Meet The Team

John is our founder and CEO.

He has over 20 years of digital marketing experience, during which he has grown several global digital marketing agencies and marketing technology businesses.

In his career, John has worked with some of the world’s largest brands, helping them shape their online proposition and increase their e-commerce performance. Former clients include Asos, Pepsi, BMW, Superdry, Honda, HP, Toyota, Vistaprint and Sigma Sports.

John’s day-to-day role involves driving the vision of Modo25 forward. He is passionate about people and creating an environment which will enable the team to deliver the best possible work for our clients.

John is a family man and utilises his three-day weekend watching his daughters Lottie and Heidi play hockey or netball.

He is a keen cyclist who, with a group of friends, is cycling from Leeds to Australia with Ride25 (John’s cycling holiday/event business) to raise money for 1moreChild.

He loves skiing, walking, and supporting England rugby and is a long-suffering Leeds United Fan.

John is a raconteur and has many stories from his travels, rugby tours and even nights out in Las Vegas with Tom Jones!

Modo is from a family of seven children. She loves football, dancing, cooking, reading and playing with her friends and she’s about 9 years old.  She wants to be a maths teacher when she grows up.

Modo, and her two older siblings, are receiving support from the 1moreChild charity, who have helped feed, clothe and school her alongside 280 other children in a village in Uganda.

We named our company after Modo because we want to help her and other children realise their potential through 1moreChild.

Roxy is our our official office dog and Modo25 fur baby.

Born in May 2019, she’s still learning the ropes but her main skills include providing doggy cuddles to the team and winning over visitors with her cute puppy eyes and waggy tail.

Her favourite hobbies include sleeping, going for walks and chewing her toys.  She also has a special undercover talent for sneaking shoes, socks and various objects into her dog bed!

Abi is our Chief Operations Officer.

She has over 20 years of marketing agency experience, predominantly in client services, as well as several years’ experience at a senior management level.

Day to day, Abi is responsible for the smooth running of Modo25, looking after the teams within the business and striving to ensure Modo25 is the best it can possibly be – for the clients we work for, the people that work with us and the partners we work alongside.

In her spare time, Abi likes to fit in crafting, camping and yoga around her family life.

Zdeněk Burda is our Chief Technology Officer

Zdeněk has 15 years’ experience of establishing productive relationships with partners and customers to build IT solutions.  His talents lie in effectively delivering solutions on complex subjects, and translating them into user-friendly, intuitive systems.

Day to day, Zdeněk works with the team to plan and build our technology solutions that are going to deliver the vision of giving clients control over their own marketing destiny.

When he’s not at work, Zdeněk loves to spend time with his family. He loves travelling, especially if skiing or any beach activities are involved. Austria, Swiss Alps or the Mediterranean sea are his number one destinations to go.

Emily is the Associate Director of Product for our technology platform, BOSCO®.

With over eight years of experience in the industry, Emily knows a thing or two about product management. Emily has helped big-name brands such as Joules and GAME to build eCommerce solutions. She has also worked with automotive eCommerce clients including PSA Groupe, Jaguar Land Rover UK and Honda Europe.

Emily will be overseeing the BOSCO® brand to help nurture and grow the platforms reach.

In her spare time, Emily likes to run. She hopes to take part in an ultra-running event either in person or virtually in 2021. She also enjoys reading and is part of a monthly book club.

Dan is our Director of Agency.

Having worked in PPC since graduating in 2012 with a degree in Mathematics, Dan has a wealth of experience when it comes to all things performance marketing. Before joining the Modo25 family, Dan worked for a couple of digital marketing agencies in Leeds. One of these roles even involved setting up a Paid Media team in New York.

After moving back in the UK, Dan took on a role which saw him working on big-name accounts like H Samuel, The Entertainer and Fortnum & Mason to name a few. As part of the Modo25 team, Dan heads up our Agency services, working with the teams to offer strategic advice to help clients grow their digital marketing performance and training to help build inhouse teams.

Outside of work, Dan loves to play 5-a-side football as well as some ‘pretty geeky board games’ – we’ll take his word for it!

Mike is our Lead Data Scientist.

He has 15 years of retail experience, with the last eight years focusing on the digital side of how retailers can get more from their online data, by either collecting the correct information or interpreting it for our clients.

Day to day, Mike splits his time working on ways to help the client team be more efficient and to understand the data, providing the best service we can offer. He also works with the technical team to help them understand all the data they are using, from where to get it from and from this what is required.

Outside of work Mike loves travelling the world with his wife. He also spends a lot of time walking and his dog is very lucky to get 5 miles a day. Any spare time he finds he spends at the gym or enjoys watching the football and rugby.

Luke is our Head of Digital Optimisation here at Modo25.

Originally starting out in paid search and social five years ago, Luke quickly moved into CRO and has been there ever since with the opportunity to combine analytics, data and design to deliver fantastic results for clients. 

With a wealth of experience within e-commerce and lead generation websites, there’s not much Luke hasn’t seen on a website that’s not worth testing. Most recently Luke has joined us from an agency in Harrogate, where he worked across brands such as Barker & Stonehouse, Grand Central, Hammonds Furniture and Hunters Estate Agents.

Day-to-day, Luke spends his time speaking to businesses about the online and offline challenges that they are currently facing and how A/B testing and conversion rate optimisation could be a potential solution to benefit the business and its consumers. He also likes to jump back into the data and occasionally wire-framing when the opportunities present themselves.

When not at work, Luke can usually be found on a golf course, at Elland Road for his beloved Leeds United or walking his black Labrador around the Yorkshire Dales.

Tom is our Senior Performance Marketing Manager.

With over five years of experience managing some of the UK’s largest retailers, Tom has worked with Argos, Hobbs, Veet and Made.com, driving growth through paid media channels.

Tom’s day-to-day work includes the management of our paid media clients, reporting and overall performance. He also works closely with clients to understand, facilitate and implement inhouse strategies and programmes.

Tom is a keen photographer, working freelance locally. Outside of this, he is a DJ who has played in both London and Hull as well as hosting an annual art and music charity event in Hull.

“Tom is exceptionally knowledgeable and skilled in both the strategic concepts and operational execution of paid search. The real value I’ve taken from our relationship is what I’ve learnt from his technical depth, and ability to translate highly complex systems into understandable concepts.”

Matt Pollington, Head of Digital Marketing at Sainsbury’s Argos

Rebekah (aka Bex) is our Senior Performance Marketing Manager.

With five years’ experience in paid search and two in paid social, Rebekah has worked amongst some of the largest agencies in the North including Visualsoft & iProspect. She has developed her career in digital marketing following graduation and a five-month teaching placement in Thailand.

Managing a range of clients across several sectors, she has run paid search accounts for the likes of Luxury leather retailer Aspinal of London, fast-fashion retailer Pink Boutique and high street retailer Ted Baker. She has also worked with Tesco Bank, Bank of Montreal and Skipton Building Society. Plus, she has previously managed Paid Social campaigns for the nationwide gym brand Xercise4Less.

Day-to-day, Bex manages bid/bid strategy optimisations, budget management, copy creation and testing on-going strategy recommendations, opportunities, forecasting and reporting.

Bex is passionate about all things home, health and fitness. So, if she isn’t out and about drinking an oat milk flat white or prosecco, you’ll find her either at the gym, practising Yoga or in Ikea looking for items to go in her new house.

Emanuela is our Senior Performance Marketing Manager.

She has been working in paid social media for over five years across different verticals including retail, education, and finance. She has managed end-to-end campaigns for brands such as Starbucks, Homebase, Swarovski, Rimmel and Puma among others, giving her a wealth of experience, knowledge, and expertise in creating best-class social media plans across all social media platforms.

Outside of work, Emanuela is a yoga teacher and loves going on hikes. She is most at home when surrounded by nature.

Francesco is our Data Engineer.

With a decade of experience in data and four years specifically within the automotive and e-commerce sectors, Francesco brings extensive knowledge to our team. Previously, he served as an E-commerce Manager at THG, adding valuable insights into the end-to-end management of online retail platforms.

Outside of work, Francesco enjoys traveling, particularly exploring East Asia with his wife. He’s also passionate about video games and has a keen interest in fashion—especially bags.

Rosie is a Lead Data Scientist at Modo25.

Her background is in Astrophysics, she got her PhD studying Cosmic Dust. Rosie’s thesis was the largest census of dust in galaxies to date, she led an international team in a quest to answer two questions – how does dust content change with galaxy type, and how has the dust content of the Universe evolved over the past 5 billion years? Prior to moving to Modo25, Rosie worked in public transport using artificial intelligence to predict demand for trains across the UK. She is passionate about using data-driven solutions to solve real-world problems.

Her role at Modo25 involves using her experience and the wealth of data available in the digital marketing world to simplify business decisions for our clients and to optimise their online spend.

In her spare time, Rosie enjoys painting and focusing on wildlife. She has become involved with “wildlife artivism” a movement trying to bring awareness to the destructive impact that humans have had on many species and their habitats through artwork.

Claudia is a Performance Marketing Manager, specialising in Affiliate Marketing.

With strong experience of and a background in fashion and beauty, Claudia joined us from Missguided where she headed up the UK and EU affiliate programmes. Claudia also worked at THG Ingenuity where she ran the affiliate marketing for beauty brands such as Burt’s Bees, Elemis and No7. Whilst at university, Claudia completed a placement year in Corporate Marketing at BMW Group UK.

Day-to-day, Claudia creates and runs affiliate strategies for our brands; taking ownership of publisher recruitment and negotiation, booking exposure and monitoring its performance as well as publisher and strategy recommendations.

When Claudia isn’t immersed in the world of affiliate marketing, in her spare time, she enjoys workouts at the gym, spending time with family and friends, and indulging in her favourite hobby of bottomless brunch!

Annika is a Performance Marketing Manager.

She joins our performance marketing team in supporting our clients with account optimisation, strategic planning, and reporting. She joins us having worked as a European PPC Strategist for an online retailer and as well as spending a lot of time in academia.

In her free time, Annika likes travelling, meeting friends & family, art, music and walking her dog.

Cris is our Performance Marketing Manager.

She joins our performance marketing team in supporting our clients with account optimisation, strategic planning, and reporting.

Cris has two and a half years of experience within performance marketing, having previously worked with digital marketing agencies like Fusion and HubMDP. She has worked with a range of big retailers such as Halfords, as well as many e-commerce brands.

She has a degree in International Business and Economics from Leeds University, having then continued her education there to gain a Masters’ degree in Advertising and Design.

In her own time, Cris enjoys swimming as well as growing and collecting rare plants!

Mike is our Senior Creative Designer.

Mike’s role at Modo25 covers anything from conceptual design, branding, banner visuals, landing page A/B testing, infographic and visual work for SEO digital PR as well as internal comms design.

Before Modo25, Mike was a Senior Designer at Sky Betting and Gaming for six years. Where he art-directed campaigns, designed and led campaign visuals, gave knowledge of brand best practices, created campaign creative guides, as well as supported and nurtured new starters.

In his spare time, Mike plays five-a-side football and tries to get to as many gigs as he can now he has two little ones!

Marcus joined Modo25 after working at the world’s largest ad agency, Dentsu. After 3 years, Marcus wanted a smaller agency vibe, with a more agile approach, and found us here at Modo25.

Day-to-Day Marcus works on planning strategies for clients and formulating what approach will work best for their needs and goals.

Outside of work, Marcus enjoys hiking in the Yorkshire Dales and learning to cook new food. He loves to read, working on his writing, and going to see classic movies at the cinema.

Kylie is our SEO Account Manager.

After graduating from university with a first-class degree in Marketing Management, Kylie began her digital marketing career in agencies. Here, she learned about CRO, analytics, and best practice SEO.

Kylie has worked with a huge range of clients across sectors to help with their organic performance online and will continue to do so at Modo25.

Day to day, Kylie will be focused on the technical side of SEO, reviewing client websites as well as making and implementing recommendations. She will be working alongside the SEO team when it comes to holistic organic search strategies, creating content and outreach plans.

When she’s not at work, Kylie will usually be out and about with family and friends, keeping fit at the gym or finding a new series to get hooked on.

Sara is our Senior Talent Acquisition Manager.

Sara manages our newly formed talent acquisition team in prospecting and recruiting fantastic new people to join our ever-growing team. She has 3 years of experience in recruitment and digital marketing.

She spends most of her free time seeing her family and friends as well as exploring new and exciting food places to try.

Nikki is our Marketing Manager.

Nikki joined us at Modo25 and ASK BOSCO® after prior experience in marketing. Nikki has over 7 years experience as a marketing manager.

Day to day, Nikki is responsible for supporting the overall marketing of Modo25 and ASK BOSCO®. She supports the rest of the Modo25 and ASK BOSCO® team with any marketing they need for events, sales and social media.

Victoria is our Marketing and Sales Executive.

Day to day, Victoria is responsible for supporting the overall marketing of Modo25 and ASK BOSCO®. She supports the rest of the Modo25 and ASK BOSCO® team with social media posts, emails, newsletters and the running of webinars.

Outside of work Victoria enjoys crafting, climbing and cooking.

Abbie is our Junior Paid Media Executive at Modo25. Abbie is part of our Excellent Modo25 team and specialises in PPC.

Outside of work, Abbie has a keen interest in rugby and competes in the North Championship 1 league. She is also part of a choir and likes to crochet.

Louis is a Client Success Executive. He joins us as part of the government’s kickstart scheme, therefore being given full training as part of the role.

Louis works closely within the sales team in building new relationships with prospective clients and nurturing them when using ASK BOSCO® Connect.

After just completing his A-Levels, he hopes to gain invaluable experience within a modern and innovative digital marketing team.

In his own time, Louis enjoys watching movies, especially at the cinema. He also enjoys playing Nintendo games and watching football with his friends.

Abby is our Senior Marketing Manager.

With a background of in-house marketing and over 5 years of experience – Abby specialises in online communications and PR, with a degree in Journalism.

Day to day, Abby is responsible for the overall marketing of Modo25 and BOSCO™. She supports the rest of the Modo25 team to create engaging and innovative content for our own platform.

When she’s not in the office, you can find Abby in the kitchen cooking or baking – she has a passion for all things food. She also likes to discover new bands by attending gigs and grassroots festivals.

James is a Software Engineer. He works with the technical team to make raw data available and useful for the rest of the company. He makes data handling smoother and automates it where possible.

He has spent the last 13 years in digital marketing across a range of disciplines, but enjoys a technical challenge and has spent more than 7 years in data and analytics.

Outside of work, he is studying for a degree with the Open University. He also enjoys reading a lot, across a lot of different genres, but gravitates towards sci-fi novels as an easy read.  When he’s not studying, reading, or spending time with family,  he likes to do a bit of DIY, gardening, and woodwork.

Isobel our Senior Business Development Manager.

Isobel has worked with online and retail experts over the last 15 years. She is dedicated to helping clients’ achieve success. With a specialism in data-driven marketing and sales, Isobel’s experience spans multiple industries. She manages all aspects of complex sales processes from lead generation to close.

Phil our Senior Business Development Manager.

Phil is a sales professional with a passion for AI, software, and digital marketing. Focussed on helping businesses use the latest tech to boost their digital strategies and connect better with customers. With a strong background in AI-driven solutions, he’s worked with clients to deliver software that fits their needs, and help them stay ahead of the curve. Always looking for new ways to innovate, Phil loves making tech work for people.

Outside of work, Phil loves all things sport, travel and food. Ideally all three at the same time!

Claire Acum is our Associate Director of Digital Strategy.

Having spent most of her career on the agency side, Claire recently led digital marketing at Hull-based safety products and services company Arco. 

In her new role, Claire will be instrumental in supporting Modo25’s teams and clients, ensuring they maximise the benefits of the agency’s services, including the innovative AI platform ASK BOSCO®.  

Chris our Senior Business Development Manager.

He has been working in Digital Marketing, Ecommerce and Digital Transformation for 13 years with small, medium and global enterprise businesses. Chris manages the end-to-end sales process with prospective brands, retailers and agencies by understanding their digital marketing challenges & needs to find a solution.

Outside of work, Chris loves endurance running challenges and boxing. When he’s not doing that, he’s hanging out with his wife Emma and their blue staff, Billy.

Nicola Sharpe is our CFO/Chief Finance Officer.

Nicola joined Modo25 in 2022 and has over 15 years’ experience as a CFO in the tech industry.  Nicola oversees the financial side of the business, including statutory requirements and financial strategy.

 Outside of work, Nicola enjoys spending time with her family, travel, cooking and anything creative.

Brad Boltwood is our Front End Developer.

Brad’s day-to-day involves working closely with design and data teams to implement and optimise A/B tests and experiments. Brad takes hypotheses and turn them into technical solutions, using a mix of custom code and WYSIWYG tools. His tasks often include writing clean, efficient JavaScript, HTML, and CSS while also building personalised experiences across various devices.

Outside of work, Brad spends a lot of my time with his wife and daughter; when he’s not with them, he likes to watch Bradford City every chance or binge-watch a new anime.

Sam Pierce is our Senior Performance Marketing Executive.

Sam has been working in Marketing for nearly three years, covering both Paid Search & Social for a range of clients. This has given Sam experience working on and managing Paid Strategies for a number of business, ranging from Ecommerce B2C clients, to B2B SaaS companies.

Outside of work sam enjoys socialising with friends and family, recording and producing music and going for walks in the Peak District.

Arina is our Senior SEO Manager, bringing over 8 years of experience in digital marketing with a strong focus on both on-page (technical and content) and off-page SEO. She leads a diverse portfolio of clients, developing and executing effective SEO strategies while also mentoring and growing our internal SEO team.

Outside of work, Arina enjoys long walks with her two dogs, a German Shepherd and a Swiss Shepherd. She’s also an avid gamer and traveller, and in her spare time, she’s learning Japanese.

Mandy is our Executive Assistant.

Mandy has been working in the Executive Assistant world since 2020 across a variety of sectors. Mandy spends most of her days organising our CEO’s diary but can also be found taking care of the team and organising events.

Outside of work, Mandy likes to spend time with her two boys and her husband. When the boys are in bed, she can mostly be found watching terrible Netflix shows about murderers, or failed romantics.

Jonny is a Data Scientist.

Day to day, Jonny works in the Data Science team.

Jonny joins the Modo25 team after finishing a master’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Nottingham. Jonny wanted to begin his career in advertising and develop his analysis skills while learning from industry experts. He works closely with Dr Rosie, developing the marketing intelligence platform BOSCO™.

In his spare time, Jonny enjoys scenic jogs, cooking and playing tennis at his local club. He also enjoys spending time with friends and family. As a keen traveller, Jonny particularly likes visiting European cities and lakes.

Rob is the successful internet entrepreneur who scaled the global online property search company, Instant Offices. On his investment and non-executive chairman position with Modo25, Rob says, “John and I have known each other for some years now. We co-founded our cycling charity business, Ride25 over seven years ago. Since then, we’ve raised over a million pounds for the charity 1moreChild.

I wanted to become an investor and chairman of Modo25 because I am truly committed to the future of the company. Inhousing is something I strongly believe in. I think it’s wrong to let a key thing like marketing be outsourced when you can build these skills with an inhouse team.

Fundamentally, businesses should be able to take control of their digital spend and Modo25 is helping companies to do that. I’m also excited about the potential growth of Modo25’s digital marketing prediction and indexing platform, BOSCO™, which has a promising future.”

Watch Rob talk about his involvement with Modo25.

Keith is an SME investor, multi-national executive and Group Chief Operating Officer at BuyIt Direct Group. We’re pleased to see him become part of Modo25’s Advisory Board.

With plenty of board-level experience, Keith is well versed in all areas of multichannel retail, as well as working in a wide variety of complex businesses. In the past, Keith has been responsible for all aspects of Group Operations and commercial management across multi-sites in several high profile organisations, including American Express, Hutchison Telecom, Green Flag, N Brown Group Plc, Shop Direct Group, Yodel and Mothercare Plc.

CEO and Co-Founder of The Drum, Diane joins the Modo25 team as a Board Advisor.

Diane, who co-founded The Drum her husband George Youngin 1985, has built a powerful and global media platform, rivalling Adweek and Adage. The Drum is read by more than 1.1 million people a month, all over the world. They also produce a monthly print magazine with each issue addressing a topic or trend of importance to marketers.

With a mission statement: Marketing Can Change the World, Diane is a natural choice to be one of our board members.

Darko is one of Modo25’s Board Advisors.

As a serial entrepreneur, Darko Atijas has spent the last 12 years in technology business development, sales and marketing. He has also invested and supported the exit of several high-profile software businesses.

With a background in developing and managing operations and global commerce supply chains, Darko makes for an excellent board member. His experience across retail, logistics, legal, finance, aviation and utility sectors means he has a wealth of knowledge that we look forward to working with.