Meet the team
Holly Mackay
CEO
Holly Mackay has been working in investment markets since 1998. She read Modern Languages at Oxford, with a special focus on Medieval French which was deeply interesting and arguably utterly useless. From 1998 – 2007, she worked in both Australia and the UK, for Big Global Investment Firms with Increasingly Important-Sounding Titles.
Likes: time with her kids, red shoes, the sea, surfing, India and wine (not Indian wine)
Dislikes: pompous bores, broken technology, laziness, the tube
Least boring thing: Holly was in a stand-up comedy show at the Edinburgh Festival ages ago with people who are now much more famous than she is!
Research
Jim Adams
Head of Research
Jim has been working in various types of research for close to 20 years.
He has worked across a wide variety of sectors including banking, insurance, technology and government.
Most recently Jim has been benchmarking banks, insurers and others against each other.
Likes: Numbers, lots of tea, nice wine, time with family and friends
Dislikes: Quiche, bad graphs, being ill, people who don’t remove their rucksacks on the tube
Least boring thing: Jim once took advantage of talented teammates to win a TV quiz show
Jess Galletley
Research Manager
Jess began her research career after studying Anthropology at the LSE, learning about all the weird and wonderful aspects of human culture.
Prior to Boring Money, she worked in Insight & Strategy at a Welsh building society, and more recently at a global market research firm writing reports across a range of consumer financial services markets.
Likes: 80s music, documentaries on ancient Egypt, painting trees, birds, and all things food
Dislikes: Bad weather, being late, squirrels stealing from bird feeders
Least boring thing: Jess alternated between playing second row and prop for her university and local rugby team back home.
Mahdi Shabir
Research Analyst
Mahdi graduated from SOAS University of London in 2019 with a first class bachelor’s degree in Economics & Arabic. He has begun his career as a Research Analyst at Boring Money, where he participates in quantitative research – analysing and tracking investment platform performance – as well as qualitative research, such as contributing to research projects by conducting participant interviews.
Likes: Lime-filled white chocolate lindt, Lebron James and Lord of the Rings.
Dislikes: Taking Ls, long lines and Liverpool's recent success.
Least boring thing: Mahdi has been blessed with the opportunity to successfully complete ‘the walk of the free’ twice.
Ellie Watson
Research Executive
A Class of 2020 graduate, Ellie has joined the team to support on bespoke qualitative research projects after gaining a year's experience at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Having completed her Marketing degree, she's realised research is her thing. She's nosey about what people think. She's passionate about driving businesses to be better by listening to and understanding their customers' wants and needs.
Likes: Cheesy musicals, striking gold in a charity shop, trying new veggie recipes
Dislikes: Single use coffee cups (buy a keepcup!), disappointing cocktails
Least boring thing: She once went to a Beyoncé concert in Amsterdam by herself (no, she doesn't speak Dutch, yes, she was that determined to see Queen Bey)
Anna Stoughton
Relationship Manager
After graduating from the University of Exeter, Anna joined Deloitte in the Tax department where she qualified as a Tax Analyst. But, finding the area a bit light on the people facing side, she chose to become a Financial Adviser helping clients achieve their financial goals.
Now Relationship Manager at Boring Money, Anna hopes to use her experience to help the masses navigate the financial maze with crystal clear tips and information.
Likes: The All Blacks, exercise, flapjacks
Dislikes: Geordie Shore, hangovers, fishy fish
Least boring thing: Anna spontaneously skydived over Lake Taupo from 15,000ft whilst on a solo holiday
Gaia Gambacciani
Research Analyst
Moving to London from Italy at 18, Gaia graduated from Birkbeck College with a BSc in Psychology, writing a dissertation with a focus on Eating Disorders.
Throughout her studies, she didn’t let go of her passion for fitness, and became a qualified level 3 Personal Trainer, garnering a wide range of clients across London. She enjoyed Psychology so much, that she decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Finance – Investment Banking. She is passionate about behavioural finance and understanding how/why people make the decisions they do. Boring Money is the place for this, helping guide people do 'boring' the fun way.
Likes: Fresh coffee from her moka, Aperol Spritz, people interested in seeing pictures of her dogs
Dislikes: Mint chocolate, Starbucks coffee, people NOT interested in seeing pictures of her dogs
Least boring thing: She can make any recipe into a “healthy/high protein/plant-based” version of it
Marketing
Mikhail Ismail
Head of Marketing
Mikhail started out as an investment analyst before crossing over to marketing and comms for asset managers and investment solutions providers.
During his post grad he worked as a project manager for start ups in media production before returning to financial services.
He oversees marketing strategies and execution across Boring Money's B2C and B2B arms.
Likes: Sarcasm
Dislikes: Sarcasm
Least boring thing: During a prolonged stint as child stunt performer, Mikhail found a niche playing fantasy creatures and feral children.
Caoilainn Mcgarry
Marketing Assistant
After graduating from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in English Literature and German, Caoilainn joined the marketing team of a children’s arts and theatre charity to help promote some wacky and wonderful shows and events for kids.
She is passionate about helping and informing others and as Marketing Assistant at Boring Money is enjoying spreading the word that money isn’t as dull or scary as you might think.
Likes: Coffee, horror movies and going to the theatre.
Dislikes: Sweetcorn, rudeness and being in a hurry
Least boring thing: Caoilainn has a grade 8 in Musical Theatre singing and has performed in two sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Mike Narouei
Content Producer
Whilst studying theatre at Lancaster University Mike founded a production company with a few other students. Working mainly as a Producer he picked up content creation to put bums on seats. Since graduating he has worked mainly in a creative capacity making shows, films, posters with a host of random things in-between.
Currently, he is the Content Producer for Boring Money and is excited to make the world of finance entertaining and engaging.
Likes: Coffee (only black), theatres (when they return), and Forest Gump (humanity's proudest achievement).
Dislikes: Waiting for things.
Least boring thing: Played Charles Manson in a play, then being obsessed with the story played Vincent Bugliosi a year later (the man who prosecuted Manson).
Michael Glenister
PR and B2B Marketing Manager
Mike is a former journalist and personal finance enthusiast. He joined Boring Money from one of the UK’s largest wealth management companies, where he worked across their platform, financial planning and investment management business units.
Likes: Wycombe Wanderers, beer gardens, his cat, visiting new countries
Dislikes: Mornings, bad listeners, anything expensive
Least boring thing: Mike once spent a year living in China where he was VIP at several weddings for people he’d never met
Operations/Tech
Matthew Jacobs
Technical Lead
Matt started work at BT developing applications to locate telephone cables over 20 years ago. The excitement was too much so he moved into digital/web development and have worked for a variety of different brands from Sainsbury's to Nike, as both a developer, and in more recent years, a manager of developers.
Technology doesn’t have to be difficult. Matt's a pragmatist and just like to get things done.
Likes: Football (West Ham), 80’s action movies, My mad Schnauzer (Barney), Good coffee
Dislikes: Bad coffee, The only way is Essex – in fact all Z list celebrity, real life programs, The Tube
Least boring thing: My boys and my dog
Jane Adabale
Office Manager
After a number of roles in accounting & finance, Jane found her niche as an Office Manager. She enjoys working with entrepreneurial teams and creating an inclusive work culture.
As Office Manager at Boring Money, Jane is on a mission to make work as fun as possible, while managing Holly’s inbox which never stops, especially on a Sunday night!
Likes: Coffee, Afrobeats, Escaping her 3 children for a glass of wine alone!
Dislikes: Crunch-munchers within 2 metres - peanuts, popcorn, crisps, the list goes on…
Least boring thing: Jane produced a parody gospel music video with her children – dressed in choir gowns running through central London
Toby Dawson
Technical Product Manager
Toby graduated with a Masters degree in Biological Sciences. He started work as a software engineer before transitioning into product management.
Prior to joining the team he worked on chatbot development for a print-on-demand platform where he was also the product manager for wall art, the company's fastest growing category.
Now at Boring Money he is keen to build products which help normal people make smart investment decisions.
Likes: Après-ski, Norwich City, Science documentaries
Dislikes: Broken laptops, Rain, Covid tests
Least boring thing: Toby has had many pets, from cats, dogs, hamsters, rabbits, parrots, snakes, chickens, sheep, goats, capuchin monkeys and kinkajou honey bears. He currently has none :(
Mog
CFO (Chief Feline Officer)
Chief Feline Officer Mog joined Boring Money after a short career at the North London Cats Rescue Centre in Archway.
She has ideas above her station and has been known to refuse Ocado free-range chicken. As well as having an c-attitude problem, she tends to sleep through important meetings and yawn at our videos. She is currently in a disciplinary process although proving rather hard to fire.
Likes: Baked beans, Magnums, shrews, pensions
Dislikes: Baths, dogs, Whiskers cat food.
Least boring thing: She staged a failed coup against Grumpy Cat.