Advisory Board

David Sidwell, Business Development

David Sidwell has over 25 years IT sales, marketing and management experience. His career spans roles in Burroughs Machines (now Unisys), McDonnell Douglas (now Northgate) and Intersolv (now Merant). From 1996 to 1997 he was European Vice President of the Microsoft Development Partner Insignia Solutions. In 1997 he was a founder Director of the information assurance specialist Vistorm, playing a lead role in their growth of revenues to $50 million. Since 2003, David has advised companies in a wide range of industries on sales growth and business development.

Howard Cooper (LLb Hons, Solicitor), Legal Counsel

Howard Cooper has over 18 years experience in international commercial law. He trained at Cameron McKenna in the City of London. He was then recruited and has held senior positions at EQUANT, GE Capital, Vistorm and Goldman Sachs. He specializes in advice on information and security technology and is regularly asked to speak on information technology legislation most recently with Microsoft and Computer Associates. Howard is an expert at advising emergent technology businesses on strategies to protect and exploit their Intellectual Property and commercial assets.

Julian Tanner, Communications

Julian Tanner has over 20 years experience in technology communications and has covered almost all areas of the industry, from component electronics to systems software, and from video games to mainframe computers. In 1994 Julian founded AxiCom which is an 80 person pan-European agency operating in seven countries with an annual turnover of over $16m – Cohn & Wolfe recently acquired a majority stake in AxiCom to bring the agency into the global Cohn & Wolfe network. Julian has consulted to senior management across the entire technology sector, making a major contribution to the business success of clients such as Citrix, Red Hat, IBM and VMware.

Guy Tarring, Marketing

Guy Tarring has over 28 years marketing experience drawn from both the FMCG and IT industries. His 15 year career in FMCG included roles at Unilever, Kraft Foods, and Johnson and Johnson where he was Head of Marketing for the UK between1981 and 1985. From 1986 to 1988 he was Marketing Director at Mansfield Brewery. In 1988 he joined Digital Equipment Company where he became Marketing Director from 1993 to1996. Since that time he has been Marketing Director at a variety of IT software and IT services companies including AXS, Vistorm and Commerce Decisions. Today, Guy runs a specialized marketing company, which he founded, providing services in both the B2B and B2C markets.