Neil Johnson – Director and Chairman of aimm
Neil is a highly commercial digital executive specialising in product development, sales and marketing and has established a strong record of success in driving revenue and usage while optimising customer engagement to maximise ROI.
Neil is a seasoned management professional with board level influence and a consumer-centred approach, experienced operationally in the innovation, launch, sales and marketing of new iOS and Android tablet and smartphone technologies solutions and in identifying and capitalising on new business opportunities. Neil recently achieved a £4m+ revenue digital business growth in just two years, from a starting point of zero, attracting 50,000+ subscribers in the same time frame by capitalising on new technologies, championing the innovation of new apps and leading targeted marketing and promotional initiatives.
Joanna Cox – General Manager – aimm
Joanna joined aimm in 2018 to be the new face of the association, and has a wealth of experience in our industry. Joanna has previously worked in several companies in the interactive sector, heading up client services at both Telecom Express and Spoke Interactive and also with Channel 5, controlling both the commercial partnerships and interactive services divisions. This included management of Big Brother PRS, social media and App voting. This experience of managing audience interaction means that she has a deep understanding of the opportunities and the challenges that this industry faces.
aimm’s remit is to create the conditions for growth in micropayments and to support its diverse member base by protecting the regulatory environment in which they operate and continue to strive to create new opportunities for the industries in which we work.
Toby Padgham – Executive Director – aimm
Toby is director and co-founder of MCP Insight Ltd, a company specialising in advertising monitoring, compliance and fraud management. He has over 20 years’ experience working in the interactive media and mobile billing Industry. Having founded the Industry trade organisation aimm in 2007, Toby has worked closely with mobile network operators, service partners, content promoters and media to drive numerous market growth initiatives and to ensure consistent Industry representation to regulators, government and Industry stakeholders.
Prior to setting up aimm Toby was co-owner/MD of the media business World Telemedia, co-founded a directory enquiries business UKDA and launched the European online trade organisation NOC and the International Telemedia Association. Toby remains co-founder/director of MCP Insight, director at AIMM, a partner in UKDA and owns the consultancy business 49DS Ltd.
Rob Weisz – CEO – Fonix & Vice Chair of the aimm Board
Working for businesses such as Thus, Redstone, O2 & Mobile Interactive Group and now the CEO of Fonix, Rob has over 17 years’ experience overseeing some of the largest interactive messaging and mobile payment campaigns in the UK across Media, Telecoms and Technology sectors.
Having been an active aimm Board member for the past 8 years and Vice Chairman for the last 6 years, Rob has been very involved in guiding, advising and shaping the industry through the value chain across all the sectors and industries that aimm represents.
Rob is the current Chair of the Charities Working Group having supported the organisation driving Gift Aid declarations and general service optimisation which has allowed the Charity industry become the fastest growth area for mobile billing in the UK. Rob hopes to continue to drive consumer confidence and drive innovation through aimm for the mobile and telecoms payments markets.
Alan Partington – Compliance Manager – Telecom2
Alan has a broad church knowledge of the Telecoms Industry. At Telecom2, Alan deals mainly with contract, legal and regulatory matters, including the move to IP Networks but still becomes involved with AIT and Billing Issues when necessary. Other CPs often seek Alan’s advice.
Alan has been a member of the aimm Board representing the voice sector for several years. Previously he worked for BT for 40 years in a variety of roles, mostly in wholesale and for the last 10 years developed and managed the AIT process, dealing with most of the network operators and organisations such as OFCOM, PSA and LEAs and won awards for his work.
Telecom2, who are a voice network carrier with offices in London and Spain. Through the group of companies our focus is to be at the forefront of technology, specialising in VoIP B2B and call centre solutions. T2 also specialise in micro payments across mobile, card services and age verification.
Nikki Cooper – Head of Interactive Commissioning – ITV
I am Head of Interactive Commissioning at ITV with over 20 years experience in the Premium rate industry as both Service Provider and Broadcaster. In my current role I am responsible for the commissioning of all Premium Rate interactivity across the ITV Schedule including Britain’s Got Talent, I’m A Celebrity…’, Love Island, Big Brother, Saturday Night Takeaway, UEFA Euros, FIFA World Cup and The Voice.
My focus is to maximise the commercial opportunity by ensuring the activity is well integrated, appropriate, exploits any brand opportunity and is compliant. I am also the liaison point with Legal / Business Affairs to ensure the relevant contracts are drawn up between the parties involved in the project. My SP background means I have technical integration knowledge. ITV’s premium rate competitions are available via landline, SMS, mobile voice shortcode, PayPal, Apple Pay, Debit Card and, most recently, Open Banking.
Naomi Hone – Charge to Bill – EE
I have over 20 years’ experience in the Charge to Bill market, starting my working life at Orange in 2001 when we first launched premium SMS. Being with the team since its infancy has given me a depth of experience, and I’ve worked closely with, and helped to connect, many of the Partners and Merchants who still operate services on the EE network today.
During my early years, I was integral to Orange launching further 3rd party billing capabilities in the form of MMS short codes, voice short codes, and the Direct Billing API, as well as helping to define the strategic direction for the product. I also led the project to deliver a crediting API for the first ever cross network mobile crediting campaign for Coca Cola; ‘Gimme Credit’. Over the years, I have worked on numerous cross network projects that have helped shape the industry, always with the aim of striking the difficult balance between ‘doing the right thing’ for the customer and trying to grow the revenue.
Internally, my more recent highlights have been the launch of a Charge to Bill service checker on the EE website; delivering a number of significant improvements to our CS processes and tools (including writing and starring in a Charge to Bill training video!); organising and running a number of roadshows at EE call centre sites to help educate our agents and promote Charge to Bill.
I have always been seen as the internal champion for Charge to Bill, engaging different areas of the business and shouting about our launches and achievements in the market, so that our internal stakeholders get to hear about the good stuff. Over the last couple of years, our team has worked tirelessly to ensure that our customers have a great experience when using Charge to Bill. This has paved the way for mobile payments to compete with better known, or established payment methods. We have reduced customer complaints to an all-time low and driven up customer NPS, whilst growing the revenue significantly, and have brought on board services that we are proud to promote to our customers and internal stakeholders.
Chris Bennett – Business Development Director – SB7
Chris is the Business Development Director at SB7 Mobile Ltd, a company with a 17-year history in developing a network of global mobile payments along with a range of alternative payment checkouts. The company has also built a comprehensive suite of in-house online analysis tools for monitoring traffic and advertising, supporting clients in taking data-led decisions across marketing campaigns.
After starting his career with Trading Standards, Chris developed a broad range of experience in the mobile payments industry, having moved to the regulatory body ICSTIS, now known as the Phone-paid Services Authority, in 2008 where he held the roles of Investigations Executive and then Head of Investigations. He then spent three years at the aggregator IMImobile as Head of Compliance. For the past six years Chris has been a key member of the SB7 Mobile team.
With his experience across the industry value chain, Chris brings to the aimm Board a skillset that enables him to analyse the market through the numerous industry viewpoints and understand the needs of various industry players. Chris has regularly attended aimm working groups and meetings over the years and looks forward to continuing to contribute further.
I would like to join the aimm Board to help share an understanding and insight into the opportunities with micro-payments. I enjoy a hands-on position working with both established and new payment wallet opportunities for digital goods and services. My experience of having worked across regulators, aggregator, reseller and merchant is fairly unique and it enables me to look objectively at why decisions are made at the different levels, assess risk and the commercial and compliance requirements, and how all can be best managed to achieve successful market conditions for all.
Steve Mathieson – Head of Client Services – Cymba
I wanted to join the AIMM board is to help share insights and understanding of micropayments in both the charity and corporate sectors, to ultimately help deliver better outcomes for charities, businesses, and the public.
I have a deep understanding of mobile solutions – With Cymba since 2008 working closely with our charity and corporate clients to deliver innovative mobile payment solutions. I can see a huge opportunity to couple new rich messaging with payment choices giving consumers/charitable supporters even more engaging experiences. And, having joined ClearCourse in 2021, Cymba is now part of a group with an annual payment flow of more than one billion pounds, giving unique access to a wealth of knowledge and expertise within the payments sector.
My experience collaborating with the PSA predecessor (PhonepayPlus) in 2010/11 on the launch of regular giving by SMS, paved the way for charities to raise millions of pounds via this medium. I’m passionate about fundraising and am committed to contributing in any way I can to help progress and develop the charity and wider payments sector.
I started my career in the telecoms industry back in the early 90s working on the immense (think 5 American fridge freezers) Mitel SX2000 PBX. How things have moved on with the same processing power now sitting in our pockets.
Over the past 15 years, I have worked with the team at Cymba to develop mobile messaging and payment solutions for both the charity and commercial sectors. As Head of Client Services, I consult with charity clients including Royal British Legion, Marie Curie, Christian Aid, & Shelter to create engaging mobile campaigns that deliver a strong return on investment. We pride ourselves on working with household names as well as small charities without the marketing clout of larger entities.
In addition to the fundraising side of the business, I also work closely with corporate clients ranging from FMCG brands to automotive sector micropayments
Ana-Rosa Broster – Senior In-life Product Manager –Virgin Media O2
I am a Senior In-life Product Manager in the Virgin Media O2 Commerce Products team, managing all payments products including Charge to Mobile, Premium SMS and Premium Voice shortcodes. I have more than 10 years’ experience in the Premium Rate Services industry having spent time working at an intermediary and over 7 years in my current role at Virgin Media O2.
Within this current role, I have worked to support the continued evolvement of payments services in Virgin Media O2, focusing on improving the customer experience as well as balancing compliance requirements. I have led and been integral to numerous projects: Future-proofing Commerce products through large transformation projects, Premium Service Checker, giving O2 customers more information on charges on their bill, Enhanced payment flows, listening to customers feedback and implementing changes to payment flows that reduced complaints significantly and led a cross-network project to combat phishing by SMS.
I am also actively involved in STEM mentoring, encouraging more girls to consider careers in technology since 2015 and I was honoured to win a TechWomen50 award in 2017 celebrating emerging female talent in tech. I’m looking forward to working with industry on new growth opportunities while increasing customer understanding and trust in using their mobile phones for payments.
Chris Newell – CEO – Donr
Chris is CEO of Donr, whose mission is to help charities grow stronger relationships with supporters by creating accessible fundraising technology. Chris was previously an aimm Board member for 4 years until 2017 before rejoining the aimm Board in 2020. He is Chair for the aimm Regulatory Insights Working Group, and also chaired the Payforit working group for nearly 5 years.
Chris has a keen interest in carrier billing technology and emerging opportunities. In 2018, he launched Mobile Refunds to enable companies to refund payments direct to a phone bill, quickly and easily, along with expanding Donr to 5000+ charity clients.
During his tenure as CEO of ImpulsePay, Chris led the industry through many of the early iterations of Payforit. This experience has given him extensive knowledge of the MNOs, the PSA, the audit companies and other regulators such as the FCA, ICO and ASA.
Victoria Hull – Head of Business Development – Dynamic Mobile Billing (DMB)
I have over twenty years of experience in a business-to-business sales environment working with major UK brands. The past decade I have been focussed on telecoms, mobile technology and payments in the UK, Caribbean, Ireland, Australia and South and East Africa.
Prior to this I have worked at a large London firm reselling Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard and IBM technology delivering large scale server room projects to insurance and communication sectors, followed by a number of years at a publishing and media company. I also enjoyed two and half years in the Territorial Army, spending many a weekend training in the field as part of the Royal Artillery.
More recently, I have been instrumental in the creation of a new company, Debit My Mobile, concentrating on ticketing in transport and parking sectors.
I am a trustee of the charity East Anglian Driveability that support the elderly and disabled to drive. I also completed my MBA in February 2023 with the University of Gloucestershire!
Howard Banks – Engagement Marketing Manager – Global (co-opted)
As Engagement Marketing Lead, Howard is responsible for all Interactive Services, including Premium Rate activity at Global, the UK’s largest commercial radio company. Howard has a deep understanding of what engages different audiences and how to run activity compliantly – with transparency and fairness at its heart.
Howard has had a significant impact on the growth of Global’s Premium Rate activity, including the launch and growth of Global’s online interactive platform. Howard also works with and advises Global’s Make Some Noise Charity on their Premium Rate fundraising.
Alex Haffner – Partner and Head of Regulatory & Competition – Fladgate LLP (co-opted)
Alex is a Partner at Fladgate law firm, based in London, where he heads their Regulatory and Competition Law team. He specialises in commercial, competition and regulatory matters affecting the mobile sector, having acted for many companies across the supply chain on their interaction with the regulatory authorities and on their day-to-day commercial agreements. Alex also has expertise in the evolution of financially regulated micropayment services, such as eMoney and Payment Services. His work has taken him to many different geographies, including Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.
Previously a regulatory adviser to the Mobile Entertainment Forum, Alex joined the board of aimm in 2014 and seeks to act as an independent voice, representing the whole industry as opposed to one particular interest group.
Kate O’Reilly – Donation Platform Manager – BBC Children in Need (co-opted)
I am the Donation Platform Manager for BBC Children in Need, taking responsibility for the set-up and delivery of the Charity’s range of donation mechanics which support the annual BBC Children in Need Appeal show and supporting campaign.
Prior to joining BBC Children in Need, I worked for the transport user watchdog, offering representation to consumers on complaints and lobbying for positive change across a range of issues and regulations affecting transport users across Great Britain.
