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Management Team

Workbooks is founded by a team of entrepreneurs with a track record in creating and building successful technology companies.




 

John Cheney - CEO.


Management Team

A Software-as-a-Service pioneer; John launched one of the first software as a service companies back in the late 1990s. He is a successful entrepreneur with over eighteen years experience in the IT industry; ten of which have been running IT companies in Europe and North America.
Prior to Workbooks Online, John founded two previous successful SaaS security companies. John founded BlackSpider Technologies in 2002 and successfully grew the company to become an award winning provider of in-the-cloud email and web security services to over 2,500 organisations world-wide before the company was bought by SurfControl in 2006. John then led marketing and product management at SurfControl and was a key member of the senior management team which led the Company through to its acquisition by Websense in October 2007.

Prior to BlackSpider, John was the Founder and CEO of Activis, a managed security services company which was acquired by Articon-Integralis in 1999. Activis was a leading provider of managed firewall and VPN services in North America and Europe, winning awards from SC Magazine for its services and Frost and Sullivan for its business strategy.

 



 

James Kay - CTO.


James Kay - CTO

With twenty years' IT industry experience, James is responsible for architecting our solutions and for creating and directing the Workbooks technical team. James took on similar roles prior to co-founding Workbooks. As a co-founder of BlackSpider Technologies and Activis he led the building of world-class infrastructures supporting millions of users with extremely high levels of service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Following BlackSpider's acquisition by SurfControl and then Websense, James remained responsible for the design and delivery of their Hosted Email Security and Hosted Web Security services. James' technical interests are the creation of very scalable and robust on-demand systems which are easy for customers to put to use.

Previously James has held development and architecture roles for IBM and Hewlett Packard and he holds a degree in Computer Science from Manchester University.

 


 

Jenny Robb - CFO.



Jenny Robb - CFO

Jenny is a successful accountant with a track record in operational management and extensive experience in corporate finance.  Prior to joining Workbooks, Jenny was co-founder and CFO of BlackSpider Technologies, a leading provider of software as a service security solutions.

Jenny was responsible for the financial health of the business, capital raising and investor relations. Prior to BlackSpider Jenny was Corporate Development Director for the Articon-Integralis group. She was a key member of the management team which completed a Secondary Public Offering for the company in April 2000 and subsequently was responsible for implementing the M&A strategy for the group including the completion of 5 acquisitions and 2 strategic investments.

Jenny also worked for KPMG Corporate Finance as a key member of the Software and Computer Services team. During this period she was involved in over 25 transactions including capital raising, disposals, acquisitions and management buy-outs for both public and private companies. Jenny earned a first class honours degree from the University of Durham and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales.

 

Edward Berks - VP Sales


Edward Berks - VP Sales

Edward brings a wealth of experience to Workbooks, with nearly 20 successful years in IT sales and sales management

He joins Workbooks from Crossbeam Systems where he was Director of Sales for Northern Europe & Iberia, driving strong growth with enterprise customers and service providers.

Prior to this Edward was a founder and served as VP Sales for BlackSpider Technologies, building a base of some 2,500 customers including many well known businesses and public sector organisations in Europe and the Middle East. After BlackSpider was acquired by SurfControl in 2006, Edward led a global sales team winning new customers in the Americas and Asia-Pacific.

Previously Edward held leadership positions with Remedy Corporation, Marimba Software Inc , SAP’s middleware business SAP Portals and Oracle Corporation. Trained by Rank Xerox as a graduate, Edward holds a 2:1 Honours Degree in Engineering and Business Studies from the University of Nottingham.
 


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