Management team
Alastair Mitchell
CEO and co-founder
His third internet start-up, Alastair founded Huddle with Andy McLoughlin as he was frustrated by existing enterprise technology's inability to help people work together. Spending millions of dollars on a SharePoint implementation, only to watch it fail dismally, was the final straw. In contrast, collaboration apps in our social lives just worked. As a result, Huddle was born. Since setting up the company in 2006, Alastair has grown Huddle to 100 people in London and San Francisco, raised $15 million in funding and seen sales triple year on year.
Alastair's 11 year career has followed the trajectory of the internet. After his first startup, an online media business, Alastair moved into online exchanges and he built the first global soft commodities marketplace. When the business got bought-out by one of its investors, Alastair moved to Dunnhumby. Here he led its web-based marketing intelligence product from zero to $60 million sales within 4 years. He joined the board in 2005 to head up a 300 person global team, running their shopper loyalty practise. When Dunhumby was purchased by Tesco, Alastair started Huddle.
Alastair graduated from Southampton University with an MEng in Naval Architecture. As a passionate supporter of other entrepreneurs and the London start-up scene, Alastair co-founded the popular DrinkTank event and spends his free time investing in and mentoring other start-ups.
Andy McLoughlin
EVP Strategy and co-founder
Based in San Francisco, Andy manages Huddle's growing U.S. presence and is responsible for corporate development and product strategy.
Since co-founding the business with Alastair, Andy has guided Huddle to become one of Europe's most awarded and well-known technology start-ups. Since launch, Andy has been responsible for a number of business areas including technology, product development, marketing and business development.
Andy previously worked as a consultant and product manager for KnowledgeCenter Ltd, a boutique content management and business process automation consultancy focussed on the insurance and finance markets. Andy's clients spanned the UK, Europe and US, including prominent global firms such as QBE, Benfield, Arthur J Gallagher, Catlin and Montpelier Re. Prior to KnowledgeCenter, Andy was Online Manager for Fibernet Group plc, a FTSE 250-listed telecommunications company.
Andy is a keen advocate of entrepreneurship and co-founded the popular DrinkTank entrepreneur networking event with Alastair. As well as mentoring early stage European businesses, Andy regularly speaks and blogs on entrepreneurship, the social web and the consumerization of enterprise software. Andy holds a BA (Hons) Economics from the University of Sheffield.
Zuzanna Pasierbinska-Wilson
VP Marketing
Zuzanna has been responsible for Huddle's brand and marketing since 2008, from its humble beginnings as the UK's favorite B2B start-up to becoming the global leader in cloud collaboration and content management for the enterprise.
Former published sociologist and social researcher at the Centre for European Studies, Zuzanna began her 12-year marketing career at a leading B2B communications consultancy Rainier. Here she worked with Texas Instruments, Wind River and Virgin Media Business. As a part of the management team, she was instrumental in the rapid company and revenue growth until its acquisition by Loewy Group. Zuzanna also co-founded Custard, a consultancy specializing in digital media and mobile. Its client list boasted innovative start-ups such as AdMob (now Google) as well as top global brands, including Disney, ICQ and Garmin.
Zuzanna holds an MA in Sociology from the Jagiellonian University and MSc in Public Relations from the University of Stirling. She is the founder of Silicon Stilettos, a meet-up for women in tech and start-ups and regularly speaks on branding and organizational change through collaboration.
Jonathan Howell
Chief Technical Officer
Jonathan Howell has more than ten years' experience in delivering industry-leading technology solutions in both blue chip and dot.com environments. He has successfully led large software development projects, process improvement initiatives and enterprise architecture changes, and is a particular advocate of Agile development practices. At Huddle, Jonathan is responsible for scaling up application, infrastructure, team and process.
Before joining Huddle, Jonathan was Director of Software Development at Travelocity, where he led the convergence of technology systems across numerous acquired companies. He also ran online software development at lastminute.com prior to the organization's acquisition by Travelocity. Jonathan has worked as a technical architect in a variety of organizations, from large corporations, such as IBM, to a failed dot com.
Jonathan holds a MEng in Engineering and Computer Science from Oxford University.
Simon O'Kane
VP Enterprise
As Huddle's VP Enterprise, Simon O'Kane is directly responsible for driving the organization's focus on enterprise and continuing to build Huddle's presence in large companies and government organizations globally.
Simon has more than eight years experience in the enterprise cloud computing market specifically and more than 20 years experience in the ICT space. Prior to Huddle, Simon was Managing Director, UK and Ireland, at Salesforce.com, one of the pioneers in enterprise cloud computing. In this role, Simon led a sales team of more than 50 people and was responsible for increasing recurring revenues from £2.5 million to £80 million over five years. Simon has also held senior sales positions at Broadvision, Banctec and Fujitsu.
Simon holds a BSc (Hons) in Business Studies from The Manchester Metropolitan University.
Matt Wise
VP Global Sales
As Huddle's Vice President of Sales, Matt is responsible for driving new revenues within the company's corporate and volume markets across the world.
Matt brings to Huddle more than 10 years of senior leadership experience within the technology and cloud-based sector. Prior to joining the organization, Matt held several high level management positions. As the EMEA Head of Sales for MessageLabs, Matt grew revenues by more than 800 per cent during a four year period, including a 450 per cent increase in revenue per capita before their $750 million sale to Symantec. He has also held leadership positions at Mimecast and Sophos.
Since joining Huddle, Matt has been responsible for a 500 per cent growth in revenues across the EMEA and U.S. markets, while maintaining a flat line of cost of sale to the business.
Jon Landau
VP Customer Engagement
Joining Huddle in 2007 as the company's first employee gave Jon the opportunity to ensure that customer service and satisfaction is at the heart of the business, every step of the way. He has developed innovative account management, user adoption and support methods as well as built an award-winning global team. Jon is also responsible for the Huddle Foundation, which helps thousands of charities all over the world get free access to Huddle and is central to the company's philanthropy program.
Prior to Huddle, Jon spent five years on the management team of one of the UK's largest independent retail suppliers. As Business Development Director, he oversaw significant sales growth and operational innovation, and managed its top tier global accounts including Staples, Office Depot, and Tesco.
Jon has a BA in English and German from the University of Birmingham and the University of Heidelberg.
Steve Robinson
Corporate Controller
In his role as Huddle's Corporate Controller, Stephen looks after all corporate areas of the business, including legal, finance and HR. By doing so, Stephen supports everyone else at Huddle and ensures that they can do their jobs effectively without having to worry about the corporate and administration aspects of the business. He is a qualified accountant and brings a wealth of relevant commercial, legal and financial expertise to the organization.
Having joined Yahoo! UK back in 1999, Stephen has spent more than 10 years in the internet industry. Prior to joining Huddle, Stephen worked in a senior finance capacity for a range of different business organizations in the online media, technology and internet sectors, ranging from start-up to large corporate environments. These included Sky TV, Turner Broadcasting, ReviewCentre (Ingenious Media VC-backed).