Star Executive Profiles
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Mike WinnChairman
Mike has 40 years' experience in the technology sector starting out as a programmer then systems analyst before moving into sales and finally management. Mike has worked in a number of director roles for technology companies such as CompuServe and Apricot/ACT. He has also lead a number of private and publicly quoted technology companies in CEO roles for both British and American based firms. His leadership experience helped to grow these businesses and become the market leaders in their specialist fields.
Mike's last position was as Group CEO of a software and services company, DST International, which he grew from a 70 man private company to over 2,000 employees worldwide with 20 international offices. |
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Ricky Hudson Chief Executive Officer
Ricky Hudson joined Star in October 2008 from MLL Telecom Ltd where he successfully expanded the business through strategic relationships with BT and Virgin Media, as well as acquiring two national spectrum licenses in the 2007 Ofcom auctions.
Ricky has been a high flier since his TMT career began with Digital Equipment, where he became the youngest ever District Manager at the age of 29. Joining C&W in 1996, he built up its European ISP business in 1999 through a series of acquisitions before moving into a VP role focused on global M&A activity. Other notable roles include, CEO of Telecity Plc, the leader in pan-European data centres, where he engineered a successful turnaround and take-private with 3i which culminated in the eventual merger with Redbus. |
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John LeeseChief Financial Officer
John joined Star in 2005, having started his corporate career at Content Technologies in 2000 where he managed its operational finance team through a period of significant change, including its £600 million acquisition by Baltimore and subsequent sale to Clearswift in 2002. John joined Star from Clearswift where he was Group Financial Controller. John began his career at Deloitte & Touche, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He then moved to Ernst & Young, spending over three years on the West Coast of the US in its Software Industry Group. |
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Paul Watson Chief Commercial Officer
Paul has been a member of the executive team since August 2004 and joined Star as part of the acquisition of 4th Contact in 2003, where he was CEO. Having spent his early career in Mining and Financial Services, Paul then founded one of the UK’s first Software as a Service businesses, 4th Contact in 2000, delivering Employee Benefit and HR services to organisations such as Walt Disney, Hitachi and The London Stock Exchange.
Paul is responsible for solution development and product management at Star. As a technology visionary he leads a team responsible for customer focused product innovation. Paul’s team has devised a roadmap of services specifically designed to stimulate one of the most exciting growth phases Star has seen as it embraces cloud computing by delivering On-demand Business ServicesTM to UK companies.
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John AdeyChief Operating Officer
John is an engineer by profession spending much of the formative years of his career in British manufacturing and automotive sectors. He joined Star in 2004 and has 23 years of IT experience culminating in IT leadership positions where he was responsible for running large and complex organizations. His career spans hardware, software, outsourcing, consulting and professional services, providing a breadth of experience well suited in the delivery of managed services. His time in manufacturing served as a useful insight into some of the problems the IT industry now struggles with as it matures.
John served in senior positions at GEC, Compaq, Cambridge Technology Partners and Sterling Software but came to Star from Novell, where he was Regional CIO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His experience and talents are critical in the secure, robust and efficient delivery of Star services, packaged with exemplary customer service and support. |
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Ben White Co-Founder & Non-executive Director
A well known entrepreneur, Ben and his brother Jos founded Star in 1995 as one of the UK's first ISPs. Ben served as Star's CEO from 1995 to 2000 and 2006 to 2008, establishing the company as one of the UK's largest ISPs and, in his second term, driving its evolution towards a more broad-based communications company. Ben led a management buy-out of the company in 2007 and in November 2008 appointed Ricky Hudson as its new CEO.
Ben founded MessageLabs and served as the CEO until 2006 where he built the company into a global market leader in messaging security and a true pioneer in the exploding Software as a Service ("SaaS") industry. Towards the end of 2008 MessageLabs was acquired by Symantec for approximately $750M, marking the second largest transaction for a private company in the history of the IT security industry. |
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Stephen ChandlerNon-executive Director
Stephen is an experienced executive and corporate financier with a career spanning accountancy, investment banking and operational management within technology businesses. Stephen began his career at Deloitte where he qualified as a chartered accountant in 1994. He moved on to UBS Investment Bank in 1995 where he advised a number of the world’s leading technology and telecoms businesses on capital raising and M&A activity. In 2000 he joined MessageLabs Group serving as CFO of Star until 2004 and MessageLabs until 2009. Stephen holds an honours degree in Economics from the University of Exeter and is a member of the Securities Institute. |
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