Leadership

Lawrence Jones - CEO

Lawrence is the co-founder and CEO of UKFast. He has a hands-on approach and is responsible for inspiring and steering his senior managers with creative leadership and passion.

Lawrence Jones brings 25 years of business acumen to his leadership of UKFast.

Having successfully founded arts and corporate hospitality businesses in the 1990's, Lawrence saw a gap in the UK hosting sector in 1999 and created UKFast.

Thanks to his vision the company has grown year on year without fail. By focusing on helping its clients to grow, UKFast has featured twice in the Deloitte Technology Fast50 and three times in the Sunday Times TechTrack 100.

In 2011, Lawrence was recognised for his achievements in business by winning the EN North West Entrepreneur of the Year award. This is not the first time that he has been singled out for his contribution to business as he was also named Technology Entrepreneur of the Year in 2010 and the Institute of Director's Young Director of the Year for Manchester in 2007.

Within the same year, Lawrence took UKFast to become the only hosting company to own and manage data centres in the north west and to offer 100% carbon neutral solutions to all of its 4000 clients.

Another of Lawrence's proudest achievements is UKFast's recognition by The Great Place to Work Institute as the UK's Most Fun and Friendly Workplace.

Gail Jones - commercial director

Gail is the co-founder and commercial director of UKFast. Her role places emphasis on delivering a quality product and service at the best possible price.

Managing UKFast's relationships with suppliers and constantly assessing our best practice, she allows the network to develop ahead of our client base to ensure successful growth. She takes director level responsibility for the remit of the UKFast research & development team which creates software that streamlines internal processes and gives clients added functionality for their solutions.

Gail has been instrumental in the business since its inception and has taken on a variety of roles, including administrator, finance manager and support manager as the business has grown. Prior to starting UKFast with husband Lawrence, Gail attended and graduated from Newcastle University's prestigious Sciences Faculty.

Neil Lathwood - IT director

As IT director at UKFast, Neil is in charge of delivering all hosting solutions to clients. In this respect he runs the technical core of UKFast's business. Neil manages the construction of servers, data centre deployment and all complimentary software creation and implementation. His leadership ensures that our clients and the solutions that we manage on their behalf are supported to our award-winning standards 24x7x365.

Furthermore, it is part of Neil's responsibilities to maintain UKFast at the cutting edge of our industry. His strategy allows the company to continue growing in regards to our technical abilities and stay ahead of the competition in regards to new technology, services and products.

Neil joined UKFast in 2000, making him one of UKFast's early visionaries. He has 15 years experience in the IT sector, 12 of those for hosting companies, which has made him an expert in many fields of IT, including Cisco Networks, Linux and Windows hosting.

Helping UKFast to attain its industry leading position is Neil's proudest achievement and he believes that technology is nothing without a support team that ensures its success.

Paul Harris - marketing director

Paul joined UKFast in January 2009 having previously built up an impressive wealth of marketing experience with a string of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 brands.

Prior to joining the company Paul was director of marketing for Dolphin Music. In that role he was responsible for creating and implementing an integrated marketing strategy that would drive the brand upwards into the UK's No. 1 position. Before working for Dolphin Paul was the marketing director at leading marketing consultancy Charles Mason & Associates.

In his position as marketing director for UKFast, Paul is responsible for charting the ongoing marketing strategy and for delivering a coherent and desirable proposition to clients and potential clients alike. Furthermore, as a proven expert in brand development and B2B marketing, Paul also focuses on the development and positioning of UKFast's portfolio of brands and on enhancing our relationship with business partners.

As a chartered marketer, Paul strongly believes in the power of a marketing strategy that is informed by customer insight and the competitive advantage gained by creating a happy customer community.

Jonathan Bowers - communications director

As communications director Jonathan develops strategic public relations and communications plans for UKFast. He is responsible for all of UKFast's written and visual content and as a master of many disciplines, he is also heavily involved in training, recruitment and corporate relations.

He has an extensive overview of businesses on the internet, due to partnerships that he forges with UKFast's client base. In an industry surrounded by jargon, he works to clearly explain and translate complex technical information delivering UKFast's human touch to the UK business environment. Jonathan is also the driving force behind the company's videocasting services and is the voice of the UKFast blog.

Prior to starting work at UKFast in 2004, Jonathan spent two years as a broadcast journalist with Independent UK radio and the BBC, followed by two and a half years developing writers on all disciplines for the BBC's New Writing department.

Read Jonathan's UKFast blog here

Kerry Gill - group finance director

Kerry became a member of the UKFast team in the summer of 2008. As group finance director, Kerry is tasked with maximising returns from all areas of the business. Kerry's expertise ensures UKFast's stability and viability for the long term. So with Kerry at the accounting helm, UKFast clients can be assured that their hosting provider is going to be there for them.

Before joining the company Kerry served as commercial financial controller of SurfControl plc, where she was an integral part of the finance team during the company's listing on the London Stock Exchange. During her time there the company grew from just 30 people to employing over 500, with profitable annual billings exceeding $100 million.

Kerry qualified as a chartered management accountant in 2001 and acquired an MBA with the Manchester Business School in December 2007.