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!
Contact Holly
Carmel Dickinson -
Head of Events & Partnerships
Carmel has worked in advertising and marketing since 2005. After 5 years at Money Marketing she joined Holly at The Platforum as Head of Commercial. From here she went to News UK to commercially run The Times and Sunday Times financial sections (winning Sales Person of the Year 2015) followed by a brief stint at Guardian Labs. But she was wooed back to join Holly at Boring Money in 2016 to tell the financial industry how they can work with us through content marketing, events and research.
Likes: French bulldogs, live music in a field and a good Scotch Egg.
Dislikes: Baked Beans, Talent shows on TV and bad manners.
Least boring thing:
Contact Carmel
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
Contact Jim
Cara Whitehouse -
Chief Marketing Officer
Cara began her career as a (rather impoverished) journalist before becoming a (still skint) magazine editor. Having decided to earn a halfway decent salary, she moved into digital marketing and ran a specialist agency for more than four years, working with brands big and small across search, social and content marketing. Ever restless, Cara got bored of being online-only and moved on to managing the online and offline go-to-market strategies of disruptive start-ups.
Likes: Sunshine, travelling the world and laughing with friends.
Dislikes: People in front of her walking really slowly when she's in a hurry.
Least boring thing: Cara was a County gold medal-winning gymnast in her younger, more flexible days…
Contact Cara
Brenda De Carvalho -
Operations Manager
Brenda joined Boring Money with the aim to keep everyone on their boring toes and make sure we deliver everything we've promised and more.
As a board level support professional, Brenda has gained experience across a wide range of sectors including Tech, Finance, Media and Architecture.
Likes: Cats on synthesizers in space, solar flares, graphic novels, drone metal and The Mars Volta.
Dislikes: Income disparity, the exploitation of labour in developing nations, and being responsible for waking people up.
Least boring thing: It’s my family.
Contact Brenda
Alex Jones -
Head of Market Research
Alex started adult life up t’North as an economic and social researcher before moving South and into commercial market research. He has undertaken consumer-focused quantitative and qualitative projects for some of the world’s leading finance, communications and technology brands – from global tracking studies to consumer ethnography and has had articles published by the Market Research Society.
Likes: Bananagrams, Ferris Bueller and tropical house music
Dislikes: Milky tea, horror films and the cost of renting in South London!
Least boring thing: Amateur potter specialising in wonky bowls
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Mikhail Ismail -
Head of Client and Content Projects
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 client content production, comms, and web content at Boring Money.
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.
Contact Mikhail
Michael Akinwotu -
Data and Research Associate
Michael graduated from university with a degree in Economics before moving into strategy consulting.
He has experience working with multinational organisations across several sectors, providing research and insights to drive growth.
Michael joined Boring Money in December 2017 and works with our research and data team.
Likes: Football, Chelsea, and Eden Hazard
Dislikes: Arsenal, Gooners, and Emirates Stadium
Least boring thing:
Contact Michael
Jess Galletley -
Senior Research Analyst
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.
Contact Jess
Sam Richardson -
Data Analyst
Sam graduated from York University in 2016 with an integrated Master’s degree in Environmental Geography. He has previously worked as a data analyst in marketing and utilities industries, providing analysis and insight for senior leadership and stakeholders.
Likes: Food, gym, David Attenborough, the environment, horror films and people on public transport who are happy to chat
Dislikes: Slow walkers, rude people and overcrowded areas (hence why Sam lives and works in London!)
Least boring thing: Sam is running the London Marathon 2019 in April for Mind, the mental health charity. If you would like to sponsor Sam, he would be extremely grateful! His fundraising page is: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sam-richardson25
Contact Sam
Jennifer Mallett -
Qualitative Research Manager
Jen started her career in a small healthcare market research agency taking her all over the world, speaking to professionals and respondents from all walks of life.
With special interests in consumer journey and communication research, Jen has worked with many of the major financial institutions. From complete bank rebrands, making sense of day to day communications, to matching products with consumer need, Jen has a wide range of experience and still remains curious!
Likes: Surfing, yoga, laughing a lot, any music she can dance to, sun, beaches, getting out & exploring, banana bread.
Dislikes: rude/negative people, thrash metal, bananas.
Least boring thing: Jen was awarded 'Top Yogi' and 'Most Likely to Still Be Dancing Until the Wee Small Hours' on a surf and yoga tour of Sri Lanka.
Contact Jennifer
Meital Sharon -
Digital Marketing Manager
Meital started her career as a writer and SEO content consultant in Israel marketing for a variety of companies, from corporate high-tech brands to a teen-oriented high school chain.
Later she spread across all things digital marketing and moved to London, just in time to join the Boring Money team and look after our digital & paid marketing strategies.
Likes: Books, more books, still more books, yes, that's almost enough, but there's room for one more book up there, in the corner.
Dislikes: Tapas meals, empty batteries and dressing for the wrong season.
Least boring thing: Meital was part of the editing committee for an 800 page encyclopaedia about women's health and sexuality.
Contact Meital
Jamie Ovens -
Content & Community Manager
A creative who cares, Jamie always finds a way to give the people more! As a Dementia Care Assistant he painted murals and wrote cheeky poems.
As a Newspaper Editor he organised workshops and started a society. And now, after years as a Copywriter, he’s helping Joe Public and Mr Moneybags become firm friends. Power to the people!
Likes: Drag queens, dogs and David Bowie.
Dislikes: Rude people, dull writing and tea without sugar.
Least boring thing: Can make you practically anything out of papier-mâché…
Contact Jamie
Phoebe Smith -
Marketing Assistant
Phoebe began working life as a marketer for the pan-European stock exchange Euronext, having just finished her MA Viking & Anglo-Saxon Studies masters degree (yep, you read that right!). Phoebe wanted the challenge of turning her hand from Old Norse runestones to financial marketing, having taken on some marketing internships during her scholarship year. Since diving into the financial industry, she’s loved every opportunity to satisfy her thirst for knowledge - muahaha!
Likes: knitting, dogs, and eco-friendly living
Dislikes: ketchup, ’reality’ TV, and sunburn.
Least boring thing: Phoebe is a commissioned photo-realistic pet portrait painter.
Contact Phoebe
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.
Contact Mog