iProov Leadership

iProov was founded in 2011 by CEO, Andrew Bud CBE FIET. The iProov leadership team was hand-picked to achieve our mission: to make the internet a safer place. Meet the iProov team.

Andrew Bud

Andrew Bud CBE FREng FIET

Founder & CEO

Andrew founded iProov in 2011. He is an experienced technology entrepreneur and leader, with a career spanning thirty years in mobile.

In 1999 he founded mBlox, which became the world’s largest provider of SMS transmission for enterprise applications. As CEO, Andrew built the firm into a successful high-throughput technology-based service business. Andrew also chairs MEF, the global trade association of the mobile content and commerce industry.

He is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2020. He was made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen in the 2020 New Year Honours List.

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Maria Southey

Chief Financial Officer

Maria joined the company in 2023 following tenures in senior finance roles across a variety of sectors ranging from Technology to Media and Financial Services. Maria was most recently working as Chief Financial Officer at Advantage Smollan, a global provider of outsource sales and marketing solutions, where she was responsible for Finance, Technology, IT, and Data.

Maria is a qualified Chartered Accountant (FCA) and has a B.Sc.(Hons) in Psychology.

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Miguel Traquina

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

Miguel is responsible for the technology function in iProov, including engineering and platform and IT operations.

Prior to joining iProov, Miguel was Chief Information Officer for Operations and Economic Crime at Santander UK, where he had various engineering and transformation roles overseeing multi-disciplinary teams around the world.

He began his career with Accenture, running financial services projects in Europe and Latin America.

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Nicole Rowe

Chief Marketing Officer

As Chief Marketing Officer at iProov, Nicole is responsible for designing and executing the company’s marketing strategy.

Nicole joined iProov in 2022 with more than 20 years of marketing innovation experience for established and start-up brands. Prior to iProov, Nicole most recently was CMO at SecZetta, a third-party identity risk SaaS provider, and previously held marketing leadership positions at Entegris, RSA Security, Everbridge, and PTC.

Nicole holds a B.A. in Political Science from Suffolk University.

Joe Palmer

Joe Palmer

Chief Product & Innovation Officer

Joe joined iProov as employee number two. As Technical Director, he was responsible for building the prototype of iProov’s Flashmark technology. He then relocated to the US in the role of President of iProov Inc to set up iProov’s Americas operation.

Joe now heads the Product and Innovation Team, extending iProov’s Genuine Presence Assurance® technology to new use cases and industries, as well as enabling customers and partners to meet emerging requirements.

Before iProov, Joe co-founded SoftForge in 2008, where he successfully delivered large web-based e-commerce and secure information solutions for the NHS and Shell.

Joe holds a degree in Computer Science from University College London.

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Simon Williamson

Chief Revenue Officer

Based in Philadelphia, Simon is responsible for leading the Revenue organization at iProov, incorporating Customer Success, Partnerships, Demand Generation and Sales. A veteran of the telecoms and media sectors, Simon has held senior leadership roles at Amdocs and Thompson Reuters, as well as tech scale-ups JacobsRimell and FriendMTS.

Andrew Newell

Dr Andrew Newell

Chief Scientific Officer

Andrew joined iProov from University College London where he was a Research Fellow in both the Department of Computer Science and CoMPLEX. His PhD and subsequent published research focused on computer vision and pattern recognition. Since 2014 he has led iProov’s work on image processing.

Dom Forrest

Dominic Forrest

Chief Technology Officer

Dominic is responsible for the design and development of iProov’s cloud-based infrastructure. Prior to taking up his role with iProov in 2013, Dominic was the Senior Vice President of Engineering at mBlox Inc., where he managed a team of fifty developers over three continents, responsible for developing and scaling the platform so that it could seamlessly run over 6 billion transactions per year.

Prior to mBlox, Dominic had over fifteen years’ experience in a number of senior roles within UK telcos and ISPs. This included the responsibility for the architecture and design of voice, transmission and IP networks for NTL, followed by the launch and growth of the company‘s broadband service to over 2 million customers.

Matthew Pearch

Matthew Pearch

Commercial Director

Matthew is an experienced Sales and Marketing executive. He has a strong background in fast-growth SaaS and web services built on deep relationships with large, complex clients. He built the European operations of Bulletin and was Partnership Director at IOVOX. He has also worked with voice biometrics at Nice Systems. From 2003-2008 Matthew was the most successful European sales executive at mBlox Inc. He has a degree in Economics from the University of Hertfordshire.

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James Gillard

SVP People

As SVP People at iProov, James is responsible for leading our talent development, talent attraction, people experience and operations, and diversity and inclusion. He leads a team focused on creating a culture where everyone can thrive and feel comfortable to be themselves, so they can perform at their best.

Prior to iProov, James held a variety of leadership positions across technology and financial services companies, including Travelex and IBM, as well as leading the rapid scale-up of the UK Government’s response program to COVID.

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Peter James

Chief Product Officer

Pete joined iProov in 2024 as Chief Product Officer following 14 years of leading product functions in a variety of businesses and industries, most notably OpenBet (gaming), Experian (credit bureau), and Digimarc (product digitization). His focus is on building highly complex and scalable platforms through a product-centric approach that engages the full business in a shared product strategy.

Before starting his career in product, Peter spent over a decade in software development and presales, helping to develop his keen appreciation for both the technical and commercial sides of product development. 

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