Ben Barney
Ben Barney is a founder member and Director of Akesios. He specialises in productising new media products for traditional businesses with large sales forces, and creating monetisation opportunities from the developing players in the Local Search space. With over 10 years experience with Directory and Yellow Page companies throughout Europe, he is also a specialist in Google AdWords; from a reseller, agency and advertiser's perspective.

Ben's areas of expertise include:

• Strategic advisory services for digitising traditional media businesses
• Project coordination and implementation
• Google AdWords Reseller programs
• Marketing, sales and product strategy within Local Search
• Business turnaround
• Operational Due Diligence

Ben was a founder member of Thomson Directories’ Internet department and a key member of the team that developed WebFinder.com, Thomson's PPC engine. He set up and managed WebFinder’s dedicated sales, account management, customer service, partner management and business development teams. He was also responsible for the commercial and operational management of their Google Reseller programme. He can manage or assist with all aspects of establishing and running a service with products that are highly usable by the sales force and customer base alike.

Ben is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Michael Abeyta
Michael Abeyta is a founder member and Director of Akesios and brings extensive knowledge of the Search marketplace, including Web, Enterprise and Sponsored Search. He was on the founding team of ecommerce provider C2B Technologies, subsequently sold to Inktomi Corporation.

Michael’s areas of expertise include:

• Programme management
• Business development; supplier and partner negotiations
• Operational due diligence
• Strategic advisory services for digitising traditional media businesses
• Project coordination and implementation

Michael moved to London from San Francisco to help build Inktomi's European headquarters. He directed consulting engagements for Inktomi’s Ecommerce and Web Search customers throughout Europe, subsequently managing all of its Web Search clients in all European markets and the Far East, including the BBC, Lycos, Telia-Sonera, NTT and Thomson Directories. This continued after Yahoo!'s acquisition of Inktomi.

More recently he was responsible for business development for Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) in London, where he signed numerous new distribution deals for the firm's sponsored Search results.

Michael holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Utah and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley.

Caroline Lavelle
Caroline Lavelle is a Director of Akesios and has over ten years' experience in new media strategic development, operations, sales/business development and marketing for service and leisure industries. Her career includes roles as Internet Marketing and Operations Manager at Thomson Directories and Digital Manager at Cosmos Holidays.

Caroline’s areas of expertise include:

• Strategic advisory services for digitising traditional media businesses
• Developing Internet products within traditional offline businesses and specialised online businesses, from strategy to implementation
• Operations and process management including taxonomy and back-end system integration
• Management and direction of Internet operations teams for improved productivity
• Business turnaround

Caroline holds an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Henley Management College.

Tony Heath-Smith
Tony Heath-Smith is an IT systems architect with significant, wide-ranging experience with a number of blue chip organisations in the financial, commodities, media and public sectors – including serving as CTO.

Tony’s areas of expertise include:

• Providing strategic advice on streamlining processes using technology
• Integration with search engine APIs and search platforms
• Tailored technology solutions

Tony has successfully delivered significant business-enhancing technology including architecting an innovative web-based trading platform for the global leader in FX. His search expertise stems from steering the technical implementation as Thomson Directories became Google’s first reseller outside the US.

Tony is a Mathematics graduate from University College London.

Kacy Harding
Kacy Harding is a sales and learning and development specialist for Search related products within the directory industry. She has experience in Australasia and Europe having worked at Sensis and Truvo, firstly within sales then moving into training.

Kacy’s areas of expertise include:

• Effective sales training for success in selling online products
• Defining sales strategy for introducing new media products to directories
• Creation of elearning programmes

Kacy also set up the training and development department at ClearSense, a Netherlands-based Search Engine Marketing agency which was acquired by Truvo to fulfil the Search products across the group.

Sam Gray
Samantha Gray is a Yellow Pages expert with over 17 years’ experience, from working at both Yell and Thomson Directories in the UK. In her first role at Yell in 1991 she was responsible for developing the company’s new media services, an area she continued in when she joined Thomson in 1999. Sam also held responsibility for Thomson's database – one of its biggest assets. This database became the market leader due to its breadth and depth and as a result, it became the backbone of many Local Search services in the UK including Yahoo!, Live Search and more recently, Google Local.

Sam’s areas of expertise include:

• New media product management
• Implementation project management
• Database strategy consultancy to increase licensing revenue

Paul Brown
Paul Brown is an Analyst Programmer with 5 years experience building software for the Internet Marketing industry and 6 years developing applications for wireless mobile devices.

Paul's areas of expertise include:

• Implementing bespoke technology solutions
• Integration with search engine APIs and search platforms

Paul has successfully delivered wireless technology for B&Q, ShoeZone, Symbol Technologies, New Look, Scottish Power, Thames Valley Police, Denby Pottery, Marks & Spencer, and Boots. He spent 4 years at Thomson Directories adapting their Google Reseller software whilst gaining an expert knowledge of their WebFinder search platform.

Paul is a Cybernetics and Control Engineering graduate from Reading University.

Antony Finnegan
Antony Finnegan is an experienced IT professional with exposure to roles ranging from development, design, analysis, team leading and planning within the software development lifecycle.

He has worked projects during this period for Norwich Union, International Capital Market Association, Abacus Global, AnswerBack Interactive, Driving Standards Agency and the National Archives.

His background to the search industry was gained from the 4 years he worked at Thomson Directories on the WebFinder and ThomsonLocal platforms including involvement with the Google Reseller implementation. For part of this period he was also responsible for the development teams on both of these applications.

Antony holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Liverpool and an MSc in Integrated Management System from the University of Birmingham.