Message Pad's Board of Directors

Alan Howarth - Chairman

Alan Howarth is the Chairman of the company.  He is also Chairman of Gresham Computing plc, the Highams Group plc and of an NHS Trust and is a Non Executive Director of the MacLellan Group plc.

Prior to this he was Managing Director of Compass Management Consulting and a partner with Ernst & Young for nearly 20 years. His corporate experience further includes Bass, Hewlett-Packard and BTR.  He has extensive experience in business outsourcing and professional service centres. He provides input into several technology forums to leading public and private concerns.

 

Paul White - Chief Executive Officer

Paul White joined Message Pad as Chief Executive Officer in May 2005. Paul has spent the last 15 years working in and around the CRM and Contact Centre industry and is one of the industry pioneers in the creation of affordable call and contact centre solutions. Prior to joining Message Pad he was the founding CEO of BT Contact Central, which, over 4 years, grew into a global business across the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific. Whilst at BT, Paul was responsible for designing some of the largest Call Centres in Europe and had major roles in systems architecture, product management and sales. He has designed, built or sold literally 100’s of call centre and CRM solutions from IP Telephony systems through Sales Force Automation tools.

Chris James - Commercial Director

Following graduation from Oxford University, Christopher James worked for Courtaulds in New York where, in 1975, he subsequently embarked upon his first venture as an entrepreneur by establish his own marketing company. Following his return to the UK, he formed a new marketing company in 1988.

In 1994 he saw the opportunity to develop messaging and related call centre services and founded Message Pad.

 

Gary Sutton - Finance & Operations Director

Gary joined Message Pad in 2001 as Finance Director and now also has responsibility for Operations, encompassing the contact centres, customer analyst teams, franchised offices and customer service representatives. Prior to Message Pad, he spent 9 years at Ernst & Young, progressing from a junior unqualified accountant, through the ICAEW qualifications to Senior Management in Entrepreneurial Services with responsibility for advice and business services to growing owner-managed businesses.  A further 4 years were spent at Prontaprint - 2 years as Finance Director and 2 years as General Manager and Commercial Director with overall responsibility for the marketing and development of the franchised network. 

 

Ernie Richardson - Non-Executive Director

Ernie Richardson, CEO & Managing Partner of MTI, is a graduate Chemical Engineer and Chartered Management Accountant with over 15 years’ experience in finance and general management in various process industries prior to joining MTI in 1985.  His career has included periods with British Steel Chemicals Division, finance roles with Laporte Industries and a spell in international banking with the Royal Bank of Canada.  His final position before joining MTI was as the Chief Financial Officer in a start‑up venture in the oil processing sector.   He is a Director and Chairman of several of MTI’s investee companies with a general focus on software and communications.   At MTI he has been responsible for a number of MTI’s most successful transactions and became CEO & Managing Partner in October 2003.