Chartered Director, Ecommerce Consultant, Web Software Architect
Leeds, United Kingdom
- Current
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- Director at Electric Ink Media Limited
- Managing Director at Chapter Eight Limited
- Past
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- Director at Credit Style Limited
- New Media Advisory Panel at BBC
- Director at Sqft Limited
- Non Executive Director at Leeds Media Limited
- Group Internet Development Director at Regional Independent Media Group Plc.
- Internet Software Engineer at SilverPlatter Information Limited
- Internet Technician at Leicester Mercury Group Plc.
- Education
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- Institute of Directors
- Institute of Directors
- Institute of Directors
- Wadenhoe & Cranfield
- De Montfort University
- Recommendations
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8 recommendations - Connections
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184
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Mario Thomas’s Summary
I am a Chartered Director with over 10 years Director experience working in start up, SME and corporate environments. I have worked in the Publishing, New Media, Retail and the ecommerce industries. Previously I led the development and successful implementation of Internet strategies for Chapter Eight, Regional Independent Media and Northcliffe Newspapers.
I have specific experience of project management, people management, sales & marketing, change management, financial management (including cost control) and strategic development.
Find out more at:
http://www.mariothomas.com/
Mario Thomas’s Specialties:
Project Management, Financial Management, Strategic Business Development, Internet Strategy, Online Business Development, Corporate Governance, ecommerce, Business Process Re-engineering, Financing, re-financing, startups, Diploma in Company Direction, Chartered Director, People Management, Sales & Marketing, Non-Exec, NED, Change Management
Mario Thomas’s Experience
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Director
Electric Ink Media Limited
(Internet industry)
November 2003 — Present (6 years 11 months)
Founded in 2003, Electric Ink Media (EIM) initially provided me with a way to make my extensive experience in New Media, Ecommerce, Media & Publishing and Startups available through a separate consultancy operation to Chapter Eight.
Five years on and I have successfully consulted on a number of major projects including:
- Private Equity backed purchase of a regional newspaper company in the United Kingdom.
- A financial services startup in Sheffield.
- A recruitment services startup in Leeds.
In addition, I have provided consulting services to research organisations and Private Equity Boutiques the newspaper and ecommerce industries in the UK and oversees.
I have previously been contracted to McKinsey & Company in San Francisco, De Matteo Monness in New York and previously to Candover in London during the purchase, turnaround and sale of RIM, bidding for Northcliffe Newspapers and bidding for the Times Educational Supplement. -
Managing Director
Chapter Eight Limited
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
May 2002 — Present (8 years 5 months)
Chapter Eight is the fastest growing digital agency in the North of England with clients in over 20 industry sectors from across the UK. Since founding Chapter Eight in 2002 with three colleagues from Regional Independent Media Group, I have led the organisation from start up, through rapid expansion and client acquisition and into profit.
Clients now include Gulf Oil International, Sock Shop, Gatecrasher and Lyle & Scott.
Over the past six and a half years I have been responsible for all aspects of developing the business which now employs 24 staff and is forecast to turnover £1.6m in 2008-2009.
In my time at Chapter Eight I have developed relationships at senior board level with all of our key clients and work closely with our suppliers to provide an excellent level of service and wide range of products to our clients. -
Director
Credit Style Limited
(Financial Services industry)
October 2007 — June 2008 (9 months)
I was appointed to Credit Style Limited as a non-executive Director in October 2007. My main areas of responsibility are ecommerce, IT and security. I am responsible for ensuring that Credit Style have reliable IT systems and an IT strategy that takes the business forward to become a market leader in its key areas of operation.
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New Media Advisory Panel
BBC
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; BBC; Broadcast Media industry)
August 2007 — June 2008 (11 months)
In August 2007 I joined the BBC New Media Advisory Panel. The Panel is made up of a small number of suppliers selected from the list of 165 Approved Suppliers to the BBC's New Media division.
The panel will meet regularly on behalf of the approved suppliers and will work with the BBC in communicating it's goals for commissioning suppliers on the Approved Supplier List and on making the commissioning process easier to understand. -
Director
Sqft Limited
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)
February 2006 — February 2007 (1 year 1 month)
Square Foot Magazine is an online publication born out of the wildly successful print publication. The magazine has now moved onto the web permanently and is only available online at www.sqftmag.com.
With 10 years experience in online media my role at Square Foot will be to drive revenues and traffic to the website in conjunction with the content teams based in York. -
Non Executive Director
Leeds Media Limited
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Think Tanks industry)
September 2004 — November 2006 (2 years 3 months)
Leeds Media represents over 250 members working in the Media sector within Leeds and the surrounding areas. Members range from companies as large as Yorkshire Television and PriceWaterhouseCoopers down to single employee member companies. Offering a wide range of services including the annual Refuel conference, Leeds Media is seen as the leading media organisation outside of London.
My role at Leeds Media is as a Non Executive Director responsible for eBusiness. With links into all major ebusiness companies in the city I am responsible for ensuring Leeds Media informs and updates its members on changes in the ebusiness marketplace in order to remain competitive. -
Group Internet Development Director
Regional Independent Media Group Plc.
(Newspapers industry)
October 1998 — May 2002 (3 years 8 months)
RIM was a £177m turnover, £43m profit media group of over 100 regional newspapers, with magazine and radio interests, new media investments and contract print.
Backed by Candover, Goldman Sachs and NIB the group was formed in Feb 1998 to acquire for £360m the regional newspaper division of United Business Media plc, profit at that time was £19m RIM was sold to Johnston Press plc in April 2002 for £560m.
I was responsible for the development of a Group-wide Internet strategy encompassing all regional newspaper titles, magazines and radio interests. By 2000 we had grown from just 2 staff dedicated to Internet activities to over 110 across 11 operating centres. By 2002 we turned over £4.4million and were a profit centre within the larger business. At that time we were the only profitable new media division in any of top 5 UK regional publishing groups.
I regularly reported to the Chief Executive of the Group, Chris Oakley CBE and Lord Fowler the then Chairman of the group. -
Internet Software Engineer
SilverPlatter Information Limited
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Publishing industry)
May 1997 — October 1998 (1 year 6 months)
SilverPlatter was an electronic publisher supplying mainly educational institutions and large businesses with fully searchable databases of information.
After completing my degree in May 1998, I was employed by SilverPlatter as an Internet Software Engineer. After successful delivery of their WebAdmin 1.0 product, I was assigned to a new product - WebSPIRS - previously developed by the US-based development team. WebSPIRS suffered from huge performance problems and was becoming too unwieldy to develop and maintain.
After carrying out some initial prototyping, I discovered new ways of improving performance and maintainability. Following the implementation of my recommendations, WebSPIRS performance increased on average by 84%.
The development of the product continued after my departure from SilverPlatter and the product is still in production today. -
Internet Technician
Leicester Mercury Group Plc.
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Newspapers industry)
May 1996 — May 1997 (1 year 1 month)
The Leicester Mercury Group is a regional newspaper publisher based in the UK and part of the Northcliffe Newspapers Group which is owned by Daily Mail & General Trust plc.
Working directly with the Deputy Managing Director, I developed the first online regional newspaper portal in the UK. This laid the foundation for the start of a much larger project to provide the regional press with a portal for its classified advertisements (AdHunter now re-branded as Fish 4), and a network of web sites for the local community (This is Britain).
Mario Thomas’s Education
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Institute of Directors
Chartered Director , 2006 — 2006
Following the successful completion of the Company Direction Programme in October 2005, I was admitted to the IoD as a Chartered Director in February 2006.
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Institute of Directors
Company Direction Programme August 2004 — April 2005
The Role of the Company Director and the Board
The Director and the Law
Finance for Non-Finance Directors
Strategic Business Direction
Effective Marketing Strategies
People Mean Business
Decision Making
Leading and Directing Change -
Institute of Directors
Diploma in Company Direction , 2004 — 2005
- Activities and Societies:
- In October 2005 I successfully completed the Company Direction Programme and passed the Diploma in Company Direction examination. I am now progressing onto the Chartered Director qualification.
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Wadenhoe & Cranfield
November 1998 — August 2002
Various management and strategy development courses including:
- Strategic Management Development Programme
- Senior Management CPD -
De Montfort University
Bsc (Hons) , Software Engineering , October 1994 — June 1998
Additional Information
Mario Thomas’s Websites:
Mario Thomas’s Interests:
Horse racing, motor sport, formula 1, skiing
Mario Thomas’s Groups:
Chartered Director, Institute of Directors, The Lord's Taverners, Federation of Small Business, Approved Consultant on the Business Link National Consultants Register
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InternetRetailing - for leaders in e-commerce and multichannel retail -
Chartered Director Network -
C Dir Advisory Panel -
Innergy -
Catalogue e-business -
Share Network
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C8 Framework -
SME Knowledge Network @Leeds
Mario Thomas’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
