At Columba, Dean is responsible for strategic product development, client requirement analysis, development prioritisation and leading sales presentations. Prior to founding Columba, Dean has had almost 20 years in IT, product development and marketing.

Most recently Dean spent eight years at Reuters. Dean started at Reuters in 1994 as part of the development team on the Reuters 3000 product range. He moved on to head the business and technical strategy for Reuters AFE, a Hong Kong based subsidiary. The strategy was subsequently rolled out to all of Reuters Asia. In 1998 Dean was head of editorial databases and implemented a number of technology projects. Finally, between 1999 and 2002 Dean was the CEO and Founder of Kalends, a business created within Reuters and funded by Reuters Venture Capital. Kalends developed a calendar product that is now an integral part of the Reuters Knowledge product.

Prior to Reuters, Dean worked at consulting group Gartner Dataquest as the head of software analysis for Europe, this followed three years at One Source as international product manager. Prior to One Source, Dean was a quantitative analyst at Paribas. Other roles have included: software engineer at Lotus in the division that became One Source; Technologist at Natwest Bank; and systems analyst and developer at Price Waterhouse. Dean holds a BA (Hons) in Economics and Social Studies from the University of Manchester.

Kaj joined Columba in March 2003, first as a contractor and subsequently as a full-time director. He is responsible for the day-to-day technical operation of Columba, as well as product development, R&D, technical architecture and strategy. He heads the technology team whose responsibilities are divided three-fold between operations, development and consultancy.

Prior to joining Columba full time, Kaj ran his own consulting practice, Chi Squared Ltd, with clients including Reuters and Professional Plus. Before setting up Chi Squared, Kaj worked at Reuters for four years on a number of projects including the proof-of-concept for Kalends. He held a number of roles within the technology strategy and corporate strategy groups, and maintained a close working relationship with the W3C.

Kaj holds a PhD in Astrophysics from University College London where he studied the atmospheres of hot stars. He was a key player in the early introduction of Java and Linux to the astronomy community. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Helen is responsible for client account management, project management and sales administration. She has had over 20 years of experience in financial services IT, product development, third party relationship management and project management. Helen has a strong track record in product management, with excellent relationship management skills.

Prior to Columba, Helen spent twelve years at Reuters, including three years in Japan. During her time at Reuters, she worked in international product and marketing, database management, third party relations and database analysis. Prior to Reuters, Helen spent two years in Japan working for NSK Corporation as a systems and software analyst integrating their Japanese and international systems. Helen graduated with a BEng in Electronic Engineering from the University of Limerick, Ireland.

David spent many years at Kodak, where he qualified as an FCCA, and now has over 30 years of finance experience, with more than 20 years managerial and Board exposure. As well as Kodak, David spent time working at Tandem Computers and was Finance Director at FileNET North Europe (Imaging, Workflow, Content Management software), and more recently Finance Director at Staffware Plc (workflow and BPM software).

As well as working for large multi-nationals David also has in-depth experience with small start-up operations, having been FD at Imagesolve International and Concept Searching.