Management

Chris Havemann – Chief Executive Officer

Early in his career Chris held various business development roles for Cable & Wireless, before co-founding The Mobile Channel in 2000, a London-based start-up seeking to develop permission-based advertising solutions on mobile devices. The company changed its business model in 2003 to focus on the rapidly emerging marketplace for online survey market research, and rebranded as Research Now. As CEO, in 2005 Chris led the successful IPO of Research Now on the London Stock Exchange AIM market. In 2009, Research Now was acquired by US competitor e-Rewards, Inc, at which point Chris became President & CEO of the merged business, global leader in its marketplace. That same year he was London Stock Exchange AIM Entrepreneur of the Year.

Chris has an MBA from London Business School, where he also sits on the International Alumni Council. He is a keen runner and sailor, and father of three.

Tariq Dag Khan – Chief Marketing Officer

Tariq Dag Khan is Chief Marketing Officer at Rated People, responsible for marketing, business development and growth strategy. For the last fifteen years, his career has been about taking new ideas and businesses to market and in many cases creating new marketplaces or reinventing old ones. He has held a similar role in previous start-ups including: Borro.com – the UK’s first online pawn-lender; Nimbuzz – the first pan-European private jet card (sold to NetJets); and FireFly Network, the first online music community (sold to Microsoft).

Previously, Tariq spent five years in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers in M&A and corporate finance. He later joined CDC Index as a management consultant – specialising in re-engineering (or “radical process redesign”) projects across the energy, industrial and pharmaceutical sectors. Tariq earned an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College, and graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in Political & Social Thought. He is married with four daughters and enjoys golf, tennis, polo and skiing.

Darren Quigg – Chief Financial Officer

Darren Quigg is Rated People’s Chief Financial Officer, covering Finance, Legal and Human Resources.

Darren joined Rated People from TagMan, the largest global tag management solution for eCommerce, where he was also CFO. Previously, he spent three years as European Finance Director for Aol Advertising and, prior to that, had stints as a Financial Controller for MTV Networks Europe and Finance Manager for Walt Disney Europe.

Darren qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Australia, moving from Sydney to London in 1997. He is a member of the ICAEW and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the Australian National University; he joined Rated People in September 2012. Outside of work he enjoys spending time with his young family, as well as fitting in time for a variety of sports, including cricket, tennis and skiing.

Kostas Vlassis – Chief Technology Officer

Kostas Vlassis is the Chief Technology Officer at Rated People, responsible for software engineering, enterprise architecture, infrastructure and quality assurance. His focus is delivering technology products that empower the company to grow quickly, innovate and be the world leader in the sectors it operate.

Kostas has held senior technology positions in JATO Dynamics, the world leader in business intelligence in the automotive sector and Research Now, the world’s leading online panel company within the market research industry.

Kostas has a degree in Chemistry from the National University of Athens, an MSc in Information Systems from Brunel University, and an MBA from Cass Business School, City University London. He is a keen world traveller and a big basketball fan.

Rose de Silva – Head of Customer Operations and CRM

Rose is Head of Customer Operations at Rated People, responsible for all customer operations and customer insight. In her role, she ensures Rated People remains the market leader in connecting homeowners with quality, local tradesmen with a resolute focus on great customer service.

Prior to working with Rated People, Rose worked for SLT/NTT Communication Japan/Mobitel, Alpha Telecom UK and the Daily Mail Group. Her expertise is in managing customer service, operations, technology, sales and marketing in post-paid and prepaid mobile telecoms, alternative energy and the media sector.

Rose is married and has a young family with 2 daughters. She loves spending time at home with them, cooking, entertaining, playing tennis and swimming. She is a dedicated follower of cricket and rugby. In her spare time she works for a small charity called “Touch Community” helping to develop local communities by providing educational and vocational training.

Rex Cooper – Director of Mobile Technology

Rex is Director of Mobile Technology at Rated People, responsible for all aspects of mobile technology. His focus is on Agile working and world class engineering practice, ensuring Rated People is positioned for growth and innovation, now and in the future.

Rex has held technical and leadership positions at Disney Europe, The Cloud and Percussion Software. Previously in South Africa, he co-founded a Content Management software company.

Rex earned a BSc (Electrical Engineering) from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in the USA. He is married with two daughters and enjoys spending time with them as well as being an enthusiastic football player, skier and touch rugby player.

Thomas Brightwell – Product Director

Thomas Brightwell is Product Director at Rated People, responsible for all functionality across web, mobile and tablet. At the heart of his approach to product management is a strong focus on customer research and insight, user-centred design, and thorough user testing.

Thomas joined Rated People from Qype (acquired by Yelp) where he held roles in product and technology. Previously he spent 2 years as a business analyst and programme manager at CACI responsible for delivering government web products such as Self-Assessment Online, Pay-As-You-Earn and Corporation Tax. Before that he worked in the technology division at Accenture, working for Sainsbury’s and the NHS.

Thomas graduated with an MSc in Chemistry from Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is a keen fell-runner, climber and mountaineer.