Investor Information

Robert James Sheffield

Group CEO Nakama PLC

Rob is a founding member of Nakama and joined the Group as Managing Director International as part of the listing of the company in 2011. Having joined Aquent in 2003 and built their digital team in the UK driving the commercial growth and performance year on year until starting Nakama in 2009. He was appointed to Chief Executive Officer, Nakama PLC APAC in 2014. Rob has worked within the digital space for over 15 years. Residing in Australia he is responsible for Nakama’s APAC operations from a strategic, operational & financial perspective, developing the global & regional strategy for growth across the business and the global network of clients. His understanding of the digital, technology, creative and marketing space and channels clients and todays consumers are using to create and develop digital solutions in a multi-channel environment is coupled with an in-depth commercial knowledge that has enabled him to build high performing teams delivering a range of consultancy based services from recruitment solutions to change management. Rob has developed a coaching & mentoring model that focuses on employee engagement and is committed to building a culture of high performance.

Eric Kenelm (Ken) Ford

Non-Executive Chairman

Ken Ford has over 37 years of experience in the City. From 1993 he worked at Teather & Greenwood stockbrokers serving as Head of Corporate Finance, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer and latterly as Deputy Chairman until retirement in 2007. Prior to this he worked as a director at Aberdeen Asset Management and served for seven years as a director at Morgan Grenfell, as Head of Research and Head of Corporate Finance at Morgan Grenfell Securities. Ken is a Fellow of the Chartered Securities Institute and on the executive committee of the Quoted Companies Alliance. He is also Chairman of Brainjuicer Group plc and other companies.

John Edward Higham

Non-Executive Director and Deputy Chairman

John founded Highams in 1983 after many years gaining experience of the insurance market from an IT and business perspective, both within insurance company and software house environments. John was Chief Executive of the Group until April 2000 when he took up his current role. He has been a director of the company since 1 February 1983.

Mark de Lacy

Managing Director of Highams

Mark de Lacy has been employed by Highams since 1990. Originally brought in for his sales experience, Mark rapidly progressed to a senior role, responsible for the development of the Group’s major accounts within the Life and Pensions and Insurance sectors. He moved into recruiting and developing successful sales teams before being appointed in 2007 to Sales Director, and Managing Director in September 2008. Mark continues to actively develop new strategic accounts within specialist vertical markets.

Paul Goodship

Managing Director of Nakama London

Paul is a founding member of Nakama and joined the Group as Managing Director, Nakama, London as part of the listing. Paul has over 12 years experience in building and managing recruitment teams. Prior to founding Nakama, Paul was Director of Aquent where he built their Digital marketing recruitment team through both organic growth and acquisition over a 5-year tenure. He has a career that has been embedded in the media and creative arena since 2000.

Angus Watson

Chief Financial Officer 

Angus has extensive experience in both the technology and recruitment sectors and has held senior and board positions at a number of private and AIM listed companies. Previously, he was Group Finance Director at First Point Group Limited, a global telecoms recruitment business and prior to that, he was Finance Director of AIM listed Cornwell Management Consultants plc, which was acquired by Serco Group plc.

He trained as a chartered accountant at Grant Thornton in London before spending a substantial part of his early corporate career at IMS Health Inc. a leading global provider of information solutions and marketing services to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.