Shane Sutherland
CEO & Chief Mischief Maker
Shane Sutherland
CEO & Chief Mischief Maker
CEO and cofounder of PebblePad, Shane has been a big presence in the world of portfolios and personal learning ever since the company's inception in 2004. It's not just his boundless enthusiasm and towering capacity for innovation that keeps PebblePad at the top of its game ... when you're 6' 10 having a list of great ideas 'as long as your arm' is somewhat of a competitive advantage!
Kenny Nicholl
Chief Revenue Officer
Kenny Nicholl
Chief Revenue Officer
With over 20 years' experience supporting education organisations across the globe, Kenny joined the PebblePad executive team after successfully helping both Hobsons and Instructure grow into leading education technology organisations in Europe and further afield. Kenny is "into" growth in a big way, playing a crucial role in the growth and development of the PebblePad people and our reputation as a core technology in the Higher Education space. Since Kenny is also a big fan of great chocolate cake, he keeps his own "personal growth" in check by regularly spinning on his training bike. Kenny's other passions in life include his two young boys and his eclectic music collection.
Alison Poot
Director, Australian Operations
Alison Poot
Director, Australian Operations
Alison is PebblePad's Australian Director and one of two implementation consultants supporting our customers across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Alison has notched up more than 20 years' experience working within the Higher Education sector and gets great satisfaction from helping our customers get the very most out of PebblePad. Alison lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland - her UK colleagues remain adamant they are in no way shape or form envious of this fact (but she remains far from convinced).
Gail Ring
Director of Service and Partnerships
Gail Ring
Director of Service and Partnerships
Gail is a great believer in the power of portfolios for learning and has been using them in her teaching and research since her graduate work at the University of Florida where she earned her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction. Formerly the Director of the ePortfolio Program at Clemson University, Gail joined the PebblePad team in 2015 because she wanted the opportunity to share her knowledge and passion for the transformational nature of portfolios with a broader audience. Therefore, on any given day you will likely find her promoting portfolios, innovation and student learning (albeit with a healthy bias towards a rather wonderful portfolio platform going by the name of PebblePad).
Toni Lavender
Development Director
Toni Lavender
Development Director
Toni is a self-confessed nerd who proudly heads up the teams that design, build, release and support PebblePad. Like a stick of rock, Toni is PebblePad through and through, having worked on the product since its inception. Outside of work, Toni can't get enough of audio books on business, psychology, technology and space. She continues to listen and learn whilst out and about running, despite the fact that the audio book revelations occasionally result in the odd altercation with a lamppost. When not running into things at speed, Toni is learning to play the piano using software development techniques, truly earning her nerd badge.
Leigh Taylor
Finance & HR Director
Leigh Taylor
Finance & HR Director
Leigh looks after all things HR and finance related and is a little obsessed with spreadsheets. She has worked in finance for more years than she will admit to and spends her days trying to convince us that numbers are fun. Outside of PebblePad, Leigh loves nothing more than a good ski holiday. But in a break from post-holiday tradition, Leigh is more likely to share a holiday budgeting template with the team rather than her holiday snaps - albeit with highlighted columns for what you might expect to pay for a good vin chaud out on the slopes. What can we say - Leigh really is a girl for numbers (and vin chaud).
Andy Everson
Chief Technology Officer
Andy Everson
Chief Technology Officer
Andy has been at PebblePad pretty much since the start of the adventure and is affectionately known as 'The Captain' by his PebblePad peers. He has been involved with the design, coding and implementation of elearning software for the past 15 years. According to Andy, you'll most likely find him tinkering with techie projects of some kind outside of work or walking up hills when he needs a break from the digital world (we can only assume he also likes walking back down - perhaps we ought to rename him 'The Duke').
Matthew Wheeler
Director of Service and Partnerships (UK)
Matthew Wheeler
Director of Service and Partnerships (UK)
Matthew's last role before joining PebblePad was the Keeper of the Media Zoo at the University of Leicester. In our eyes (and our customers) Matthew is definitely a keeper - he brings oodles of educational, research and consultancy experience into the PebblePad mix, and an enthusiasm which would outstrip that of even the most excitable of zoo inhabitants (we're thinking monkey enclosure). Matthew, in his role as Head of Commercial Development, couples this enthusiasm with an unparalleled product and sector knowledge, which results in him being able to translate our customers' ideas into hugely successful implementations. Matthew exudes a contagious energy, which we expect is mostly fuelled by a super-human capacity for tea drinking, which a lot like his enthusiasm for all things PebblePad - literally knows no bounds.
Debbie Holmes
Lead Consultant
Debbie Holmes
Lead Consultant
Having worked as a Nurse, Midwife and Midwife Teacher, Debbie was a long-term advocate of PebblePad prior to joining the PebblePad team. She really enjoys seeing the wonderful things our users do with PebblePad. She has a new hobby every week, right now it's training her rescue dogs, Smooth Fox Terrier Whistler and Bedlington Lurcher Willow!
Richard Dando
Head of Brand & Communications
Richard Dando
Head of Brand & Communications
Richard is PebblePad's Head of Brand & Communications and joined Team PebblePad as a consultant in 2012 after working in a range of L&D roles in the charity and technology sector. On any given day you're likely to find Richard with a sketch pad and more coloured pens than you can wave a stick at, leading on all things creative and strategic on the communications and brand front. Richard is super passionate about all things PebblePad, and spreading the word about PebblePad and the amazing things it can do really has become his technology baby. Outside of work, he's the proud dad of two happy, human children.
Paul Campion
Commercial Manager
Paul Campion
Commercial Manager
With over 20 years of experience working with multi-national companies, Paul is PebblePad's resident expert on the business world. When he's not consulting with organisations of all sizes on how PebblePad can help with the likes of talent management and appraisal, you'll most likely find him appraising his own game out on the golf course - a process, which, by his own admission, rarely ever includes the word "talent". Luckily for us he is very talented at helping customers understand how PebblePad can make a difference to their business.
Paul Duvall
Implementation Specialist
Paul Duvall
Implementation Specialist
Paul joined the PebblePad team as an Implementation Specialist after clocking up more than two decades' experience in the Higher Education sector. Paul honed his craft in areas such as teacher training, year abroad placements and distance learning, before focussing his expertise and efforts on supporting the University of Liverpool's School of Medicine in his role as Director of Technology Enhanced Learning. These days, Paul can be found advising colleagues in the medical field on how they can use PebblePad to support and develop the next generation of doctors. Outside of work, Paul attempts to play more sport than his body can cope with, this despite his wife and daughter reminding him on a daily basis that he's better off sticking to what he knows best - technology and education.
Melissa Pirie Cross
Implementation Specialist
Melissa Pirie Cross
Implementation Specialist
Melissa has two decades of experience working in Higher Education and is dedicated to both supporting innovation for student success, and solving problems at all institutional levels. Fortunately for us, and our partner institutions, Melissa's focus on supporting successful innovation in the knowledge age makes her a natural in her role as an Implementation Specialist. Melissa lives in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest in Portland, Oregon, and spends her free time solving gardening problems with permaculture whole systems design.
Jodie Young
Assistant Head of Communications
Jodie Young
Assistant Head of Communications
Jodie is Assistant Head of Communications, and Content Specialist and Editor here at PebblePad. An experienced educator, talented writer, and a genius at simplifying the complicated, Jodie spends her days planning, crafting and publishing content for the PebblePad community and wider higher education audiences. Outside of work, Jodie is a published poet, and in honour of her Aussie heritage (the lucky devil is based in Melbourne) our Head of Brand & Communications, Rich Dando, considered recrafting this profile into a poem but quickly came unstuck trying to find a word to rhyme with kangaroo. Unlike Rich, Jodie isn't quite so easily derailed, and you'll see her expert stamp on many of our hugely popular publications.
Sarah Chesney
Implementation Specialist
Sarah Chesney
Implementation Specialist
Sarah has worked in educational and staff development for 13 years; first as a senior lecturer in e-learning at the University of Cumbria, and since then as both a consultant and associate lecturer. Sarah is a keen advocate for using eportfolios for staff development and professional recognition and has written several articles on this topic. The good news for Sarah (and for PebblePad customers) is that she now gets to spend even more of her time innovating in the eportfolio space in her role as an Implementation Specialist.
Sarah Copeland
Implementation Specialist
Sarah Copeland
Implementation Specialist
An educational designer and educator, Sarah has supported use and integration of educational technologies and mediated learning in both post-compulsory educational institutions and in industry, and has lectured in digital media and social informatics. Sarah's passion for community engagement through activism and lifelong learning, along with her former doctoral research on digital storytelling, comes in more than a little handy in her role as an Implementation Specialist. When Sarah unplugs from digital life, you may well find her with a trowel in hand in the garden or out walking in the Yorkshire Dales.
Jenny Masters
Implementation Specialist
Jenny Masters
Implementation Specialist
Jenny is a teacher educator with over 30 years of experience who is "into" digital technologies, with a specialist focus on the use of digital technologies in education. She has used ePortfolios and PebblePad for many years to support pre-service teachers as they plan, reflect on, and celebrate their learning journeys and, luckily for us, she is now putting that expertise to use in her role as Implementation Specialist.
Jenny is based on pristine King Island in the middle of Bass Strait and is living the dream - a couple of hectares with a tiny house, off-the-grid, subsistence gardening and free-ranging chickens. Fortunately, an awesome Internet connection via satellite means that she can have the best of both worlds and working with PebblePad is fitting in just beautifully with the lifestyle.
Jacqui Patten
Implementation Specialist
Jacqui Patten
Implementation Specialist
Jacqui is our Western Australian Implementation Specialist and has been a passionate PebblePaddler since starting her PebblePad journey back in 2012 at Edith Cowan University. While Jacqui has some seriously quick feet (she's a tap dancer), she is also an incredibly safe and reliable pair of hands for anyone looking to get the most out of PebblePad. Outside of work she reads fantasy novels, loves cooking, and takes her auntie and her friends to the local bingo every week. It may be a case of eyes down every Monday night, but Jacqui keeps things on the up and up when it comes to all things PebblePad customer support.