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.
Clare Farrow
Business Manager
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.
James Young
Chief Technology 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.
Max Leonardov
Head of Strategy & Architecture
Max joined Cantium in 2021 as Head of Strategy and Architecture. In his role, Max leads the Strategy and Architecture practice, encompassing the full lifecycle from strategy and roadmap development, strategic planning, pre-sales technical design and proposal production, solutions and technical architecture, through to project technical resources.
Max is a highly motivated technology leader with over 20 years of experience in IT, including over 12 years in senior leadership roles. He has led diverse teams of technical experts and business professionals delivering transformational change in all areas of technology, information and data.
Max has previously worked across various sectors including professional services, regulated healthcare, retail/commercial, higher education and government, working for names such as Foster + Partners, University of Cambridge and the InHealth Group.
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.
Simon Austin
Director for 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.
Ursula Wouldham
Head of ICT
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.
Dan Smith
Commercial Manager
Dan brings over 25 years of extensive experience in the commercial field, spanning various sales, leadership, and business development roles within the IT industry. Specialising in IT products & services, Software, SaaS, and IT Lifecycle Management, Dan's expertise and deep understanding of the IT landscape perfectly position him to align Cantium's offerings with our customer’s evolving needs.
From fostering key partnerships to identifying new business opportunities, Dan is responsible for shaping Cantium’s commercial landscape and building the growth strategy and pipeline that enable us to deliver profit for a purpose.
Will Asare
Education Account Manager
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.
Press Coverage
8 January, 2024
Local Gov
James Young, Chief Technology Officer at Cantium discusses how vulnerability management is key in managing cyber security risk.
13 December, 2023
FE News
Mark Hodges, Education Sector Lead at Cantium shares how schools can revolutionise the learning experience.
16 September, 2022
South East Connected
Cantium is delighted to announce Mark Cobb as Cantium's new CEO.
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.