Salman Malik – CEO
Salman joins Brightpearl with 15 years of experience in building and growing Web and business software companies. Prior to his role at Brightpearl, Salman spent 8 years at Siebel Systems, and initiated the development of Siebel's Web-based products. Prior to Siebel, Salman was a co-founder of Firefly Network, an early pioneer of personalization and recommendation technologies, acquired by Microsoft in 1998. Salman also served as VP of Product Marketing at AMEE, a London-based technology business providing a platform for carbon data aggregation. Salman was born in Pakistan and grew up on four continents. He holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering from Princeton and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Chris Tanner – Founder
Having grown and sold two businesses, Chris is vastly experienced in the nature of small businesses and e-commerce, and has a business owner’s insight into the needs of an SME business. Chris studied at the University of Sheffield and has a MSc in Electronic Engineering; he started his first company at the age of 21. Being frustrated by a patchwork of traditional systems such as Sage, ACT! and OS-Commerce, but lacking the budget for the options available, Chris went on to develop Brightpearl. Chris keeps one eye on the wind and is always ready to kite-surf, although he mostly loves to work.
Andrew Mulvenna – Co-founder
Andrew is the Head of Sales and Partnerships. He holds a BSc in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, and joined Chris to develop Brightpearl in 2007, leaving a career delivering IT projects in both the private and public sectors. Andrew was the Venue Technology Manager for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and director of numerous £2M+ projects. Andrew is passionate about adventure sports, youth organisations and is a member of the Scouting Association. He enjoys mountaineering, surfing and mountain biking when he has the odd day off.
Ben Halstead – CTO
Ben is responsible for the implementation of the Brightpearl platform. He holds a BSc in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. He has long experience designing high performance, high availability enterprise class systems. He was the Head of Software Architecture at BSkyB's web division and was the application architect for www.lastminute.com's global hotel, holiday, restaurant, ticketing and gift businesses. Ben will be putting some nitro under the hood of the Brightpearl system and will make sure that every single thing that leaves our doors is slick, reliable and cutting edge.
David White – Director of Services and Support
Dave joined Brightpearl in April 2011 as Director of Support and Services. Previously he was at Messagelabs for 11 years, where he was one of their first employees. MessageLabs grew into one of the largest SaaS security vendors in the world and was bought by Symantec in 2008 for $698M. Starting as a Presales engineer in 2000, Dave moved through the ranks to head up Presales in the US for the Americas, on his return to the UK a year later, he headed up Presales for EMEA before moving into Operations in 2005. Working his way up in Operations to Director of Enterprise and Partner Services he was responsible for Enterprise Presales and Technical Account Management for all partners and customers in EMEA that generated over £33M in revenue. Dave graduated in Computer Science from DeMontford University and holds CISMP and ITIL qualifications. In his spare time Dave loves motor racing and spicy food - good mix!
Harriet Fletcher – Marketing Director
Harriet joined Brightpearl in August 2011 to Head up their Marketing efforts. Harriet was previously at Rackspace, the worlds leader in hosting and cloud computing, for 7 years. At Rackspace her roles included, Head of Acquisition and Lead Generation, Head of Online Marketing and Marketing Communications Manager. Prior to Rackspace, she was at Adax, a specialist in signalling cards and blades for the telecoms industry, for 6 years where she was their marketing manager. Other employers include Sun Microsystems and Business Link West. Harriet has a BA Hons Degree in Business Studies from the University of the West of England and a post graduate diploma in Direct Marketing with the IDM. In her spare time she is often found wandering in the countryside on hills and mountains.
Tom Glason – Sales Director
Tom joined Brightpearl in November 2010, initially to head up their Business Development efforts. Having spent 6 months drumming up interest from potential partners, including Banks, ISPs & Telco’s, Tom then took over the management and growth of the direct sales team as well. Prior to joining Brightpearl, Tom worked for Atos Origin, a global IT Services provider delivering consulting, systems integration and managed services to blue-chip clients across the world. He was responsible for managing complex, multi-million pound BPO deals, selling high-tech transactional services into the retail, transport & hospitality sectors. Prior to Atos Origin, Tom was the head of Sales & Business Development at Swiftpass Digital, a start-up mobile ticketing / couponing company that pioneered the use of 2D barcodes on the mobile phone. Tom has a First Class BSc Hons Degree in Sports Psychology and loves to surf, eat good food and play golf (badly!).
