About Us

Management

PLC Board

Philip Swinstead OBE (Chairman)

Philip Swinstead was appointed Non-executive Chairman in June 2010. Philip is a UK software industry founder. He started SD in 1969 and was Chairman for 20 years. SD became the first software house to obtain a full listing in the UK in 1982, it entered the FTSE 250, and was renamed SD-Scicon before being sold to EDS in 1991. Philip arranged the buyout and refinancing of French systems company, GFI, which then went public in Paris in 1998. Philip Swinstead was co-founder of Parity plc in 1993, and Parity joined the FTSE 250 within five years. More recently he has founded private companies in the software animation and mobile application sectors.

Paul Davies (Chief Executive Officer)

Paul Davies was appointed as Chief Executive in June 2010. He was co-founder of Parity, together with Philip Swinstead, and Chief Executive until 1999. Previously Paul was MD of EASAMS, GEC’s systems company. Paul has been Deputy Chairman of Microgen plc since 1999 and for a period was Chairman of MSB International plc. More recently he joined the operations board of Fujitsu Services for two years tasked with improving the performance of their portfolio of large IT programmes.

Alastair Woolley (Finance Director)

Alastair Woolley was appointed in April 2011. Alastair trained with Deloitte and spent 11 years in various department including audit and business services. Since leaving Deloitte, Alastair has worked during the last 16 years in a variety of companies, mainly technology based, as Finance Director and also for a period of time, as Managing Director. He has worked with Philip Swinstead previously as Finance Director and also lately with both Philip and Paul Davies as a consultant on a number of projects. Alastair has responsibility for the Finance, Property and Facilities team.

Suzanne Chase was appointed on 1 February 2013.  Suzanne is a qualified lawyer and a senior executive with extensive legal and commercial experience. Suzanne joined the business as General Counsel on 1 February 2012. Previously she has held the positions of Group General Counsel and Company Secretary for Morse plc, Compliance Partner at King Sturge LLP, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of The Big Food Group plc and General Counsel of Wickes plc.  She was also a solicitor at D J Freeman.

Stephen Whyte (CEO of Parity Digital Solutions) 

Stephen Whyte was appointed to the Board on 7th March 2013.  Stephen has extensive knowledge of and over 25 years’ experience in the marketing services, digital media and creative industry sectors, both in the UK and at an international level.  Most recently, he was European CEO of Acxiom Corporation, a major interactive and marketing services company specialising in consumer data and analytics, data integration, multi-channel marketing and consultancy.  Prior to that, he was Chief Executive at McCann Erickson and Leo Burnett, both top 10 UK agency groups.  Stephen graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Chemistry and is a Fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).  As CEO of Parity Digital Solutions he will lead the Group's digital media strategy. 

Lord Freeman (Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Remuneration and Nominations Committees)

Roger Freeman was appointed Non-executive Chairman in July 2007. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1969 he joined Lehman Brothers, the US Investment Bank, and was a Partner in the London Office until 1983 when he entered the House of Commons. He served as a Minister between 1986 and 1997 including Cabinet Minister for Public Service. He became a Life Peer in 1997 and also became a Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers for whom he now chairs their UK Advisory Board. He is Chairman or Non-executive Director of a number of listed and private companies including Thales SA, Chemring Group plc and Savile Group plc.

David Courtley (Non-executive Director)

David Courtley was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director on 8 June 2011.  David has extensive experience within the IT services sector and has held senior executive positions within Fujitsu, EDS, SD-Scicon and Phoenix IT Group plc.  He was Chief Executive of Fujitsu Services between 2001 and 2009 and was instrumental in the transformation of that business.  David is also non-executive director of Sagentia Group plc and the French software company Axway.

Mike Philips (Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee)

Mike was appointed to the Board as a  non-executive Director on 3 November 2011.  Mike has more than 10 years' experience as a public company director and is currently Chief Financial Officer of Micro Focus International plc. Prior to this Mike was Group Finance Director and then Chief Executive Officer of Morse plc until its successful sale to 2e2 in June 2010 and from 1998 to 2007 was Group Finance Director at Microgen plc.  Earlier roles include seven years corporate finance work at Smith & Williamson, as well as two years at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he led the UK technology team.

Operations Board

Paul Davies (Chairman)

Alastair Woolley

Zahur Amin (Operations Director, Systems)

Zahur started his career at IBM after graduating from Oxford University in 1984 with a degree in Engineering Science.  He built a strong reputation in software development, project management and business operations at IBM where he also completed an MBA.  Zahur then worked as a business manager and consultant at various companies including PA Consulting.  In his 9 years at Parity, Zahur has held a number of senior business management roles and contributed to the implementation of core business processes and controls.​

Alan Rommel (Managing Director, Resources) 

Alan Rommel, has been Managing Director for Parity Resources since 2008, having managed both the private and public sector divisions during a successful career starting in 1993. Alan has been instrumental in building company revenues during this time and substantially increasing Parity’s footprint within the marketplace.  Delivering flexible resourcing models that improve business performance and accelerate change to clients with an emphasis on continuously delivering service excellence. Currently an Executive Member with the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), Alan plays an active role in influencing change within the recruitment industry. 

Colin Lauder (Managing Director, Talent Management)

Colin originally joined Parity in 1994 as a Management Consultant, and on his return to the business in 2002 was appointed Business Development Manager within the Talent Management Division.  In July 2010 Colin was appointed Managing Director of the Talent Management Business, having worked in a variety of sales, business development and operational roles within the Division.  Colin spent 12 years in the Medical Device industry, and has spent over 17 years within Talent Management.  Colin was a partner in a locally owned Management Consultancy start up business in the late 1990’s.  Colin has responsibility for 24 staff within Talent Development, in 3 locations across the UK.

Sarah Cooke (Head of Human Resources)

Sarah Cooke has over 20 years’ experience in HR roles in the IT and Professional Services Industry, of which 18 have been with Parity in both operational and corporate roles, covering each of Parity’s business lines. Prior to this she held a variety of HR roles with BIS and ACT. Sarah was appointed Head of Human Resources in 2005 where the prime focus of her role was to implement the people changes that were necessary as part of the recovery plan and also to create a newly centralised HR team and put in place new people processes across the organisation. Sarah led the implementation of a new flexible benefits plan across Parity thereby improving the degree of choice and enhancing the provision of information and guidance available to employees.​