Board of Directors and Company Secretary

Will Whitehorn

Will Whitehorn joined the Virgin Group as Group Public Relations Manager in 1987. Over the next several years he was responsible for presenting Virgin’s joint venture strategy and spent several months working in Japan and began to move into a more general management role. Will worked on the strategy to expand the brand into new areas such as financial services and telecoms. From 1997 onwards, Will became part of a team developing the Virgin branded venture capital model for global expansion. In 2000, he was appointed Brand Development and Corporate Affairs Director for Virgin. In 2004 he became President of Virgin Galactic. In 2007 he took on that role in an executive capacity and became a special advisor to Sir Richard Branson.

Will was appointed as non-executive Chairman of Next Fifteen Communications Group plc in January 2004, and is chairman of the Nomination Committee.

Tim Dyson

Tim joined the Group in 1984 straight from Loughborough University and became its global CEO in 1992. As one of the early pioneers of tech PR, he has worked on major corporate and product campaigns with such companies as Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Sun and Intel. Tim oversaw the flotation of the company on the London Stock Exchange and has managed a string of successful acquisitions by the Group in recent years including OutCast Communications and Applied Communications in the US and Lexis in the UK.  Tim moved from London to set up the Group's first US business in 1995 in Seattle and is now based in Palo Alto. Outside Next Fifteen, Tim is also on the advisory boards of a number of emerging technology companies.  Tim was recently named an Emerging Power Player by PR Week US.

David Dewhurst

David Dewhurst graduated from the University of Birmingham in the UK in 1984 with a B.Com degree. He then joined KPMG Peat Marwick as a trainee accountant, qualifying in 1987. David worked as a corporate accountant and business analyst for Hillsdown Holdings plc between 1988 and 1990 and was then Group Accountant for Premier Brands Limited, one of Hillsdown’s subsidiaries.

In 1992, David became Group Finance Director for Strong & Fisher Holdings plc before being appointed, in 1997, to the same post at The Media Business Group plc. He joined the Board as Finance Director in July 1999, to take the company through its flotation in December 1999.

Ian Taylor

Ian Taylor graduated from Keele University with a degree in Economics, Politics & Modern History. He spent 18 years in investment banking and development capital in London and Paris before being elected as Member of Parliament for Esher in 1987 (now Esher and Walton).

He was Minister for Science and Technology at the Department of Trade and Industry from 1994 - 1997, during the last Conservative administration. He is now on various all-party parliamentary technology committees including those on Information Technology and Space. He is a member of the ippr Commission on National Security. Since 1997, Ian has become a non-executive director of or adviser to a number of companies, including some in the technology and financial sectors.

He joined the Board in January 1999 and is Chairman of the Remuneration and Audit Committees

Mark Sanford - Company Secretary

Mark Sanford qualified as a Solicitor in 1997, having trained with Eversheds in Leeds.  After qualification, he stayed with Eversheds for two years in its corporate, commercial and banking departments.  He was Company Lawyer with Premier Farnell plc from 1999 until 2003 and joined the Group in July 2003 as General Counsel and Company Secretary.