Meet the Team

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James Bannister

Managing Director

James joined in 2020 as Solutions Director, leading Yappl’s expansion into unified communications by establishing a thriving and successful sales team, based in Bournemouth. Such has been his success, James has since stepped up to become Yappl’s Managing Director, tasked with taking us to new heights in the business connectivity industry.

Outside of work, James is a self-admitted adrenaline junkie, always chasing the next thrill. Whether it’s mountain biking, motocross or wing foiling.

Mobile Sales team

Tonia Baldwin

Sales Director

Tonia has been with us since the start, in 1997, heading up corporate sales. The variety in the sales role is what drives her, and she’s always happiest when dealing with some of our lovely long-term customers.

Outside work, Tonia enjoys, travelling, relaxing holidays and going to music concerts and shows, sewing and designing costumes, as well getting green fingers in the garden. As a wife, Mum and Grandma, she also loves spending time with her ever growing family supporting their hobbies and interests.

Emma Derbyshire

National Direct Sales & Partner Manager

Emma’s been with us in Head Office for 10 years now and in telecoms for most of her career. She’s kept very busy with inbound calls, converting leads generated by our website and our telesales teams, and dealing with our partners – her role is perfect for her as she loves chatting with people, and the variety this brings.

She loves anything motorsport related, particularly Moto GP and F1, and is an a huge lover of dogs. She has a pampered pooch who sometimes visits the office called Cwtch. Emma is also a keen artist and designs tattoos for various artists, including the many she has adorning her!

Helen Kind

Business Development Manager

Helen started at Yappl as a Customer Service Advisor, and after demonstrating her skillset, she took on a new challenge to become our Business Development Manager.

What does that entail? Looking after our existing small business mobile, tablet and broadband customers. As well as bringing in new business by following up enquiries.

Helen enjoys taking care of her customers, ensuring they get a tailored experience and exceptional service, which she loves to see reflected in her customer’s 5-star Trustpilot reviews.

How does Helen keep busy when she’s not taking care of her customers? She’s part of a competitive darts and dominoes team, keeps fit through boxing, loves a karaoke session, and, like the rest of us, looks forward to her holidays and spending time with family most.

Customers Services team

Nicola Young

Customer Account Manager

Nicola manages the customer service team to ensure sales are processed on time, and that our customers receive the excellent service we pride ourselves on. She looks after them throughout their contract, and when it comes to upgrade time. Every day is different and whether a customer is big or small, giving them the best service is her motivation.

Holidays abroad to exotic locations are what she looks forward to – and at time of writing, she’s ready for one! She also enjoys watching sport and going to concerts with friends and family.

Kay Quigley

Senior Customer Account Advisor

Kay spends most of her time answering account queries, processing connections, and supporting customers at all stages. She looks after mobile stock, including purchase orders and booking goods in, including assisting our partners.

When she’s not at work, Kay is kept busy by her two young boys, including lots of walking and visits to parks and farms. In her spare time, she also likes meeting up with friends for food and drinks. She loves music and will listen to anything, even better if it’s live at a gig or festival!

Lindsay Neale

Customer Service Advisor

Lindsay’s role involves the administration of managing mobile customers, both new and existing, with most of her day spent processing and shipping new orders. She enjoys the atmosphere of the office, particularly the people she works with in her close-knit team.

Outside of work, Lindsey likes to spend her spare time attending Metal gigs, enjoying walks in nature and having plenty of cuddles with her cat, Mona!

Finance team

Joe Butler

Head of Accounts

Self-proclaimed “Master of Coin” with over 20 years of accounting experience, Joe is our Head of Accounts and the man in charge of all Yappl’s financial aspects. Budgeting, forecasting, and managing financial reporting, not to mention cashflow and payroll; it all goes through Joe.

In his spare time, Joe’s an avid traveller and hiker, often embarking on adventurous trips with his friends and family. A sports enthusiast, Joe loves to roar on his life-long football team, Derby County. When he’s not watching sport, he’s playing it, be it football, golf or padel.

Stuart Newman

Account Assistant

Stuart’s the name, and numbers are the game. As our Account Assistant, Stuart’s involved in a range of finance processes and tasks, across invoicing, reconciliations, and commissions. To name just a few.

Stuart loves the variety of work at Yappl, and the benefits of working within a small, tight-knit finance team, where he can be heard and make a difference.

When he’s not crunching numbers, Stuart can be found at live music events, pursuing his passion for photography, watching the rugby or simply out enjoying a walk. That’s of course when time permits, because he’s kept pretty busy by his two wonderful, disabled stepdaughters.

Marketing team

James Sisson

Head of Marketing

James has been plying his trade in marketing within the telecoms industry since 2014, and in 2024, he joined Yappl to lead our marketing efforts.

Yep, James is the man pulling the strings on our marketing strategy, campaigns and growth. If you were to ask James what he loves about his role at Yappl, he’d tell you it’s the freedom and support he’s given to deliver his vision for the business and how best to drive market expansion.

Away from the desk, James endeavours to keep on top of his fitness through the gym, running, swimming and less-frequent-than-he’d-like yoga class. But as soon as the weekend rolls around, there’s only one place you’ll find James – out on the golf course chasing his dream of a single-figure handicap.

Mia Lewis

Marketing Manager

Mia joined us in September 2020 and oversaw the launch of the Yappl brand. She’s responsible for the website, email marketing campaigns, social channels and all other marketing collateral.

When she’s not at work, she’s happiest when walking her Labrador, Poppy, seeing family and going on holiday. Except, perhaps, just after she’s had a Jägerbomb – her favourite tipple!

Luke Matthews

Web & Graphic Designer

You might say Luke’s the source of all our creative flair. He’s the go-to guy when it comes to conceptualising design ideas, equipped with the skills to bring them to life.

What does he do day to day? He’s busy developing our brand presence, improving the user experience and creating new ones. And what does he love about the job? Creative freedom is up there, but it’s the opportunity to keep learning and developing new ideas that gets Luke out of bed in the morning.

Away from his design work, Luke likes to keep fit by playing football, golf and getting a pump on in the gym. Living on the North East coast, he’s got the luxury of weekend walks along the beach to wind down, too.

Technical and Operations team

Chris Brannon

Technical & Operations Director

Since graduating from Sheffield Hallam University, Chris has over 15 years’ experience in IT & Telecoms, including the last 6 with us. Previously Head of IT in a large call centre group, where he built a truly bespoke call centre platform serving the likes of RBS, The Economist and the People’s Postcode Lottery to name a few. He oversees products, develops services & solutions and manages our partner relations ensuring our customers achieve their aims.

He’s a keen golfer, a sport he enjoys playing alongside his daughter. In contrast to the slower pace of golf, Chris has also completed tough-mudder and competed in half-marathons!

Pete Wainwright

Senior Unified Comms and Cloud Analyst

Pete’s your man when it comes to working out exactly the right systems to meet your requirements. He’s been with the company for 12 years and loves a challenge, particularly when it comes to speccing complex projects and service agreements.

At home, he’s a family man, kept pretty busy by his two young daughters, Holly and Willow, and Boston terrier, Max.

Steve Carter

Senior Networks & IT Analyst

Steve has been with Yappl for a few years now, and brings an extensive track record in providing top-notch technical support. He looks after leased lines and ensures SLAs are being met. A self-confessed IT and networking nerd, he’s always on hand for those rare occasions when things go wrong – responding swiftly and mitigating the impact.

A dad of 5, Steve’s also an avid PC gamer, makes his own YouTube tutorials and even squeezes in a bit of Badminton and Airsoft too.

Jamie Andrews

Senior Support & Delivery Engineer

Jamie is responsible for provisioning, stock and sorting out connections. He supports customers through the onboarding process, and enjoys solving any problems that arise, making sure their setup experience is as seamless as possible.

Jamie has cats called Beans and Charlie, and he’s a keen street skateboarder. Jamie, that is, not the cats!

Josh Beers

Senior Deployment Engineer

Josh’s role within the Technical and Ops team involves being the first point of contact for support for customers with unified comms and/or network services. His role frequently takes him on the road to customers premises to undertake the installations of managed networks.

He enjoys the variety that the role of Network and Support Engineer provides and is happiest when knee-deep in the nitty-gritty of a complex network!

Outside of work, Josh is a family man, spending most of his time with his fiancé, little boy and walking his dogs Lyra and Kiera.

Christian Baines

Senior Delivery Engineer

Christian has joined Yappl as part of the Provisioning team. His role predominantly involves ordering and configuring telephony and broadband equipment for our customers. He enjoys all elements of the job, but particularly enjoys the great team chemistry and configuring software.

When he’s not in the office, he can be found playing on his Xbox in his downtime and enjoys trying anything new, as long as it isn’t camping! He’s also expecting a little girl in next few months!

Danny Shepherd

Provisioning & Support Engineer

They don’t get more hands-on and technical than Danny, our Provisioning & Support Engineer. He’s responsible for arranging broadband installations, building and maintaining hosted telephony services, and providing ongoing tech support to customers on our hardware and software.

In Danny’s job, no day is the same, and he’s kept on his toes with fresh challenges and Yappl’s ever-evolving range of products and services.

In his downtime, Danny likes to cycle, jam on his guitar, and loves a good board game. He’s an avid reader, too, often found turning the pages of a sci-fi, fantasy or horror novel.

Curtis Wood

Billing Manager

Curtis has a varied role, from onboarding new customers to billing and bill runs as well as purchasing. It’s this variety which he enjoys, and although it can be a lot to keep track of, he likes the challenge and supporting different departments within the business.

In his spare time, Curtis is a keen baker and cake decorator, often making cakes for other people. He really likes painting too, mainly in acrylic. Otherwise, he’ll be found playing his Xbox and spending time with friends and family.

Scott Drabble

Logistics & Administration Manager

Scott’s been with the business for 13 years. His job involves keeping on top of a number of operational aspects, including price books and stock management for the business. He enjoys the varied challenges that come with the role.

Outside of work, Scott is a big Derby County fan, often attending matches. He also like to play a round of golf, as well as going to music concerts.

Unified Comms Sales team

Asif Mahmood

Senior Business Development Manager

Asif works to understand the problems and pain points of clients, and then find the right solutions to overcome them. He finds it really rewarding due to the continual learning and development required, even after several of years in the telecoms industry.

When he’s not getting passionate about tech and telecoms, he loves spending time with family and friends, often while enjoying a nice meal. Football keeps him fit, having played from a young age, both in a competitive Saturday league, and in 5-a-side with his friends.

Gary Barnett

Senior Business Development Manager

Gary’s role involves the continuous acquisition of new logos to the business. As our Senior Business Development Manager, he can offer the full range of our portfolio to customers. He particularly enjoys the different problem-solving scenarios each customer presents, as well as being able to travel and see the entire country while he’s out visiting customers.

Aside from the kids Gary’s main love is football and being a season ticket holder at Port Vale FC since 1982. He loves his music and gigs and played guitar for 30 years and been in numerous bands. Saturdays are his football days. Sundays are taking his little lad to his under 7’s football. According to Gary – “It really is the secret to a successful marriage – be out all weekend, every weekend!”

Kieren Linton

Team Leader

Kieren is always working to build relationships with potential new customers, and really enjoys the communication side of the role. He gets great satisfaction from speaking to different people every day, understanding their needs, and finding solutions to help their businesses grow.

Outside of work, Kieren loves his football, both watching and playing. Otherwise, he’s happiest when spending time with his family and friends.

Mishka Turkov

Senior New Business Executive

As a Senior New Business Executive, Mishka’s job is to book appointments with potential clients. She really enjoys speaking with new people, engaging with them to understand and help when they’ve experienced problems with other providers.

Outside of work, Mishka loves nothing more than spending time with her family – her husband and their 3 children.

Sam Bowyer

Senior New Business Executive

Sam’s role within the lead generation team involves him reaching out to potential customers, gaining an understanding of their business communication requirements and finding them a suitable solution. He most enjoys speaking to and building relationships with new people, as well as helping businesses save money on their telecoms solutions.

When Sam’s not in the office, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends and loves travelling, with top highlights including his trips to America and Indonesia!

Sarah Philips

Senior New Business Executive

Sarah’s job involves calling up potential customers and understanding how the service we provide can match up to their requirements. Tailoring these solutions to perfectly suit their needs is something she enjoys, and if she can save them money in the process, even better.

At the weekend, Sarah will be found spending time her younger children and husband, as well as her older daughter and new grandchild. They love walking their two German Pointers in the forest, and she also keeps fit by doing Zumba and getting out for a bike ride.

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