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Cantium's Executive Committee and Leadership Team

Meet the team that sets and oversees the strategy, execution and operations at Cantium.

Mark Cobb

Managing Director

Mark has a wealth of experience in private and public sectors, including local government, health, education, manufacturing, and retail. With a valuable combination of leadership, commercial, and technology experience, he has a proven track record of delivering exceptional customer service and consistently surpassing targets.

Mark excels as a dynamic leader and coach in creating the right environments and culture for partners, teams, and individuals to succeed.

Mark Cobb

Managing Director

Clare Farrow

Head of Portfolio Management

Clare started her career in the private sector, working for almost 15 years in the commercial and corporate banking sector. Many of those years were spent in a relationship management role, assessing lending propositions with particular emphasis on debt management, including implementing and monitoring work out agreements and lending risk assessments.

Clare also has experience in contact centre management in a commercial banking environment. Latterly, Clare has been employed at Kent County Council (KCC) and Cantium for 20 years, working in various roles across different directorates.

Clare Farrow

Head of Portfolio Management

James Young

Chief Technical Officer

James is responsible for Cantium’s technology strategy, driving innovation through R&D and leveraging emerging technologies to bring the newest innovations to clients.

James has experience of delivering architecture, design and outsourcing services across a wide range of sectors including public and private sector clients at C-Level for FTSE 100 firms.

Throughout his career, James has end to end experience of procuring and delivering enterprise ICT services from all sides of the equation, as a customer, as an advisory consultant and as a service provider delivering complex technology services and transformation.

James Young

Chief Technical Officer

Jamie Parish

Commercial Financial Director

Jamie has extensive financial experience, having worked in the private sector for 19 years, where he had responsibility for ensuring the operational efficiency, regulatory compliance and direct management of financial functions.

With 18 years post qualified Chartered Accountant experience, Jamie has led finance teams that deliver commercial focus to improve processes, deliver efficiencies and meet business objectives through technical expertise and team leadership.

Jamie Parish

Commercial Financial Director

Nancy Seaton

Head of Application Support and Development

Nancy has worked for KCC / Cantium for over 35 years. Nancy has held various roles in Finance including Accounts Payable Assistant, Capital Finance Assistant and Investments Assistant, before settling in a Finance Systems role in 2000.

Nancy has a wealth of experience delivering application support maintenance and development for KCC. As Head of Applications & Development, Nancy is responsible for the support, training, maintenance and development of approximately 98 line of business applications supporting 30,000 users across KCC, schools, TEP, Invicta Law, CSG and Cantium Business Solutions.

Nancy Seaton

Head of Application Support and Development

Simon Austin

Director of Account Management and Corporate Services

Simon is an experienced leader, in both the public and private sector, with a background in services, delivery and transformation. Outcome focused with a real drive for making things happen, Simon is passionate about high standards and delivering on customer promises.

As Head of Account Management and the Account Director for Cantium’s largest customer and Shareholder, Simon’s role works across the entire business and customer base to ensure high quality underpins everything at Cantium.

Simon works closely with Cantium’s clients and partners to nurture and develop relationships and opportunities that will be mutually beneficial by reviewing processes, governance and systems to identify efficiency improvements or problems to resolve. Simon is also passionate about developing and enhancing Cantium’s culture.

Simon Austin

Director of Account Management and Corporate Services

Ursula Wouldham

IT Operations Director

Ursula is responsible for delivering stable, resilient and secure Infrastructure services to Cantium’s customers. Ranging from network connectivity, cloud operations, storage, backups, server maintenance, through to database administration.

Ursula is a performance-driven, ITIL Expert professional with over 17 years’ experience in the IT industry, across a variety of technical and management roles. Ursula is passionate about continuous improvement, data-driven decision-making and delivering operational excellence.

Ursula Wouldham

IT Operations Director

Will Asare

Education Account Director

With over 14 years of experience in the education sector, Will brings a wealth of expertise in education technology and IT support for schools.

Driven by a passion for advancing education, he is dedicated to assisting schools in embracing innovative solutions that elevate teaching and learning experiences.

In his role as Education Account Manager, Will spearheads our Education division, actively seeking opportunities to empower schools and uphold exceptional customer satisfaction. His commitment to cultivating strong client relationships and fostering enduring partnerships perfectly aligns with Cantium’s values.

Will Asare

Education Account Director

Press Coverage

8 January, 2024

Who We Are

Working with Cantium means that public funds continue to support front-line public services. We believe in profit for a purpose and giving back to services that support our communities.

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Mark Cobb

Clare Farrow

James Young

Jamie Parish

Nancy Seaton

Simon Austin

Ursula Wouldham

Will Asare

Cantium's Executive Committee and Leadership Team

Mark Cobb

Clare Farrow

James Young

Jamie Parish

Nancy Seaton

Simon Austin

Ursula Wouldham

Will Asare

Press Coverage

Local Gov

FE News

South East Connected

Who We Are

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Get in Touch

Cantium's Executive Committee and Leadership Team

Mark Cobb

Mark Cobb

Clare Farrow

Clare Farrow

James Young

James Young

Jamie Parish

Jamie Parish

Nancy Seaton

Nancy Seaton

Simon Austin

Simon Austin

Ursula Wouldham

Ursula Wouldham

Will Asare

Will Asare

Press Coverage

Local Gov

FE News

South East Connected

Who We Are