Simon Black

During his time at Sage, Simon worked initially on UK strategy and then with acquisitions in construction, BI and payments. He joined Sage Pay (formerly Protx) as MD in October 2007 and the company has grown over 78% since.  Originally from Manchester, Simon did a Business Studies degree at Leeds before beginning his career in marketing. In 1992 he moved to the US where he received an MBA from Georgetown University and later joined Gemini Consulting in Washington DC and New York.  He helped formulate business strategies for technology clients such as IBM who needed to respond to the emerging Internet opportunity and challenge.

Six years later, Simon returned to the UK to set up the London office for strategic brand consultants, FutureBrand, where he lead brand repositioning for companies such as Bradford & Bingley. Always ready to take on a new challenge, he saw an opportunity in marketing-related services and founded the first generation of Saas (software as a service) technology to support the marketing management process, enabling Bacardi to collaborate with a network of agencies.  Prior to joining Sage, Simon was a Partner at Blue Sky Consulting where he focused on sales and customer service improvements, working with companies such as Aviva and Virgin. He is married with two children and lives in Hampstead.