Giles Palmer – Founder & CEO
Giles is the founder and CEO of Brandwatch.
Giles started Brandwatch after leaving BSkyB. Development on the product started in late 2005 and from its launch in August 2007, Brandwatch has grown to become one of the world’s leading Social Media Monitoring companies serving businesses across the globe from FTSE 100 companies to SMEs. Giles achieved this by building a great team, launching early in the product development cycle, listening to customers and iterating the product.
He is a regular speaker at Social Media conferences and also serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for Sussex University as well as the Social Media Committee for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Fabrice Retkowsky – CTO
Fabrice has an Engineering Degree from Ecole Nationale Supèrieure de Télécommunications de Bretagne, and an MSc and PhD in Computer Science from Sussex University.
He joined Brandwatch in 2000 and was appointed CTO in 2005. He is the software architect behind Brandwatch and manages all aspects of product development.
Bryan Tookey – COO
Bryan joined Brandwatch from Ask Jeeves, where he was European Operations Director. Before that he held a management role at Google in London and spent 6 years at McKinsey where he was promoted to Engagement Manager. He has a 1st Class degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
Sebastian Hempstead – VP, North America
Seb has lead the sales team in the UK for the last two years during a period in which the company has been growing at an average of 10% every month and adding a new customer almost every day. He has built a multilingual team and a client base that is now using the application around the clock.
He has now moved to New York to set up Brandwatch in the US.
Before joining Brandwatch, Seb had the unique combination of having taught Kitesuring around the world, run the commercial side for the world’s leading kitesurfing magazine and worked for IBM on supply-side ERP.
Mark Heeley – Non-Exec Chairman
A graduate of Durham University, Mark was the founder in 1990 of London advertising agency Claydon Heeley, which was built from scratch to become a significant player in brand advertising. It was subsequently sold to Omnicom in 2001.
Mark was founder in 2000 and Non-Executive Director of Improveline.com, a baby of the dotcom era and heavily subscribed by 1st mover venture capital fever. The model was adapted to clicks and mortar and with the development of an online insurance facilitation model, soon became profitable. Key VCs were Advent and Alta Berkeley. It was sold to its biggest competitor Homeserve plc in December 2005.
Non-executive Director since 2001 of Hometrack, Europe’s most respected AVM (automatic valuation model) property business (www.hometrack.co.uk), Mark joined the Brandwatch board in early 2007.
Marshall King – Non-Exec Director
Marshall raised venture finance from Advent International and others to start Improveline.com in 2000, a home improvement portal. The business grew to a peak revenue of £60m and was sold in 2005 to Homeserve plc. Marshall is now CEO of RFIB Group, a private equity funded wholesale insurance broker. He has a First in Engineering from Trinity College Dublin, and an MBA from INSEAD
About > Management
Giles Palmer – Founder & CEO
Giles is the founder and CEO of Brandwatch.
Giles started Brandwatch after leaving BSkyB. Development on the product started in late 2005 and from its launch in August 2007, Brandwatch has grown to become one of the world’s leading Social Media Monitoring companies serving businesses across the globe from FTSE 100 companies to SMEs. Giles achieved this by building a great team, launching early in the product development cycle, listening to customers and iterating the product.
He is a regular speaker at Social Media conferences and also serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for Sussex University as well as the Social Media Committee for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
LinkedIn
twitter.com/joodoo9
Fabrice Retkowsky – CTO
Fabrice has an Engineering Degree from Ecole Nationale Supèrieure de Télécommunications de Bretagne, and an MSc and PhD in Computer Science from Sussex University.
He joined Brandwatch in 2000 and was appointed CTO in 2005. He is the software architect behind Brandwatch and manages all aspects of product development.
LinkedIn
twitter.com/fabrice31416
Bryan Tookey – COO
Bryan joined Brandwatch from Ask Jeeves, where he was European Operations Director. Before that he held a management role at Google in London and spent 6 years at McKinsey where he was promoted to Engagement Manager. He has a 1st Class degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
LinkedIn
twitter.com/bryantookey
Sebastian Hempstead – VP, North America
Seb has lead the sales team in the UK for the last two years during a period in which the company has been growing at an average of 10% every month and adding a new customer almost every day. He has built a multilingual team and a client base that is now using the application around the clock.
He has now moved to New York to set up Brandwatch in the US.
Before joining Brandwatch, Seb had the unique combination of having taught Kitesuring around the world, run the commercial side for the world’s leading kitesurfing magazine and worked for IBM on supply-side ERP.
LinkedIn
twitter.com/Sebhempstead
Mark Heeley – Non-Exec Chairman
A graduate of Durham University, Mark was the founder in 1990 of London advertising agency Claydon Heeley, which was built from scratch to become a significant player in brand advertising. It was subsequently sold to Omnicom in 2001.
Mark was founder in 2000 and Non-Executive Director of Improveline.com, a baby of the dotcom era and heavily subscribed by 1st mover venture capital fever. The model was adapted to clicks and mortar and with the development of an online insurance facilitation model, soon became profitable. Key VCs were Advent and Alta Berkeley. It was sold to its biggest competitor Homeserve plc in December 2005.
Non-executive Director since 2001 of Hometrack, Europe’s most respected AVM (automatic valuation model) property business (www.hometrack.co.uk), Mark joined the Brandwatch board in early 2007.
Marshall King – Non-Exec Director
Marshall raised venture finance from Advent International and others to start Improveline.com in 2000, a home improvement portal. The business grew to a peak revenue of £60m and was sold in 2005 to Homeserve plc. Marshall is now CEO of RFIB Group, a private equity funded wholesale insurance broker. He has a First in Engineering from Trinity College Dublin, and an MBA from INSEAD