Expert Mentors

Stewart is a business mentor within Alacrity and is passionate about how technology can be a force for positive change. He has worked in the UK social housing sector, both in front line housing and in tech companies he’s been fortunate to inform, educate and implement new technologies to improve the lives of tenants across the UK. Stewart is all about transformational change, looking at challenging the status quo and he is the enemy of ‘just doing the same thing’.

Stewart has been given opportunities to lead engaged Alacrity teams in product development, sales and account management and has enjoyed taking technology from other sectors, utilising it in housing, but also showing other industries what they could learn from the best of social housing.

Ben builds brands and ecosystems with global appeal. Brands that blend ambition, purpose, compassion and humility. Ben has experience in technology, cybersecurity, financial services, real estate and government.

He is an expert ecosystem builder and has the network, technical expertise and personal skills to bring shorter sales cycles, to recruit elite talent, to lower the cost of capital, and to broaden stakeholder support beyond traditional groups.

Ben helps Alacrity companies grow by finding customers and investors, and by building engaged teams with strong scaleable processes.

Katherine is the regional lead of an exciting, growing department named by Experian as the most active Corporate Finance Team in Wales for the 5 years between 2015 and 2019. Her background provides a broad range of skills and experience across disciplines and results in a well-rounded person always eager to learn and develop. Legal background and German language skills provide an additional dimension to the Corporate Finance and broader accountancy disciplines.

Katherine mentors on Deal management, pre-acquisition and investment due diligence, supporting clients through all stages of acquisitions and disposals, business planning and forecasting, valuations, strategic reviews, funding applications and economic development work with local authorities and Regional Development Agencies in England and Wales.

Sinead is passionate about supporting businesses with their funding needs, whether that is for growth, acquisition or working capital.

Having spent 17 years in banking, Sinead helps form alternative funding solutions for businesses that don’t fit the typical mould. Sinead is enthusiastic about understanding a businesses needs, both now and in the future and can help shape bespoke funding to meet their needs.

Nicks specialities are strategy, marketing, product development, business development, e-commerce, digital media, price comparison, personal finance, cryptocurrency, blockchain and insurance

Robin has honed and developed his skills as an early starter in designing, managing and delivering managed services. He uses these to complement a strong commercial acumen and proven success to drive the development of business in the cloud and security space, building solutions across and with a plethora of blue-chip enterprises, multi-tiered channel partners, teleco’s and integrators.

Alys is an accredited Executive and Leadership Coach and Mentor. She helps people in business face the future with confidence and clarity.

Previously Alys was a Magic Circle-trained corporate lawyer who was always as interested in business – that of her clients, as well as her own practice and team. Over an 18-year career (the last 5 of which were spent as a partner and team leader), Alys worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and executives. Whether they were starting, growing or selling their company, Alys was fascinated by what the experience was like for them.

Monika is an Award-winning Senior Innovation Leader and Start-up Acceleration Specialist, developing and delivering global business incubation and acceleration programmes for major corporates to drive growth.

She is currently Centre Director at SETsquared Bristol, a University of Bristol-owned business centre supporting science and tech start-ups. SETsquare ranked No1 by UBI against 350+ other incubators globally in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Other recent roles include EMEA Partner Manager at Entrepreneur Country Global, a partner network delivering innovation projects and start-up scouting services to corporates; and European Lead – Market Development at Cognizant, before becoming a founding team member of their Global Innovation Ecosystem.

Lucy founded Mazuma in 2006 with the objective of providing a low cost, hassle-free accountancy solution for micro-businesses through a subscription-based accountancy service. Using a killer combination of technology and humans, Mazuma are at the forefront of the new age of accountancy.

Mark is an entrepreneur, technical leader and developer with a broad background in cybersecurity and technology having worked in government and industry for 30 years. He co-founded a cybersecurity business providing novel detection techniques as a service which went on to be acquired by a Silicon Valley business. Mark provides mentoring on The Lean Startup, creating disruptive technology businesses, cybersecurity in startups and navigating the pitfalls which face the founders of early-stage startups.

Award-winning Retail Company Director and Entrepreneur, Kate also has 20+ years experience in senior roles across a range of private sector verticals.

Katy is currently responsible for the change and delivery function at Admiral Financial Services (AFSL). To deliver change in AFSL, they work in cross-functional teams made up of a variety of roles including product owners, engineers, and testers. Katy uses this experience to offer our teams a perspective on new ways of iterative cross-functional working.

Sam is the current Managing Director of Enjovia Ltd, an Alacrity graduate company. Before joining Enjovia Sam was part of the management team of the Alacrity Foundation, helping the teams with commercialisation. Before joining the foundation Sam held a number of Sales and Marketing roles in Canada and the UK within the tech and finance sectors.

Richard helps business’s to quickly distil their strategy and then explain it in a simple, inspirational and memorable way.
This approach enables business to win large-scale bids and to effect organisational change.

Richard has worked with clients including Cognizant, Genpact, GMC, KPMG, Land Securities and The Crown Estate.

Leading executive search/recruitment specialist in emerging markets since 1994. Providing pragmatic solutions to organisations requiring C suite/Directors and other senior management predominantly to Financial Services and Commercial/Industrial clients in Russia & the CIS, Africa, Middle East, China & South East Asia, India and South America.

Kerry is a Solicitor-Advocate specialising in commercial law and intellectual property law / IT.

Kerry has provided training / lectured nationally and internationally on intellectual property law and dispute resolution mechanisms to professionals, international corporations and public bodies.

Jerry has more than 25 years of international investment, company-building, product development and business strategy experience. Gained via exec, non-exec board and operational roles in a number of established and start-up companies.

Broad technology and sector background with a deep understanding of the mobile eco-system and links into consumer Internet, social networks and mobile entertainment.

Jonathan is vastly experienced in business services varying from accounts to full company audits in a wide variety of business sectors.

Jonathan provides expertise in producing forecasts for business plans, grant audits, management accounts, company valuations and due diligence reports.

Ella is a senior marketer, with a broad level of experience across brand, insight, content and digital. Most recently working in several senior roles within GoCompare. Ella has the ability to think strategically and deliver operationally.  Ella offers our teams insight and expertise around branding and digital acquisition strategies.

Felix Winstone is the Co-Founder and Managing Director at Talkative, an Alacrity start-up that connects website visitors with sales teams. Talkative’s novel platform brings voice, video, chat and cobrowsing into customer-facing websites to increase revenues and improve customer service. Felix manages sales, marketing and finance at Talkative.

Gareth has over 20 years’ experience at well-known brands in Technology . 

Whether Hardware, Software or Services, common themes have been dealing with constant and disruptive change, the need for collaborative partnerships and the mission to successfully align customer value, technology and business strategy in the connected world. Freelance Director & Ex-Global Head of Product for BlackBerry.

With ten years of agency experience spanning PR and online marketing, Katie has worked with local and national brands delivered everything from website redesign projects, SEO, online advertising campaigns to, social media community management.

Nigel is an information management consultant, practitioner and thought leader with over 20 years experience, gained in large organisations, both in the UK and abroad.

Nigel’s work enables organisations to produce information management business cases, data governance processes, and structures, delivering the benefits of improved data quality and data exploitation.

Lee runs Swansea based Visit Digital, they specialise in helping companies understand their customers search habits to give stakeholders the data to make informed decisions. Their clients include The Lad Bible Group, Billionaire.com, Car Buyer and several of the UK’s top 50 websites.

Jesmond has more than 20 years experience as a design leader and UX specialist. She is a freelance user experience consultant, helping clients (from startups to large organisations) shape their digital strategy and build design teams. She is co-author of the practical UX manual, Smashing UX: foundations for designing online user experiences.

Edward has worked in a variety of technology businesses for 40 years. He is an innovative, entrepreneurial hands-on business leader with track record of establishing new technology and securing large complex contracts. “There is nearly always a way forward for your business and your Customer. The challenge is to find it and convince all the stakeholders”

Damon Rands is an experienced cyber security expert, with over 30 years in the Information technology industry. Having worked in development, support and installation he has helped companies across the United Kingdom build secure systems and implement best practices to protect their intellectual property and private information.

Amrit practiced as an accountant and auditor for over twenty-five years before entering academia in 2004. His specialist area has been SMEs and has overseen several businesses from initial startup to successful exit.

He has been teaching at Cardiff Business School (and internationally) for the last twelve years, teaching a range of audiences from Foundation level students through to Executive MBA students.

David is currently a Managing Partner and also the Founder of Odyssey – helping people better understand the human experience both personally and in a business context. David helps the teams understand the realities of business and how to survive and succeed in the rapidly changing world of digital transformation.

As founder, investor, and adviser, Dai has worked with hundreds of tech startups across the world. This has been at all phases, from initial conception and seed funding, through to international scale up.

At his core, though Dai still a techy, with over 20 years’ experience of innovation at the leading edge of online media, advanced advertising and various emerging technologies.

Ben is a creative thinker with an analytical focus. He’s fascinated by FinTech and a believer in the potential of innovation when it moves beyond well-intentioned statements.

With over a decade of experience within insurance, and having worked within start-ups, scaling companies & large incumbents, he’s experience is built around Operational Management, Business Development, Product Development and Project Management.

Alan is the Founder and Chairman of TXO Systems. He founded the company in 2005 and has since led it to phenomenal growth, with operations on five continents.

Alan’s expertise is invaluable in guiding our teams with commercial and product decisions, building partnerships and driving sales.