Meet the team.

Rob Elkin is a transformational technology executive with over 20 years of experience building and scaling engineering organisations across both high-growth startups and established technology companies. His leadership philosophy is centred on building high-performing teams that deliver measurable business impact while maintaining engineering excellence.

Most recently, Rob served as Chief Technology Officer at The Very Group (TGV), where he led the technology organisation through a period of significant growth and digital transformation. He oversaw the scaling of engineering teams, modernisation of platform architecture, and implementation of engineering practices that positioned the business for continued success.

Prior to this, he served as Head of Digital Technology at Co-op Digital, building a permanent engineering capability from zero to over 400 world-class staff with 50% women in technology and engineering roles.

Rob remains actively engaged with the technology community, serving as a mentor to emerging technology leaders. He is an advisor for Manchester Tech Festival and member of Manchester City Council's Digital Strategy Advisory Board.

With over two decades of experience in technology leadership, I specialise in guiding organisations through digital transformation and innovation. My expertise spans from startups to multinational corporations, with a focus on creating and operating high-scale, multi-million customer technology products.

As the founder of Rational Partners, I now apply my experience to help businesses navigate complex technological challenges. Whether it's rapid growth, product launches, or preparing for significant transactions, I provide strategic insight and hands-on technical knowledge to maximise opportunities and mitigate risks.

My career highlights include leading digital transformation at The Skills Network, driving innovation in mental health technology at Paradym, and spearheading technological advancements at Riverford Organic Farmers. I've also held key roles at JUST EAT and Invitation Digital, where I managed international teams and oversaw large-scale system implementations.

I'm particularly passionate about leveraging technology to drive positive change, as evidenced by my work in EdTech, HealthTech, and sustainable food systems. My approach combines strategic vision with practical implementation, always with an eye on ethical and sustainable business practices.

Richie Barter leads commercial operations at Rational Partners, ensuring our engagements deliver measurable value for clients

With strong background in building and scaling technoloy teams and commercial functions, Richie was previously founder and CEO at Replan for over 14 years, up until the business was sold in December 2024.

Richie has a strong academic record with an MSc in Accounting and Finance from LSE and a Masters in Software Engineering from Oxford University.

His role encompases comercial operations, growth and brand leadership and corporate strategy at Rational Partners.

A product and technology leader with 25 years experience and over 15 years in senior leadership across a wide variety of industries. Trusted by major brands (Co-op, Moneysupermarket) as well as successful start-ups & scale-ups.

Passionate, hands-on, commercially minded, known for building products that scale and productive, motivated teams.

A long standing advocate for modern best practices for delivering software (Agile/XP/Lean).

I believe 'doing good things leads to good things', so I'm always happy to speak to similar minded people, give back and lend my experience to make a difference where I can.

Toby Abel is a technology founder and CTO with 15 years' experience building and leading product-focused technology companies across multiple domains. He holds a BA in Computer Science from the University of Oxford and possesses deep expertise in early-stage architecture, rapid product development, and establishing high-performing engineering teams. His technical foundation spans Python, Ruby, Node.js, TypeScript, and cloud-native infrastructure, with particular strength in designing API-first platforms, data pipelines, and multi-service architectures that scale with emerging organisations.

Toby's track record demonstrates exceptional capability in navigating the critical early phases of venture-backed companies. As Founding CTO of Beamery, he designed and built the initial product architecture and engineering team that supported the company's evolution into a unicorn valuation. He subsequently founded or co-founded multiple venture-backed platforms - including Befittd (a sizing and fit-prediction tool for luxury fashion e-commerce, successfully acquired), Krzana (a structured data news platform that achieved acquisition), and Route2 (a quantified sustainability data platform) - where he led architecture, product development, and engineering through to successful exits or scale. Currently, Toby is founder of Open Council Network, an AI-enabled civic technology platform leveraging large language model systems to extract, summarise, and publish local government outcomes, whilst serving as part-time CTO for AYU, a community data platform serving alternative investment professionals.

Toby is increasingly focused on AI-first system design and brings distinctive expertise in LLM-enabled content systems, orchestration patterns, evaluation and moderation layers, and reliable governance frameworks. As a fractional CTO, he excels in high-leverage, ambiguous environments where architectural clarity, technical sequencing, and disciplined decision-making under uncertainty are essential. His combination of deep technical acumen, product sensibility, and proven ability to build and lead engineering organisations makes him particularly valuable to growth-stage companies navigating product-market fit validation and the transition to scalable systems.

A proven leader in technology and product innovation, specialising in scaling engineering teams, advising and delivering technology due diligence for Investors and Startup CEOs.

With over 20 years of experience spanning fintech, crypto, infrastructure, and general tech, he brings a unique perspective shaped by hands-on leadership roles in high-growth organisations like Bitpanda, Ebury, and Canonical/Ubuntu.

A CIO 100 award-winning Chief Technology Officer with a proven track record of driving digital transformation and operational excellence across the financial services, gambling, and retail sectors. I excel at translating high-level technology strategy and vision into tangible, data-driven results, leveraging a deep technical foundation forged over 14 years of blue-chip architecture consulting.

I am passionate about leading product-focused agile teams, empowering them to build scalable, high-performing, and customer-centric cloud-based solutions. My hands-on approach allows me to dig deep into data to drive better decision-making, ensuring that every technological investment directly supports business goals and enhances the customer experience.

CTO, CPTO, VP Eng/Tech and senior consulting experience across a number of online industries including education, retail, eCommerce, gaming, marketplace, gambling, interactive TV, telecoms, card payments and healthcare. Focused on building strong, cohesive delivery teams, aligning technology to business needs, and developing collaborative approaches to bringing value and success to organisations.

Passionate advocate of agile, objective oriented ways of working and delivering value in fast changing businesses.

Agile methods, 24/7 global, online businesses, Service Delivery, IT Governance, Applications Development

I build technical credibility with founders by speaking their language—because I've been in their shoes. As co-founder of Accountis, I scaled a Fintech startup from zero to 30% of UK payment volume and a $10M exit through founder-led technical sales. I know the velocity and constraints of early-stage companies because I've lived them.

Today, I architect production LLM systems that work in the real world. My Planning Ledger platform demonstrates what I bring to startups building with AI: comprehensive AWS infrastructure orchestration, LLM-powered document enrichment with cost optimization, evaluation frameworks that matter, and production guardrails addressing actual constraints—not just theoretical ones. I've built sophisticated multi-agent solutions using CrewAI, pioneered specification-driven development approaches, and deployed systems with checkpoint-based resumability, fault tolerance, and the kind of safety-critical thinking you need when AI meets production.

With 25+ years of Python expertise (#1 globally on HackerRank) and a PhD in Computer Science, I earn the trust of technical founders. But credentials matter less than results: at London Fintech Unicorn Ebury, I professionalized engineering practices for 200 engineers supporting 40%+ annual growth, designed systems improving query performance by 10,000x, and translated product roadmaps into technical solutions that balanced business needs with engineering reality.

My technical pre-sales experience runs deep. I've conducted intensive multi-day customer workshops capturing enterprise requirements, built channel partnerships generating 40% of revenue, and implemented Miller Heiman methodology for complex enterprise sales (T-Mobile, SSE, NHS). Following Accountis's acquisition, I served as SVP supporting European sales teams, spoke at SIBOS and EBADay, and contributed to European standards development—translating complex technical concepts into actionable insights for diverse stakeholders.

I understand how to win technical evaluations in competitive markets because I've done it. I understand how to build evaluation frameworks because I've deployed them in production. I understand the founder journey from product-market fit to professionalized scale because I've made that journey myself.

Chris Brooke is a proven technical leader with a passion for using technology to improve people's lives, bringing extensive experience in growing high-performing product and engineering teams across global B2B and B2C startups and scaleups. With a career spanning software development, technical architecture, and C-suite leadership, Chris has successfully scaled teams and processes in London, Kyiv, and Toronto, consistently delivering results in diverse and challenging environments.

As a fractional and interim CTO, Chris has transformed engineering organisations at companies including proSapient, InsurX, Visibly, and BCIS, establishing technology strategies, introducing agile practices, implementing career development frameworks, and right-sizing teams for optimal delivery. His track record includes leading Hopster—a BAFTA-nominated kids' streaming platform, as CTO, scaling the team from 2 to 30 people and launching successfully across 120+ countries with over 1.5 million downloads.

Chris brings deep expertise in technical due diligence, having advised PE and VC firms on over 50 investment evaluations during his tenure as Senior Partner at Seedcloud, covering sectors from fintech to cybersecurity. He provides strategic guidance on architecture, security, team structure, and market positioning, often transitioning from due diligence to post-investment advisory to implement his recommendations. A dedicated coach and mentor to senior technical leaders, Chris combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution to help organisations overcome challenges, build scalable structures, and create cultures of learning and innovation.

James Bunch is a software leader with a proven track record of building effective teams and delivering high-profile initiatives within fast-paced, demanding environments. With deep software engineering expertise spanning all stages of the development lifecycle, he combines hands-on technical capability with strategic leadership to drive transformation and innovation across complex organisations.

Currently a Partner at Rational Partners, James provides consulting services including fractional CTO roles and technology due diligence engagements for UK venture capital firms. His work focuses on expert assessment of technology, teams, and processes, identifying risks and opportunities for growth. His current engagements include serving as Fractional CTO at the Chartered Management Institute and conducting technology audits for chief executives concerned about software project delivery.

Most recently, James served as CTO at TRG Screen, a private equity-owned SaaS company, where he led a global technology organisation of 100 people across nine development teams and 12 products. He accelerated innovation by rapidly implementing generative AI, including conversational interfaces for end-users and data analysts, alongside automated coding tools that significantly enhanced development velocity. Under his leadership, he rebooted a stalled platform transformation project by building multiple cross-functional development teams and directing strategy and architecture. He successfully integrated acquisitions into the technology organisation and served as CTO during the company's successful exit to Vista Equity Partners.

Andrea Candian is a transformational technology executive with a unique blend of deep technical expertise and business acumen, honed over 26 years of professional experience including 17 years in leadership roles spanning start-ups to multinational enterprises. As Group Chief Technology Officer at Raketech, Andrea has led large-scale consolidation and modernization initiatives across a complex portfolio of 70+ hosting providers, dramatically improving business continuity from weekly outages to four 9s availability.

Andrea's career demonstrates consistent success in translating vision into tangible results—from building NEC's face recognition platform from whiteboard to global deployment in just three months, to scaling Virtual Class's engineering team from 10 to 30+ and delivering a complex product in record time. His expertise spans product delivery, technical transformation, and building high-performance teams across diverse contexts: local, distributed, remote-first, and mixed-sourced organisations.

With proven capabilities in assessments, due diligence, technology strategy, organisational transformation, and scale-up advisory, Andrea brings a pragmatic, results-driven approach to complex technical and organisational challenges. He has successfully led teams through Agile and DevOps transformations, driven adoption of modern architectures (microservices, cloud-native, AI/ML), and established leadership teams that deliver. A Chartered Engineer with an MBA, Andrea combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution to drive innovation and sustainable growth.

Tom Dignan is a software engineering and research executive with 25 years of professional experience building and leading engineering and data science teams. With a PhD in Physics from Harvard and deep technical expertise spanning distributed systems, machine learning, and platform development, he combines scientific rigour with pragmatic leadership to deliver scalable technology solutions across multiple industries.

Most recently, Tom served as CTO at Apolitical, the world's largest social learning platform serving governments, where he led all aspects of engineering and data science through multiple funding rounds. He professionalised the engineering function, scaling the team from six to nearly 20 engineers, and oversaw the rebuild of the product and backend infrastructure into a scalable, performant, and maintainable system. Under his leadership, the team developed a new platform for content delivery, AI-powered courses, and a public servant social network, whilst introducing DevOps and quality assurance functions into the organisation.

Prior to Apolitical, Tom was CTO at Syft, the UK's largest online marketplace for zero-hour contract workers, where he led the company from Series A funding through to acquisition by Indeed.com. He scaled the engineering team from five to over 20 engineers, created a scalable organisational structure consisting of cross-functional teams, and oversaw rearchitecture efforts to migrate from a monolithic system to a service-oriented architecture model. Earlier, as CTO at ReputationDefender, he managed technical and fulfilment teams across the US and UK, achieving record company-wide profitability through effective management of software development, DevOps, quality assurance, and fulfilment operations.

Tom's tenure as VP of Engineering and Research at Reputation.com demonstrates his capacity for innovation at scale. He built a research team of computer and data scientists to analyse data and develop technology solutions using machine learning techniques for entity extraction, sentiment analysis, and text clustering. His work on algorithms for scoring professional profiles and analysing product performance resulted in 23 patents. He also oversaw hiring for an engineering organisation of nearly 50 engineers, establishing the foundations for the company's technical growth.

His earlier career includes leadership roles at Hands-On Mobile, where he managed an international organisation approaching 100 engineers to build mobile games, applications, and distributed systems for global distribution, and at Yahoo!, where he oversaw mobile client development. This breadth of experience—from startups to established technology companies—has equipped Tom with the versatility to navigate complex technical and organisational challenges whilst maintaining a spirit of innovation balanced with delivery requirements.

I’m a Fractional CTO & AI Automation Specialist with 25+ years of experience turning complex technical challenges into scalable business solutions. As a 5x CTO, 2x Founder, and 1x CEO with a successful exit (Utelly → Synamedia), I help early-stage and growth companies build acquisition-ready technology platforms that drive measurable ROI. From raising $1M for Fit Collective’s ML optimization engine to delivering content discovery solutions adopted by major broadcasters, I know how to transform ambitious visions into market-leading products.

My expertise spans AI/ML product development, recommendation systems, AI automation, large-scale data processing, and MLOps, with a particular focus on e-commerce, media tech, and fashion tech. I’ve built and scaled engineering teams, designed API-first platforms powering millions of daily searches, and guided founders through technical due diligence and funding rounds. I combine hands-on technical depth with commercial acumen, making sure your product not only works, but wins.

Today, I partner with select startups, where I help founders implement AI, automate workflows, and scale fast without burning resources. I’m also an active angel investor and LP, supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs while leveraging insights from both sides of the acquisition table.

Douglas has led the delivery of large-scale enterprise platforms across complex organisations, including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Case Management platforms. His hands-on leadership in solution architecture, integration and transformation has provided a strong foundation for overseeing ERP strategy and due diligence, including major SAP and Sage implementations and migrations. He has applied this expertise across multiple sectors such as manufacturing, distribution and logistics, ensuring technology investments deliver measurable operational and commercial value.

In addition, Douglas has extensive experience in systems integrator selection and large-scale technology procurement. He previously served as a technical lead within a major SI, shaping responses to complex public sector RFPs and translating strategic requirements into deliverable solutions. As a consultant, he has since led a £5m application management services procurement and contributed to a £50m global IT outsourcing re-procurement programme, balancing commercial rigour with strategic alignment and risk management.

Eoin Woods is a very experienced and successful software engineer and architect, with over 30 years of industrial experience from graduate trainee to Head of Architecture, CTO and Chief Engineer, across a range of industries.

His specialist areas of expertise include software and solution architecture, software delivery improvement through tools and frameworks, building and leading architecture teams, application security and sustainable (or 'green') software. He has been a successful lead architect and led architecture groups for large multi-national organisations, led capability development and engineering enablement for a large software delivery provider, worked on successful software products and led and driven large-scale enterprise software delivery.

Eoin Woods holds academic qualifications in software engineering to PhD level and he is a UK Chartered Engineer and Chartered IT Professional.

Peter Robinson is an inspirational Fractional IT Director and Programme Lead with exceptional expertise in driving major IT transformations and delivering robust, business-oriented technical solutions for leading multi-sector organisations. With a CMCIPD, MBCS qualification and formal IT leadership training from Cranfield School of Management, Peter combines operational acumen, strategic technology vision and proven board-level advisory capabilities. His vast international experience encompasses technology operations, ERP solution implementation, digital transformation and vendor management across complex, high-growth retail and healthcare environments.

Throughout his career, Peter has spearheaded transformational initiatives that have delivered substantial commercial value. At Dixons Carphone, he developed and launched an innovative same-day delivery solution that generated £2.6 million in additional sales within four months. During his tenure as Head of IT at Specsavers, he orchestrated a significant IT transformation programme impacting 300 staff, whilst driving a 33% increase in sales through strategic technology alignment. More recently, as Fractional IT Director at Halterworth IT Services, Peter has delivered major transformation programmes for leading retailers, including Primark, where he successfully controlled £50 million budgets, implemented a global point-of-sale solution spanning 480 stores, and oversaw a digital delivery initiative that enhanced customer relationship management for 3.8 million customers.

As a fractional Partner, Peter brings a distinctive combination of hands-on technical expertise, strategic business acumen and inspirational leadership. His bilingual communication abilities, exceptional capacity to foster strong IT-business interactions and proven track record in service modernisation, change management and IT governance make him particularly effective in advising organisations navigating complex technology transitions. Peter's consultative approach, combined with his deep vendor and stakeholder relationship management skills, enables him to identify and capitalise on technology opportunities whilst ensuring organisations achieve measurable business outcomes and sustained competitive advantage.

Lindsey Jayne is an experienced Fractional CPO and interim product leader with a proven track record of driving strategic product development, organisational transformation and revenue growth across high-growth technology companies. She specialises in product strategy, agile methodologies and stakeholder management, with deep expertise in digital project management and leading cross-functional product teams. Her background spans fintech, digital media, e-commerce and healthtech, where she has consistently delivered measurable business outcomes whilst establishing product excellence and upskilling leadership teams.

As Chief Product Officer at The Financial Times Group, Lindsey oversaw a portfolio of premium content brands and platforms, driving significant business impact: she exceeded paying audience targets by 150,000 users, increased advertising revenue by 25%, and spearheaded the organisation's AI strategy, creating industry-leading products and negotiating partnerships including FT's presence on OpenAI. Prior to this, as VP Product at Yoco, an African fintech, she set the product vision for market expansion, stabilised the business during the pandemic to achieve first break-even within nine months, and doubled monthly active users annually. She also led transformative product initiatives at Monzo, where she tripled users to three million whilst shipping over fifty significant features, and held senior design leadership roles at Farfetch, managing 90-person creative teams across three continents.

As a fractional partner, Lindsey brings exceptional value to organisations navigating product transformation, team development and strategic challenges. She excels at diagnosing operating model issues, aligning executive vision with product delivery, and building high-performing product capabilities from the ground up. Her expertise in rapid experimentation, data-driven decision-making and cross-functional collaboration, combined with her experience coaching product leaders at major organisations including Google, makes her a trusted advisor for businesses seeking to enhance their product strategy, scale sustainably and achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Emma van Dijkum is a strategic product leader with over 17 years of experience scaling platform businesses from Series A through to IPO. A specialist in organisational transformation and high-growth environments, Emma has played a pivotal role in building two unicorns at Funding Circle and Multiverse. Her analytical expertise and practical problem-solving approach enable her to diagnose what excellence looks like and architect the precise pathway to achieve it.

As VP Product at Multiverse, Emma scaled a cross-functional team from 16 to 120 whilst enabling revenue growth from $10 million to $140 million, simultaneously increasing team engagement by 60% and driving process automation from 25% to 71%. At Funding Circle, she scaled the product function from 3 to 8 team members across UK and US operations, introducing machine-learning-powered credit models that reduced lending time from weeks to same-day processing. Her track record across ventures including Naked Wines, Octopus Investments and EF Education First demonstrates consistent success in building product organisations, launching innovative features and delivering exceptional commercial returns.

As a Fractional CPO and executive coach, Emma now works with ambitious companies to diagnose product challenges, redesign organisational structures and drive transformational outcomes. Her pragmatic approach combines rigorous stakeholder alignment with hands-on team coaching, enabling organisations to shift from output-focused delivery to impact-driven product missions. Emma brings both strategic vision and operational excellence to organisations seeking to unlock sustainable growth.