Our Team
-
Caroline Stevenson
Digital Marketing Director
Caroline came into the Digital Marketing game after an 8-year employment "break" having three, "occasionally delightful", children.
After years working predominantly in the charitable sector, managing huge accounts for non-profits like Chatham House, The King's Fund, Meningitis Now, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Epilepsy Society and The National Garden Scheme, Caroline joined forces with Paul to create Beyond Your Brand. The concept for the agency was to look beyond simply increasing traffic, but to delivering meaningful results and increasing sales; to really make a difference to every organisation with whom they work.
As Digital Marketing Director, Caroline is responsible for ensuring clients get the very best from their websites, and works closely with each and every one of them to make sure we are always working towards the same goal. Her objectives for Beyond Your Brand are to make it an enjoyable, happy place to work; a business where nobody is held back, but everybody is encouraged to be the best they can be - in their own unique way, however that may be. ("We know that if people are not happy, they can't possibly deliver their best work. We want to make sure each and every member of the team oozes contentment and well-being, and enjoys working with us. It's crucial to our success.")
Caroline lives in the country, and loves a challenge. She plays tennis for Oxfordshire, teaches piano in her spare time and is taking part in the 2020 Weekend Warrior at Blenheim Palace (Google it!) She has sky-dived, bungee-jumped, white-water-rafted the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world; so probably one of our lazier members of the team.
-
Paul Coombes
Director
Paul is a Co-Founder of Beyond Your Brand, and its Growth Consultant. Paul’s aspiration is to support Beyond Your Brand’s clients as they grow. He has experience in managing businesses and sales teams and designing and implementing proven commercial strategies to maximise growth opportunities. Straight out of college, Paul started his career in sales with a well-established electronic component manufacturer, Selectronic, where he learnt the value of implementing clear and practical sales strategies. Selectronic’s customer base included the likes of Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, Pace and Amstrad, all of which were going through massive growth within the consumer industries.
Having travelled to many countries and being involved in a fast-paced commercial world, Paul decided to take his career in a different direction, where he spent 11 years as a Police Constable, serving in Thames Valley Police. Paul had a varied career in the Police, which included working in Bicester, Banbury and Witney as a beat officer, three years working as a Detective in the Criminal Investigations Department and four years as a Police Dog Handler.
Following an injury, Paul decided to return to the private sector and took on a role as Regional Director for a start-up technology company in the world of biometrics. This was another fast-paced role which saw the company through a period of rapid expansion.
He now enjoys the challenge of putting his experience and knowledge of growth and sharing this with companies who are looking to expand.
Paul has three kids and ‘enjoys’ being a weekend taxi driver. A life-long Crystal Palace FC supporter, Paul has certainly learnt to deal with highs and lows. He has completed several walking challenges, including the 100-mile South Downs Way and 150 miles of the Thames Path, all in order to raise money for the local primary school that his children attend. If you ask him nicely, he’ll be pleased to show you his collection of blister photographs.
-
Richard O'Donnell
Creative Director
Richard has been involved with the Website and Digital marketing industry for over 10 years and has been designing websites since he was 18 years old. He is responsible for all things "creative" in the Beyond Your Brand regime.
He's also been involved with the TV, theatre and film industry for the past 9 years; a trained actor and award-winning film maker, makes him a creative bundle extraordinaire.
Richard joined Beyond Your Brand as for him it was an opportunity to work with like-minded people in building something special in the digital and creative industry.
Richard is actually based in Rutland and lives in the countryside with his fiance and two young children. When he's not involved with web designing, he's probably writing a new script, or more likely down the local pub tasting what ales are on offer. Cheers.
-
Nadia B.
Digital Marketing Manager
As well as being something of a whizz on social media, Nadia is also a proud mum to one little girl, three cats and one dog. She was a professional Irish Dancer from the aged of 15 and toured the world for 8 years before going on to be long-haul Cabin Crew for 13 years. Nadia also studied to be a personal trainer and worked in two of the busiest gyms in Dublin.
Nadia fell into Social Media Marketing about 5 years ago, with great success running all kinds of accounts. She went on to work in PR and Social in London, specifically for women's interests, health, wellness and luxury.
She loves working with small businesses and seeing them grow. She is passionate about customer service and experience, loves animals, tech, health, fitness, food, photography and walking the dog.
Interesting facts: I’m Irish / Syrian, I’ve danced in the Disney movie Ella Enchanted and I’m in a couple of scenes standing behind Joanna Lumley
-
Alex Meazzini
Digital Client Consultant
Alex has a passion for all things marketing. He has dedicated his entire career to date with helping companies grow by implementing sound digital marketing strategies. Alex has over 10 years experience of digital marketing working with businesses of various sizes and in different industries. There are two things that you will notice about Alex; he always has a smile on his face and he really cares! This is not driven by sales targets and bonuses, it is simply a passion for leveraging marketing techniques to help companies grow. In his spare time, Alex likes to keep fit and play piano. Ask him about his Elton John renditions - be prepared, he will show you his videos.
-
Farren Askew
Graphic Designer
Farren’s creativity has been present from an early age, going back to when she was 6 - drawing barcodes on the back of homemade cards! It was fairly inevitable to all who knew her, that she would end up working in the creative field.
Farren chose to do an apprenticeship with Microsoft in tech support after she left sixth form at the age of 18. She was immediately thrown in at the deep end; being asked to run the help desk and 4 members of staff. This is where her organisational and logical skills were initially developed. After 2 years of telling people to “turn it off and on” Farren left to start a Graphic Design degree with Anglia Ruskin University. She is now in her final year of her 7-year degree and is gearing up to do her dissertation whilst also working full time.
In the years that Farren has been professionally designing, she has worked on a huge range of projects. She specialises in Logo Design, Branding and Web Design.
Her responsibility as a graphic designer, is to present information in a way that is not only accessible, but also memorable. This can be achieved in a variety of ways whilst, utilising various techniques and she’s excited to help the Beyond Your Brand clients maximise their presence using innovative solutions, tailored for both digital and print.
-
Kieran Thomas
SEO Strategist
Kieran is a multi-award winning web developer with over 18 years commercial experience, spanning both B2B and B2C, and ranging from start-ups to charities, to multi-national organisations.
Over that time, Kieran has seen the digital industry and SEO in particular change in so many ways, and yet at the same time, as our SEO Strategist he says one simple, golden rule has always remained constant… “Content is King”.
In addition to his technical knowledge, Kieran has a very entrepreneurial mindset, and has founded multiple businesses across 4 different sectors. If there’s one thing Kieran really understands, it’s how to successfully launch and grow a start-up on a shoe-string budget!
And when we say “shoe-string” we mean it! In 2002 he launched his first start-up (a website advertising holiday rentals long before AirBnB existed) with just £50 and a laptop, and using his SEO and marketing knowledge grew the business to over 10,600 properties in just 3 years. Now that’s impressive!
He has also won Theo Paphitis’ (BBC Dragon’s Den) prestigious SBS award for another of his businesses. As a result, he passionately loves sharing his knowledge and experience to help other businesses grow and achieve their full potential.
With a wife, 2 children and a dog, “spare time” seems a distant memory. However, on the rare days it does occur, he can be found (weather permitting) gliding, hiking, or “costuming” as part of a global costuming club (he has full “movie accurate” Stormtrooper armour from Star Wars, and built the world’s 1st movie accurate Lord Voldemort costume from Harry Potter).
Interesting fact: In 2011, Kieran interviewed the cast and crew of Harry Potter on the red carpet of the final ever Harry Potter premiere and then flew with them to NYC for the USA Premiere!