Akesios - About Us

About Akesios

Founded in 2005, Akesios are the specialist technology providers for Yellow Pages publishers selling leads-based products. The leads-based platform has been developed and refined over the last two years. Prior to this, Akesios provided technology enabling the rapid implementation of first and third party digital products and reporting on their success, which remain key elements of the leads-based solution.

Our specialist team have been chosen for their hands-on knowledge of Yellow Pages and local search businesses. Our technical staff have the unique ability to implement a wide range of third party technologies in the most efficient and scalable way. We work exclusively with clients with large sales forces and we are always aligned with your objective to grow sales rapidly. We operate with minimum impact on your existing back-office systems. Cloud-based delivery of our technology provides you with a rapid and cost-effective solution.

At Akesios we believe in the power of leads-based selling to provide your customers with the leads they need, made up from your choice of calls, clicks, coupons, emails etc. We utilise the widest-ranging distribution networks to source traffic, providing an alternative to expensive SEM programs and focusing on quality and conversion. We distribute advertiser budgets across the most appropriate products and syndication networks using our proprietary algorithms.

Akesios: Leads-Based Selling Solution Demo

Key People

David Watts - Chairman
Ben Barney – CEO
Caroline Lavelle – COO
Tony Heath-Smith – CTO
Michael Abeyta – NED

David Watts - Chairman

David brings to Akesios his skills as an entrepreneurial director and chairman. Previously, David co-founded a company, which he built over 10 years and sold to a competitor. Subsequently, he created the international business for a PLC, personally developing European and US revenues from standing start, and chaired an outstanding software-as-a-service business through its acquisition by a FTSE 100 company.

David is currently Chairman and NED of four high-growth tech businesses.

Ben Barney – CEO

Ben Barney is a founder of Akesios. Previously, Ben was a founder member of the internet team at Thomson Directories and consulted over a number of years for European Directories on their local search and Skype products.

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

Caroline Lavelle – COO

Caroline has ten years' experience in new media strategic development and operations in the Yellow Pages industry. Caroline held a senior management position, responsible for digital operations, at Thomson Directories and went on to work as a consultant at European Directories, assisting the publishers in 7 countries with their digital product rollouts.

Caroline holds an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Henley Business School.

Tony Heath-Smith – CTO

Tony is an experienced IT systems architect with significant, wide-ranging experience with a number of blue chip organisations in the financial, commodities, media and public sectors. 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 development at Thomson Directories as they became Google’s first reseller outside the US.

Tony is a Mathematics graduate from University College London.

Michael Abeyta – Co-Founder and Non-Executive Director

Michael Abeyta is a founder member of Akesios and brings extensive knowledge of the Search marketplace. Michael first moved to London from San Francisco to build Inktomi's European headquarters, and subsequently managing business development for Yahoo! Search Marketing in London.

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.

If you are interested in seeing how we can help your business, please do not hesitate to contact us.