Management
Jack Fairhall, CEO
Jack’s business background is in corporate entertainment. He was the Managing Director of The E3 Group, an entertainment production company, for 7 years.
The E3 Group supply entertainment for clients such as Thomas Cook, First Choice, P&O Cruises, London Clubs Casinos, Audi, Mercedes and others. They provide everything from one off large scale events, the writing of production shows, recruitment of in-house entertainment staff or acts for one off performances, rearsals, training and costume manufacture.
During Jack’s time at E3, they grew from 2 people to a team of over 100 staff internationally. Jack is still a shareholder in The E3 Group but is now full time with Kwiqq, building on his passion for the internet, especially social media.
Colin Seaman, Developer
Colin’s Internet experience started in the mid 1990’s during the start of the Dot com bubble. For two years in a row he was nominated within the top 10% of Internet developers in a global under 21’s competition (Thinkquest.org). Being a Liverpool FC fan, he exploited a gap in the online supporters world and created a hugely successful unofficial Liverpool FC site, Koptalk with a business partner. The site achieved 10 million visitors per month and was one of the moment successful fan sites for any football club on the internet. The success of the site ensured an advertising sponsorship deal with Future Publishing and gave Colin the chance to write Total Football’s 1999 pre-season feature.
Colin has had extensive experience in both the e-learning sector and in trade finance, meaning that he has proven development skills suited for creating secure, high user level website development. He has worked with clients such as HSBC, Swift, Adobe, LGFL, Cambridge and Oxford Universities and the BBC. He is a huge advocate of frameworks and has developed many Zend Framework websites.
Chris Speare, Developer
With experience in traditional LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL and PHP) and keen interest in exploiting the latest technologies including Zend Framework and Ajax, Chris has the experience and skill to create the dynamic sites that people now demand.
Before joining Kwiqq he has worked on a number of web based solutions including a bespoke CMS solution, ticketing support system and Java validation server.
Working closely with the design team he is able to ensure the user experience is visually pleasant, but also performs efficiently. Knowing that delays are both annoying and potentially costly, Chris has a passion for using Ajax requests to update only the required areas a of page - keeping the internet traffic down but also saving time on reloading the page.
David Hill, Non-executive Director
Prior to entering the entertainment business, David enjoyed a career in Commercial / Sales management. David is also a professional singer and actor. He has made several TV appearances, toured theatres, and has performed in the pantomime `Cinderella` for five Christmas seasons alongside Julian Clary.
David held the position of Overseas Entertainment Manager for Airtours Holidays and was instrumental in designing and managing the entertainment programme for all Suncenter hotels. David was promoted to Head of Entertainment for Airtours Hotels Division in August 1996 and was responsible for the entertainment, including the booking of all acts, within all the properties that Airtours owned, worldwide.
David founded the E3 Group in 1998, with Airtours Plc as his first client. David has since expanded the business dramatically to include an impressive range of high profile clients. He continues to take responsibility for the strategic planning and development of the E3 Group, and he negotiates all the commercial agreements with E3`s clients.
Sumner Makin, Non-executive Director
Sumner Makin is a Strategy Consultant at BMG Strategy Consulting's head-office in London. He is currently leading multinational teams to collaborate on and solve highly complex business problems using fact-driven analysis. Sumner's Physics PhD and two Masters at Cambridge University have provided him with substantial quantitative expertise.
A rigorous approach and strong background in Financial Services, including Commercial Property Investment, ensure successful delivery of a wide range of projects. These frequently leverage large-volumes of client data using industry-leading analysis to create potent recommendations. Sumner's lengthy public-speaking experience means that he enjoys presenting the practical and engaging results to senior executives.
Raj Anand, Operations Director
Raj is the winner of Europe's Young Entrepreneur 2007 by BusinessWeek, Courvoisier/ The Observer Future 500 (2008), Finalist of Sussex Entrepreneur 2008 and was one of the Top 6 Entrepreneurs in the UK at Cranfield University's Upstart Programme.
He graduated from Sussex University with a BEngg (1.1)/MRes in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. At 23 he setup Anderstand Limited and developed the majority of the software.
Raj worked for the European Union, in Shell STEP internships and developed software projects for Dazdaq Limited, Daniel Sullivan Racing, Desi-Soundz Radio Station and Sussex University research lab. Raj won many national awards for projects in computer science, leadership skills and his entrepreneurial ambitions; inc the Millennium Volunteer award for helping local charities with Web projects, President of the best Society at Sussex University Union and runner up at South East Shell STEP awards.
Dan James, Designer
Proficient in User Experience, Information Architecture, visual styling and standards based XHTML/CSS, with a strong emphasis on providing a detailed site vision and creating intuitive easy to use interfaces.
Dan has designed and built sites ranging from small business start-ups to large Charities, with a clear understanding of the design process and an ability to communicate his ideas in a straightforward and simple manner.
Dan has a broad base of knowledge and is widely read on many subjects. With a BSc Hons in Politics and Economics, Dan believes that it is easier to successfully implement user-centered design if you have a varied background and wide comprehension of human behaviour.
Lucy Irving, Designer
Lucy has extensive design and illustration experience, both professionally and in a personal capacity. She always has a sketchbook to hand and uses drawing as a tool to work through ideas and generate creative workable solutions to problems.
Whilst at university, she achieved a 1st class honours degree in Digital Media Design and was awarded and "In Book" D&AD Student Award for a design project.
Lucy's professional design experience encompasses a broad range of projects from web development for blue chip companies, such as BT and JP Morgan, to creating and delivering web design training packages for MTV. Lucy is passionate about design and illustration and strives to create the best experiences for the end-users.
Colin Bolt, Non-executive Director
With his long term interest in computer interfaces, both software and hardware, Colin is always looking for clean, simple and 'obvious' solutions to interaction problems. Colin's has been online since the early days of BBS's and the Web. His CV ranges from fisheries research through commercial photography with many sidetracks.
Andrew Burke, Non-executive Director
Professor Andrew Burke is Director of the Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurial Performance and Economics. He is also Research Professor of the Max Planck Institute, Germany. Previously, he was Reader & Deputy Director at the Centre for SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises), Warwick Business School as well as Academic Director of the Executive MBA. He was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Anderson School of Business, UCLA in 2002. He is an editor of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education and has acted as a guest editor of the International Journal of Industrial Organization.
Andrew has acted as a consultant for organisations such as the European Commission, The UK Department of Trade and Industry, Business Links UK, Schlumberger, GCI UK, Bank of Ireland International Banking, and the Irish Music Rights Organisation. Andrew is an investor in kwiqq and a non-executive director.