Our team
Board of directors
Matthew Mead
Non-Executive Chairman
Matthew Mead
Non-Executive Chairman
Former Chief Investment Officer with Mercia Fund Management and 3i. Vast experienced venture capitalist.
Warren Russell
Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Executive Director
Warren Russell
Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Executive Director
Over 14 years’ experience in working within the Financial Service Sector. Warren has extensive expertise in AML (Anti Money Laundering), Anti-fraud, CTF (Counter Terrorism Financing), Loss Prevention, Regulation and Compliance working within companies such as HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Cheltenham & Gloucester and C6 Group.
Sara West
Chief Commercial Officer, Executive Director
Sara West
Chief Commercial Officer, Executive Director
Held senior positions within market leading payment businesses such as FIS, Allpay and Oberthur Technologies.
Dr Jonathan Pell
Non-Executive Director
Dr Jonathan Pell
Non-Executive Director
Jonathan is a Chartered Accountant and an experienced serial businessman having held CFO, COO and CEO in multiple organisations all of which have been successfully acquired. Jonathan was CEO of Datanomic, a data quality and AML software vendor which was acquired by Oracle at which point he served as Vice President of Data Quality Strategy for Oracle.
Julian Dennard
Non-Executive Director
Julian Dennard
Non-Executive Director
Previously Partner with Technology Venture Partners LLP and Associate Director for KPMG Corporate Finance.
Les Freeland
Non-Executive Director
Les Freeland
Non-Executive Director
Les has held key positions within finance operations including Senior VP EMEA and Senior VP Global Operations within organisations such as Tibco and Teknekron. He currently holds various board-level positions within innovative software companies helping mentor the management teams
Senior management team
Warren Russell
Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Executive Director
Warren Russell
Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Executive Director
Over 14 years’ experience in working within the Financial Service Sector. Warren has extensive expertise in AML (Anti Money Laundering), Anti-fraud, CTF (Counter Terrorism Financing), Loss Prevention, Regulation and Compliance working within companies such as HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Cheltenham & Gloucester and C6 Group.
Sara West
Chief Commercial Officer, Executive Director
Sara West
Chief Commercial Officer, Executive Director
Held senior positions within market leading payment businesses such as FIS, Allpay and Oberthur Technologies.
Tom Kahan
Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer
Tom Kahan
Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer
15 years experience as a Chartered Accountant working for a big 4 accounting firm, Deloitte and a leading high tech and fast growth semiconductor company in Wales. Has extensive financial, operational, and strategic experience and time spent supporting the growth of a $300m business and managing merger and acquisition (M&A) activities and funding requirements makes him ideally placed to enhance companies with future growth aspirations like ourselves.
Adrian Grindrod
Chief Technology Officer
Adrian Grindrod
Chief Technology Officer
15 years experience in software development, management and operations for world leading companies including Panasonic, Sony, Symbian, Nokia and Orange as well as various start-ups.
Gary Pine
Chief Product & Marketing Officer
Gary Pine
Chief Product & Marketing Officer
Over 20 years senior product experience with Bottomline Technologies, AutoTrader, 118118 and Orange.
Advisory board
Stephen Quinn
With many years of experience in the financial services, on-line gaming and identity verification sectors, Stephen sits on W2’s Advisory Board. Stephen was previously Head of Retail, Finance and Gaming at GB Group, Director of Strategy at Ukash and is currently SVP & Global Head of Sales at INPAY.
Kevin Kelson
Kevin has over 21 years’ experience in banking, working in a senior management capacity for major financial and technology institutions such as Toronto Dominion Bank, RBC and BNP Paribas, Nomad Software Ltd and FIS. Since leaving FIS in 2017, Kevin has held several board advisory positions one of which is with W2.
Peter Fox
After completing a degree in Pure & Applied Physics at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Peter went on to a complete a masters in Software Engineering at Aston University. Since then he has held many key senior software engineering and development leader roles, before being appointed the Development Director at Oracle, Chief Technical Officer at Aegate, and finally CTO at Congenica where he is responsible for the development & innovation of Congenica’s flagship product; Sapientia.
David Hunter
Having been placed in the Payments Power 10 in 2013 David is widely recognised as a business leader with an exceptional track record of building disruptive businesses. Previous roles include CEO at Ukash, UK CEO at paysafecard, MD at ClickandBuy Europe and CEO at BT Click&Buy. David is a NED at Gx and Advisory Board Member at the Emerging Payments Association.
Chris Ratcliff
Chris Ratcliff is Chief Executive of adult broadcaster, Portland TV, which operates TV and on demand services across Sky, Freeview and Virgin. Chris also sits on the Council of the Digital Policy Alliance – the cross-party policy voice of the internet and technology sector in Westminster. He is currently industry lead on the DPA’s Age Verification working group.