Senior Management
Richard Houghton
Chairman
Richard joined as Chairman in March 2019. He has spent much of his professional life working with Private Equity backed businesses and enjoys the challenges involved in helping growth companies realise their full potential.
Alongside Peoplesafe, Richard is currently Chairman of British Engineering Services and Vistair Services. He has also been the Chairman of Target Group and on the board of Verastar, both PE-backed businesses. Prior to embarking on his non-executive career, Richard co-founded Xchanging, an outsourcing business which he helped grow from a handful of staff in a single office to an FTSE 250 business with 9,000 employees in 9 countries. His experience prior to Xchanging includes senior roles at Caradon plc, McKinsey & Co and Esso. Richard has an MEng in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard.
Naz Dossa
Chief Executive Officer
Having started his career in banking, Naz has spent most of his career in and around the Telecoms and IT sectors, including a spell as Managing Director of Network Services at Capita.
A large part of Naz’s career was at Colt Technology Services, a global telecoms and IT provider where he held numerous leadership positions across different business units and geographies.
Naz joins us from his most recent role as the UK Managing Director of Brightstar. During his time there, Naz was twice voted into the prestigious Mobile Power 50 Rankings.
Since his appointment as Peoplesafe CEO, Naz has also assumed the role as Chair of the BSIA Lone Worker Section Committee, helping to drive innovation across the industry.
Jeremy Williams
Chief Financial Officer
Jeremy is an ACA chartered accountant with over 25 years experience. Jeremy’s prior roles include working at Orange, the mobile telecoms operator, leading the Group Financial Planning & Analysis department and working on the 2001 IPO, before moving to Fitness First, the private equity backed gym-chain operator.
In 2017, Jeremy led the exit of Fitness First Asia and was appointed Group CFO of Evolution Wellness Group operating multiple fitness brands across 6 countries and 165 sites in South East Asia. Jeremy has an Engineering degree from Cambridge University.
Mark Ryder
Chief Commercial Officer
Mark began his career as an Electronics Engineer working in the communications industry before moving into commercial roles in the Telecom and IT services industry.
Prior to joining Peoplesafe, Mark spent the previous 4 years as European Managing Director of Sify, an Indian ICT company focusing on Digital Transformation, Cloud technologies and Datacentre services. Sify was the first Indian ICT company to be listed on the NASDAQ and in late 2020 entered the Fortune 500 top Indian companies.
Mark has over 20 years’ leadership experience in companies including Colt Technology services, Verizon, Level 3 (Lumen) and Geo (Zayo) – two of which were included in The Times fastest growing tech companies in the UK. These roles operated across the Enterprise, SME and public sector and included direct and indirect GTM channels in the UK, Europe, and Asia
Jen Cosgrove
Chief Operations Officer
Jen has spent over 25 years in technology & operational excellence leadership roles in Telecoms, IT & FinTech for organisations such as Scottish Telecom, Thus, Cable&Wireless, Capita & Experian.
Whilst at Capita, Jen led the delivery of managed network services to Critical National Infrastructure customers in the UK. At Experian she led a global technical organisation accountable for the service provision & uptime of business line critical software, was co-lead of a Women’s Network & sponsor of a development programme aimed at championing women in technology.
Continuing the transformation of our customer service and delivery to create an effortless experience will be a key focus for Jen, as we roll out new technology that will transform the way we serve our customers.
Will Solomon
Chief Technology Officer
Will has over 20 years of experience in software development and technology. He began his career developing CRM software for Ford, before moving on to senior technology leadership roles for premium brands including the Lawn Tennis Association, Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord’s, and Scott Dunn Luxury Travel.
Throughout his career, Will has consistently delivered quality, innovative technology platforms that offer outstanding customer experience. Holding an Engineering degree from Loughborough University, his expertise contributes to the delivery of pioneering platforms that redefine industry standards.
Ricardo Pombo
Director of Business Services & Compliance
Since joining Peoplesafe in 2009, Ricardo has played a key role in developing the service we provide into the market-leading solution with proprietary alarm receiving software and new products created exclusively by Peoplesafe.
Ricardo has over 25 years of Operational experience within the Technology and Hospitality industries and oversees all compliance activities at Peoplesafe including supporting business services having previously been responsible for operational activities within the company, including product development.
As an industry expert, he represents Peoplesafe as a member of the BSIA’s Lone Worker Section Committee, providing his knowledge and experience to help shape advice and legislation.
Matt Kennedy
Sales Operations Director
Matt is a qualified CIMA accountant who has been in the industry for 10 years.
For the past 8 years, Matt has worked within commercial roles at manufacturing, distribution, and service orientated companies. He has mainly been focused on identifying the drivers behind financial performance and implementing processes and strategies to improve the business and sales processes.
Freddie McGrath
Marketing Director
Freddie has over 16 years’ marketing experience, where he has honed his craft working with global enterprises and, more recently, a fast growing PE-backed SaaS company.
His early career was based in London where he worked for two global B2B enterprises, RBI and UBM (now Informa). During this time he also completed two diplomas in marketing and implemented digital channels in to both organisations to accelerate their marketing results.
He has recently built up the marketing infrastructure for a growing SaaS firm from scratch into a European-wide function that has driven their impressive growth over the last three years.
Chris Newman
Finance Director
Chris is an ACA chartered accountant with over 15 years of experience, having spent the last 10 years of his career in high-growth Private Equity backed businesses.
Holding a Business degree from Loughborough University, Chris qualified in 2008 with BDO LLP, before holding senior roles in HSBC and Reckitt Benckiser and in 2013 was appointed Group FC at Autovista Group, a market leading automotive SaaS business, operating in 19 countries across Europe.
Chris has a track record of implementing effective financial reporting processes, developing high performance teams, and driving commercial success.
Debbie Martin
HR Manager
With over two decades of experience in HR and payroll, Debbie possesses a deep understanding of employment law, TUPE, employee relations, and acquisitions. Her career has spanned global companies in the manufacturing and entertainment sectors, where she has successfully managed the merger of several acquisitions and led on wellbeing and employee engagement programmes.
As a CIPD-accredited professional, Debbie is committed to ensuring smooth operations, maintaining positive interpersonal relationships, and actively contributing to organisational strategic decision-making.