisory roles at Thought Machine Limited and Marshall of Cambridge Holdings Limited. He held non-executive directorships at DeepMind Technologies Limited, Accesso Technology Group plc, Ubisense Trading Limited, Amino Technologies plc, bGlobal plc, and was chairman of Frontier Developments plc and acting CFO at internet specialist Envisional Solutions Limited. David is also a non-executive chairman of Wild Hydrogen Limited and non-executive director of L'Escargot Sur Mer Limited. He acts as an adviser to IQ Capital Partners LLP and has been a member of the Access to Finance and Growth Capital Committee of the Scale Up Institute since 2015.

Rachel Izzard

Independent Non-Executive Director

Rachel joined the Existing Group in 2022 as a non-executive director and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 10 June 2022.

Since June 2023, Rachel has been the chief financial officer at the Co-op and is an executive director on the Co-op Group board.

Before joining the Co-op, Rachel was chief financial officer at N Brown PLC, the UK fashion digital retailer, with a previous 25 years of experience in airlines and logistics including as chief financial officer of Aer Lingus and chief financial officer at IAG Cargo, where she co-founded the business from the divisions of British Airways and Iberia, as well as a range of roles overseas in Sydney, Hong Kong and New York after starting out on the BA graduate programme.

Rachel holds an honours degree in Astrophysics from Birmingham University and is also a chartered management accountant.

Christopher Mairs CBE

Independent Non-Executive Director

Christopher joined the Existing Group in 2019 as a non-executive director. He was appointed to the Board of Directors on 22 March 2019.

Christopher is an angel investor focused on deep tech and a venture partner at Entrepreneur First. He is also chair of the Undo Carbon and a former trustee of the Foundation.

Christopher was a co-founder and chief technology officer of Metaswitch Networks, a cloud-based communications company backed by Sequoia Capital and Northgate Capital, which was acquired by Microsoft in May 2020. He was also chairman of Magic Pony Technology until it was acquired by Twitter in 2016.

Christopher is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, an Honorary Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge and was awarded a CBE in the 2014 New Year's Honours List.

Dan Labbad

Non-Executive Director

Dan joined the Existing Group in 2021 as a non-executive director and was appointed to the Board of Directors on 1 July 2021.

Since December 2019, Dan has been the Chief Executive and an executive board member at The Crown Estate. He is a former trustee of the Foundation.

Prior to The Crown Estate, Dan held a number of positions at the global property and infrastructure group Lendlease, including group chief operating officer and the dual roles of chief executive officer, international operations and chief executive officer, Europe to oversee the expansion of Lendlease's businesses in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Dan has previously served as a director of the Green Building Council of Australia and more recently as chairman of the UK Green Building Council. Dan holds a first class honours degree in Engineering (Civil) from the University of Technology Sydney and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of NSW.