Patrick joined TAA Group in 2018. He led the restructuring of the Group to enable the creation of TAA Tech Ventures. He led the UK Research & Innovation-funded research which resulted in the next generation Audience Finder Global product concept.
With 30+ years’ experience in media and technology, he advises on the digital and business model transformation of a variety of cultural and creative organisations, often on behalf of their funders. He chairs the standards working group for an emerging European Alliance of cultural data and analytics. He is Chair of an immersive media technology start-up and global research fellow of the Rio-based thinktank, the Institute of Technology and Society.
As founder of one of the UK’s first digital media agencies, he was an early proponent of user-centred design and information architecture specialisms. He has overseen the rollout of two national data sharing systems involving the public, third and private sectors. He co-led the creation of the UK’s digital and data maturity framework for cultural organisations and the UK’s largest study of financial resilience in cultural organisations.
Stephen is responsible for the TAA Tech Ventures technology strategy, Audience Finder Global product strategy and related technology Research & Development. He also has responsibility for Information Governance and Security.
He is an adaptable and innovative technologist with 20 years of experience working with enterprises, non-profits, research bodies and the public sector across a broad range of web, mobile and in-person technologies and platforms in the UK and internationally. Stephen continues to be an active champion of Age Friendly Sheffield and the regeneration of cities following the pandemic – which the culture sector is a key enabler.
As COO/CTO for a UK-based technology start-up, he successfully rolled out a healthy aging SaaS platform across the UK and then internationally. He led the translation of research methodologies into profitable and scalable expert systems adhering to ethical principles. As board member of Age Better in Sheffield he was involved in the commissioning of services from multi-million £ investments into culture to improve individuals’ lives.
Steven has chaired TAA Tech Ventures since late 2017 and works closely with CEO Patrick Towell, to manage its board and relationships with investors, including co-leading the current fundraise.
Steven has a broad, international business background in a variety of executive leadership roles across many continents. He’s an Executive Coach and start-up Advisor with a focus on diversity, inclusion and social impact. He is Executive Director and Senior Advisor for PlusValue – a specialist consultancy providing ESG expertise in urban re-generation and impact investing. He is currently on the Supervisory Board for a Citibank International subsidiary.
Until recently, he led a digital asset start-up from seed through to profitability. As Head of Consulting for EMEA at Experian, he advised companies on how to use data for marketing and risk-based customer engagement and decisioning. At Visa Inc he went from Head of Marketing, Products and Innovation to General Manager, Central and Eastern Europe. His experience also spans major retails banks (HSBC, Standard Chartered) to strategy consulting (Booz-Allen) and hospitality (IHG).
Anne co-founded TAA Group in 2012 and invented the concept of Audience Finder, secured investment to build it and led the team that launched the first ‘original’ version of the platform in England in 2016 – the world’s first audience data aggregation and data-analytics-as-a-service platform. As well as representing the interests of TAA as a shareholder in TAA Tech Ventures, she acts as a specialist advisor to the company on analytics and public policy using her 30+ years of experience of marketing and research in the cultural sector.
Anne is a thought leader in audience research and strategy, trends and patterns of public engagement with particular interests in human-centred design, better use of data, cultural democracy and organisational change. She leads on the design and delivery of leadership and development programmes with the aim of creating more inclusive organisations, increasing participation and using insight.
She is a regular commentator and speaker on these issues acting as facilitator and adviser to a wide range of agencies such as Arts Council England, British Council and the European Commission. An experienced board member of cultural organisations, she is currently on the board of Tamasha Theatre Company and Europeana, the EU-wide data space for cultural heritage, offering public access to 50 million digitised items. She is Co-Director of the UK Research & Innovation-funded Centre for Cultural Value.
Ben is an independent analyst and board-level advisor in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) space. With extensive first-hand experience of growing and scaling start-ups, he has over 35 years of experience helping companies and investors make better-informed decisions based on a data-driven understanding of the future.
He is Non-Executive Chairman of TV drama consultancy MediaXchange, Advisory Board member at movie streamer CultPix, immersive audio innovator Plaudeo, web3 video enabler EDGE and animation production company Blanca Pictures, Industry Advisor to investment bank Silverwood Partners, Advisor to Nasdaq-listed media-tech group Pixelworks, Senior Advisor to start-up accelerator Match-Maker Ventures, Senior Associate at digital sports consultancy Seven League, and expert advisor to the high-level government-industry liaison organisation British Screen Forum.
Ben was instrumental in building Screen Digest into a premiere research firm, pioneering empirical analysis and robust forecasting of global media and technology markets. In 2010, he engineered a successful exit for Screen Digest with a sale to IHS Markit. He became their Chief Analyst & Vice President for TMT, leading a team of 100 expert analysts around the world, advising leaders at the world’s largest TMT groups and with P&L responsibility for $50m revenue.
As a board member of our majority shareholder The Audience Agency, Ade advises on the technical aspects of its investment into TAA Tech Ventures and the Audience Finder Global product. Drawing on her cross-sector experience, Ade advises organisations on sustainable and responsible ways to make use of their data and harness the power of AI and Machine Learning.
Ade blogs about the ways in which data can be made useful for organisations and wider society and the sort of leadership and organisational cultures that make this possible. She is Data Strategist at Cloudera's Fast Forward Labs, working at the intersection of strategy and digital and data transformation.
As industry consultant with Teradata she enabled public sector organisations to use the power of big data. Previously, she led the Government Digital Service’s Data Infrastructure programme.
Erin is a VP/Senior Director with 17+ years of experience in scaling effective and efficient product organisations behind outstanding customer-centred products. She has helped organisations effectively grow due to her expertise in change management, social dynamics, transparent collaboration, and an attention for lightweight process improvement to unify people under the same vision. She has extensive experience in software as a service (SaaS) across multiple industries, working with a range of small start-ups to large post-IPO organisations.
Erin works at Xero establishing their EMEA product design capacity and long-term vision for their global tax products. She co-founded Good 50x70, an international social communication project and Baker Framework, a platform to publish HTML5 books and magazines on iPad. Member of the jury for IxDA Interaction Awards in 2023.
She helped Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce, and others) to grow the product and design capacity and expand the organisation from 200 to 1,500 people worldwide. She has worked with the Bank of England, Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca Sella, Unicredit, Nokia, Vodafone, Telecom Italia, Ferrari and Benetton.
Edward has nearly 20 years’ experience of digital innovation and leadership in the film, TV and cultural sector. As Executive Director of Digital & Ventures at the British Film Institute, he launched and grew BFI Player into a leading international streaming service for independent film. He also launched and scaled the BFI's international ventures and consultancy business (with TAA Tech Ventures CEO Patrick Towell advising) and led its international content distribution team.
Previously, he held a wide range of senior roles in international film and TV, all focused on driving revenue and engagement through digital distribution and content. These include Director of Digital Media Distribution at Disney, where he was responsible for video-on-demand revenues for the UK and major markets across Europe and North America, and SVP of Digital at Zodiak Media (now Banijay Group), where he led the digital transformation and online IP exploitation of its TV formats and finished programming.
Nihal has over 20 years' experience developing commercial strategies and leading global marketing, product and sales teams across the Media, Entertainment and Technology sectors. She is responsible for creating efficient and effective organisations that drive optimum performance, underpin future growth and deliver powerful revenue generating solutions.
Nihal is currently the Chief Commercial Officer at Unbiased, the leading SaaS platform connecting people to professional financial advice, where she is responsible for driving business growth and market share. She is also a mentor to start-ups, the Aspire Foundation (to help women gain business, social and economic freedom), and for students at Bournemouth University.
Before Unbiased, Nihal held a number of senior positions developing sales and marketing strategies: CMO for SaaS platform Rated People, Vice President Marketing and Ticket Sales at Ticketmaster, Vice President of Global marketing and creative at NBC Universal and consultant for the Launch of Wizarding World of Harry Potter for Universal Parks and Resorts.