Our People

Jurga Zilinskiene MBE

CEO, Founder and Coder

Jurga Zilinskiene is the Founder and CEO of Guildhawk. She was named among 8 women who made history in the technology world. In 2019, she was honoured by Queen Elizabeth with the MBE for International Trade. Her Majesty also honoured Guildhawk with the Queen’s Award for International Trade.

As an accomplished coder, Jurga is passionate about introducing new AI solutions to improve lives and protect our planet. She established a JV with Gammon Construction HK to create new technology to improve safety on construction sites. In 2023, Jurga launched Evernoon Technologies in Hong Kong.

Beyond technology, she is passionate about helping women and young people. Sheffield Hallam University formed a partnership with Guildhawk and appointed Jurga as entrepreneur in residence to inspire the next generation of coders and entrepreneurs.

To support young musicians in the Chinese Year of the Water Rabbit 2023, Jurga, her husband David and their bandleader friend Alex Mendham and his Orchestra are releasing a magical album of 1920s songs. These are translated into Chinese for the first time.   

Jurga loves to write poetry and dance. At school, she was a member of a Lithuanian Dance group that performed in national competitions. Beyond her passionate for new technology, she adores the British Royal Family, 1920s jazz and tweed.

Learn more about Jurga here on Wikipedia.

Watch this BBC television interview with Jurga explaining how Guildhawk recruited the world’s first emoji translator. Click here.

Mark Brooks-Wadham

Chairman

Entrepreneur Mark Brooks-Wadham joined Guildhawk as Chairman in February 2023.

Mark brings with him over 30 years of experience within the business technology sector. In 1987, he started his first business, selling the business after five successful years. In 1993 he formed Charterhouse Voice and Data. Growing the company organically into a leading unified communications player in London and the Home Counties. He sold the business to private equity in 2018. Mark then remained as CEO embarking on a number of acquisitions. This took the business to £65m turnover and north of 300 employees. Mark stepped down as CEO in 2021, and remains on the board as a NED. Mark has subsequently invested in a number of technology companies.

Mark is a keen cyclist and runner and enjoys family life with his wife and two daughters.

Ian Miller MBE

CFO

Ian Miller MBE, splits his time between the UK and USA. He is a Scottish Chartered Accountant by profession. His his expertise is in management consultancy and senior leadership at global Information Technology companies.

He has held executive roles at various multi-billion-dollar energy and technology corporations. These include Hewlett-Packard, Electronic Data Systems, and NTT Data. He has led businesses across Europe, the United States and Asia Pacific and driven exceptional performance and growth. Ian has particular expertise in M&A strategy, execution and integration.  

His volunteering work includes service with the police reserve and a member of the Honourable Artillery Company. He has built relationships between military and law enforcement organisations across the globe. He promotes Guildhawk’s commitment to help military veterans transition to civilian life through the Armed Forces Pledge.

In 2008, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II honoured Ian with membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for Service to Policing.  

Hugo Spalding

CCO

Hugo is the Chief Commercial Officer for Guildhawk, joining in May 2023, to lead the sales, marketing and account management functions.

A career sales & marketing executive, for over 25 years Hugo has created, scaled and exited B2B SaaS and data businesses.  Solution focussed, Hugo has engaged a wide range of B2B and B2B2C enterprise businesses globally, across EMEA, NA and APAC regions.

A committed CrossFit enthusiast, Hugo lives in Cambridge with his wife and three sons.

Arun Chauhan Prof. PgDip

External Legal Counsel

Arun Chauhan is Guildhawk’s External Legal Counsel and Board Member, and also provides specialist advice to our clients on promoting ethical standards, regulatory compliance and litigation.

A practising solicitor, Arun is one of very few to be awarded an International Compliance Association expert level post graduate qualification (Prof. PGDip(FCC)) in financial crime compliance. A former head of the commercial fraud team of a top 20 UK law firm he is the founder and a director of Tenet Compliance & Litigation, a boutique practice dealing with financial crime compliance and investigations.

He is a Trustee Director of the Fraud Advisory Panel charity, the voice of the counter-fraud community and frequently appears as a guest expert on BBC Television.

Watch Arun on BBC television explaining how to protect yourself from fraud by clicking here.

David Clarke

CSO

David Clarke is chief security officer & Director Multilingual Due Diligence services in the consultancy arm of Guildhawk. He is based in the City of London and Sheffield. David provides the strategic lead for multilingual research, advisory and secure language services to global corporate clients.

He leads a multi-disciplinary team of security specialists and works with clients to protect their brands and data and avoid falling victim to crime. To mitigate the risks that are often unseen in multilingual supply chains, he pioneered AMLiss™. This is a 3-tier regulatory compliance solution to identify red flags in multilingual contracts and other written and verbal business communications.

A veteran of the Royal Air Force and former United Nations Peacekeeper, he champion’s Guildhawk’s commitment to military veterans find new careers in civilian life. David is signatory to the Armed Forces Pledge.

As the Head of the City of London Police Fraud Squad he was responsible for designing and leading the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). As Chairman of the independent Fraud Advisory Panel, David established and led the COVID-19 Fraud Watch Task Force to protect businesses during the pandemic. He is a regular commentator on BBC Television and The Times newspaper.

Watch a BBC television interview with David by clicking here.

Steve Spark

SaaS Digital Transformation

Steve has 26 years’ commercial management experience, with the last 18 years in software-as-a-service and digital transformation. 

He has held executive leadership roles with 4Projects, Viewpoint and Mandata – all PE-backed SaaS companies who delivered significant growth, leading them through 5 successful PE funding rounds, a trade sale and 3 acquisitions