Liz has over 20 years business experience in the public, private and 3rd sector across multiple disciplines including CRM, digital media, customer service design and strategic marketing with one underpinning drive, to improve service for the individual.

Liz’s career has spanned Barclays Bank in International, Retail and Investment Banking, joining Logica in 1999 becoming the UK Sales and Marketing Director and founder of Logica’s international Customer Relationship Management (CRM) business.

Liz was the co-founder of Zishi, a Private Equity funded mobile CRM company specialising in the design and rollout of individual mobile travel services now part of Equant. She was a co-founder of Digital Public, which designs and launches digital media services for government (now part of The Engine Group). Liz is also a Board member of Stadium Housing Association and Huge Entertainment.

Paul joined Ctrl-Shift in 2009. He has a 25 year career in providing information on which decisions are made.

His career started in the consumer arena where he had a 10 year stint at Which? magazine - being Head of Product Research, responsible for product reports in the magazine, covering everything from washing machines to cars. He then moved to provide market intelligence services for businesses in both public and private sectors with Kable - a research consultancy focused on the public sector technology markets.

As MD of Kable he sold the business to Guardian News and Media and took on the head of publishing role for the Guardian’s B2B business, Guardian Professional. Here he was responsible for devising and implementing a digital engagement strategy.

Alan has spent the last 20 years researching, writing about and commenting on consumer, market and marketing trends: as editor of Marketing magazine, as marketing correspondent for The Times, as a contributor to the Financial Times and columnist for Marketing Week and Brand Strategy.

In 1997 he wrote the Financial Times report Brand Strategies in the Information Age. In 2001 he wrote Right Side Up and 2005 The New Bottom Line, which introduced and fleshed out the concept of ‘buyer-centric commerce’. He founded the Buyer Centric Commerce Forum with Liz Brandt in 2005.

Alan serves on the steering committee of Harvard Law School Berkman Center for Internet and Society ‘Project VRM’ and on the editorial boards of The Journal of Brand Management and The Journal of Direct, Digital and Database Marketing. He is a founder of the Mydex Community Interest Company with William Heath and Iain Henderson.

Claire has twenty years' experience as a marketing communications expert. Her previous roles have included senior positions in international communication agencies such as Hill and Knowlton, in blue-chip organisations such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell, and in the public sector.

In the past Claire ran the internal communications function for Dell in Europe Middle East and Africa, managing executive communications as well as numerous change programmes. Claire has an MBA from the Bath School of Management and is a certified Prince 2 Practioner.

Chris joins Ctrl-Shift in February 2012 as business development director. He has over 20 years’ experience in helping organisations harness technology and align their processes, systems and people to deliver products and services to consumers in the most agile way.    

Chris has worked as a strategic advisor with some of the UK's most successful brands, many in the retail sector. His experience ranges from designing and implementing customer insight solutions through to the development and management of strategies for transforming multi-channel  businesses. 

Mark has a background in consumer research and corporate communications. He spent six years as a senior researcher at Which?, and followed this with a series of roles in international consumer development. Following a two-year spell in Sydney, Australia, Mark returned to the UK and now specialises in corporate employee communications. He has held posts within the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, and has worked for, amongst others Siemens, VT Communications, and The Children's Society.

Les has a twenty year track record in delivering significant growth and transformation for corporates, small businesses and new ventures, with specific expertise in strategy development, marketing, m&a and business development.

He has held senior roles with blue chips and start-ups, including Plessey, Nortel, Philips and Cambridge Broadband and led sales and marketing programmes across Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa and North America.

Les' most recent role was heading the strategy, alliance and market planning teams at Airwave – the world’s largest provider of public safety communications services.

Christina is a journalist, author, campaigner and media relations professional and runs the editorial production of Ctrl-Shift's reports.

For 15 years she was an academic editor for OUP and production manager for Palgrave Macmillan books, before becoming a journalist in 2000. Her work has been published in the Guardian and across the national press, and has appeared on Channel 4 and ITV. In 2005 she was a runner-up in the first Guardian/Observer Paul Foot Award.

Richard was chairman of Sophron Partners Ltd, a customer communications consultancy he co-founded with Sir Richard Heygate in 1995.

He also founded and managed the CRM Forum (now www.mycustomer.com) to profitability.

Richard is a well-known international chair and speaker on customer communications issues at conferences around the world. He has also assisted in the organisation of a number of leading CRM-related international conferences. Richard is a visiting lecturer at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow Caledonia, and Napier College.

Paul has worked with many government departments and local authorities on technology and organisational strategy. In the last few years, he has specialised in digital strategy – from the relationship between individual and government, to issues of trust, identity and

transparency. He is active in the initiatives to open up data for reuse, and in work to engage the public with Parliament.

He relishes public service innovation, and his own contributions include one of the winning entries for the Cabinet Office "Show Us A Better Way" competition and the creation of an experimental social transport service for Londoners during the 2009 tube strike.

Karen has a 10 year track record in running events for a community - having spent the last 10 years running a membership programme for a UK trade association.

Originally trained as a journalist and broadcaster, Ruth worked with the BBC for several years. Whilst there, she studied for an MBA before moving into BBC Strategy and then to external management consultancy.

Ruth is a highly effective communicator and negotiator, skilled at managing large-scale projects involving multi-disciplinary teams from a range of organisations. Previous clients include the Department for Education, the BBC, Disney and NHS Direct.

Amongst more boutique innovations, Patrick has designed and overseen the England-wide launch of a discovery portal for digital learning content underpinning over £500mn of transactions and a directory of local services aggregated from every council, syndicated out to public, private and third sector channels.

At the innovation agency he co-founded – Golant Media Ventures – he leads the research and product strategy for its cross-media content aggregation, distribution, discovery and recommendation services co-developed with the Guardian Media Group, BFI and BAFTA.