Executive Board
Appointed to the Board in October 2009, Chairman in May 2015, Executive Chairman in December 2019 and Chief Executive in May 2020. Nick retired as Chairman of Nomura in 2012 after more than 25 years in investment management and banking. His career started as an analyst and fund manager at Mercury Asset Management before moving to Cazenove, where he spent the majority of his career and was a partner prior to incorporation and becoming a vice chairman of JP Morgan Cazenove. He was previously a non-executive director of Strutt & Parker and Picton Property Income Ltd and senior independent director at Primary Health Properties plc, prior to its merger with MedXplc.
Rob is a qualified Chartered Accountant with more than 25 years’ experience across financial services, with Co-Op Insurance, Swinton Insurance and Aviva plc, and professional services, with Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. He joins us from De La Rue Plc where he was Chief Financial Officer.
Talha qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Pakistan in 2009 and spent over fifteen years working in professional services firms with experience in four countries, including roles in Aberdeen and Manchester with EY and PwC, working with companies in both the regulated financial services and consumer product sectors. Talha joined Appreciate Group Plc in November 2021 as Director of Finance and was appointed to the role of Interim Chief Financial Officer on 6 July 2022 but was not appointed as a statutory Board director at that time. He has since been appointed to the Executive Board as Finance Director of Love2Shop and Park Savings.
Julian joined PayPoint as Managing Director of Love2shop and Park Christmas Savings following the successful acquisition of Appreciate Group PLC in February 2023. Julian is responsible for the Strategy, Commercial performance, Clients and Sales & Marketing functions with a focus on driving revenues in line with key financial targets. Julian successfully served as Interim CEO of Appreciate Group plc (AG) throughout the acquisition period. Julian joined AG in August 2017, initially as Group Operations Director then as Chief Commercial Officer. Prior to this, he held senior commercial executive roles at Adare Group, the customer communications services group, for 18 years following a career in the automotive and electronics industry.
Simon joined the Executive Board in April 2021. He was appointed as Chief Technology Officer in May 2017, having previously managed the IT team at PayPoint’s Mobile and Online subsidiary prior to its sale. Simon has worked in both the payments and retail wealth management sectors for over 30 years as an engineer, manager, consultant and IT executive. He has launched and managed card processing systems for several banks and consulted on payments in the UK, USA and Australia. Prior to joining PayPoint, Simon was a management consultant for several years and has delivered significant IT programmes for several banks, wealth managers and insurance firms.
Ben Ford joined the Executive Board in July 2020 as Retail Services Director and transitioned to the role of Customer Experience Director in October 2021 following the acquisition of Handepay and Merchant Rentals. Ben is responsible for ensuring that our proposition is underpinned by the delivery of excellent customer service to our retailers, merchants and consumers. Ben was previously at Addison Lee where he was head of Global Customer Experience and Operations responsible for global service delivery of customers, clients, drivers, and fleet. Prior to joining Addison Lee Ben worked in similar roles for companies including Premier Inn, Danone, Joules and Boden.
Anna joined PayPoint as Sales Director in January 2022 before being promoted to her current role in March 2023. Anna has responsibility for new business generation for all our products and services, customer retention and also relationship management across the current PayPoint estate. Prior to joining PayPoint, Anna worked for Worldpay from FIS, where as VP of SME sales Anna was responsible for new business generation across SME and mid market sectors. Before moving into Payments, Anna spent over 20 years in the telecommunications sector, predominantly at Telefonica/ O2 where Anna held a number of senior positions across both B2B and B2C (Retail), including head of franchising, head of stores, head of global sales. Anna has a broad experience; from leading stores teams of up to 800 in retail and managing relationships with some of the world’s largest organisations across multiple global locations, from her time in global sales.
Mark joined the Executive Board in February 2021 following the acquisition of Handepay and Merchant Rentals and was appointed Banking Services Director in October 2021 in recognition of our growing banking proposition including ATMs and Counter Cash and he retains his responsibility for our cards business. Prior to this, Mark was chief commercial officer at Handepay from 2013 where he developed the market-leading customer proposition and led the marketing and customer management teams. Mark has previously held international product management positions with global payment processor Elavon, where he was responsible for mobile payment, currency conversion and gift card solutions. Mark began his career in the payment industry in 2002, supporting major acquiring and retail customers for Ingenico.
Tanya joined PayPoint as General Counsel and Head of Compliance in September 2020 and leads PayPoint’s Legal and Compliance teams advising all companies across the PayPoint Group on legal and regulatory matters relating to their businesses. Prior to joining PayPoint, Tanya worked at Zurich Insurance for 11 years where she held a number of roles including Head of the UK Corporate & Commercial Legal team. Tanya qualified as a solicitor in 1996 at the international law firm Lovell White Durrant, now Hogan Lovells LLP, where she worked as a solicitor for 12 years specialising in corporate and commercial law across a number of business sectors.
Steve joined PayPoint originally in 2014, and then again in 2020 as Corporate Affairs and Marketing Director, leading our marketing, PR and investor relations efforts for the Group. He has spent over 20 years in marketing and PR leadership roles for large consumer organisations in the UK and Europe, across the retail, telecommunications and financial services sectors. After starting his career at the John Lewis Partnership on their graduate scheme, Steve has worked for Orange, Carphone Warehouse, HSBC and Amigo. Steve is also a member of the ESG Working Group.
Chris joined PayPoint in 2016 and is Head of Corporate Development, leading the organisation’s growth and development activities and overseeing treasury strategy. Prior to joining PayPoint, Chris worked at LMAX as Head of Financial Reporting, where he was responsible for developing the finance function following its MBO from Betfair. He is a qualified accountant with 20 years’ experience in senior finance positions in financial services, telecoms and gaming sectors, including TalkTalk and Tsogo Sun Gaming.
Anthony joined the business in 2013 following seven years with convenience retailer SPAR. Since joining PayPoint he has held a number of leadership roles across retail relationships and product management, culminating in his appointment to the Board as Retail Proposition & Partnerships Director in April 2023. Anthony leads the strategic development of our retail devices and accompanying services, our ATM business, our consumer engagement proposition, and our partnerships with large-scale corporate retail groups such as Asda, Co-op, and One-Stop.
Jo joined PayPoint in 2011 and is currently Client Services Director, with responsibility for a portfolio of client service sectors including energy, local authorities, DWP and eMoney. Prior to PayPoint, she supported bluechip organisations with their CSR programmes in schools, including developing programmes for BT and Grant Thornton, following her early career in the education sector.
Danny joined the business in 2019 and was promoted to his current role of Managing Director, Client Services in 2023, leading the commercial and strategic development of the client portfolio and managing relationships with the multiple retailers. Before joining PayPoint Danny worked for Mitie plc in the FM sector managing a number of businesses, predominantly within the security sector. Danny also worked in consultancy for Newton Europe specialising in process efficiency improvements across a diverse range of sectors, including healthcare and defence. Prior to this Danny started his career as a graduate in the logistics industry, spending six years working in the parcel carrier industry for Target Express.
Katy joined PayPoint as HR Director in 2012 with responsibility for the development and implementation of our people agenda. Prior to joining PayPoint, Katy worked for RSA Insurance Group where she held a number of senior business partnering roles in the UK and latterly in the emerging markets business where she was responsible for ensuring the delivery of the HR agenda across 22 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Prior to that Katy spent seven years at General Electric where she held HR roles in both its consumer finance and insurance businesses. Katy has a degree in International Business and Modern Languages from Aston University and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD. Katy is a member of the ESG Working Group and chairs the Employee Forum.
Nick Williams joined PayPoint in September 2017 and is currently Parcel Services Director, having previously managed the parcels operational team before taking on responsibility for the wider PayPoint parcels product. Nick has overseen the transformation and growth of the Collect+ brand in recent years into a truly carrier agnostic and customer centric solution.With 30 years industry experience Nick formerly held key positions within both Hermes and TNT where he was responsible for various commercial and operational teams.