Management Team
Kobus Paulsen
Founder and CEO
Kobus provides overall leadership and strategy for the UC Group. He led a management buyout of Brainware Europe and founded UC Group, successfully transitioning it into a multi-tiered ecommerce conglomerate. He previously served as senior executive at Mirror Group in London, where he led the TV, digital and interactive strategies.
Patrick Boylan
Executive director
Patrick has more than 25 years of senior level experience in international financial services. Before his involvement with UC Group, he served as chief executive of card services and e-ventures at Natwest. He has also served as a member of the global board of MasterCard, chairman of MasterCard and EuroPay UK, chairman of ClearCommerce International and group general manager at HSBC Holdings, responsible for global banking services.
Rt Hon David Blunkett MP
Non-executive director
David has been Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside since 1987. He served as Secretary of State for Education and Employment between 1997 and 2001; Home Secretary between 2001 and 2004; and Secretary of State for Work and Pension in 2005.
David continues to take a direct interest in cyber security – including as Honorary Chair of the ISSA-UK Advisory Board, to undertake work on welfare reform on an international basis, on internet security and data processing, and maintains his long-standing interest in education, skills and training. David is involved with a large number of local, national and international charities, and is a regular contributor to the British media.
Ian Hughes
Chief technical officer
Ian is responsible for all aspects of Secure Trading’s IT infrastructure and application development, support and maintenance, including information service delivery and security. With over 16 years of technical and IT management experience, Ian has held a wide variety of information technology roles within Secure Trading. He previously worked for British Aerospace developing flight simulator software as well as Racal Radar Defence Systems and Euro DPC.
Chris Thom
Chairman
Chris heads up the US arm of Secure Trading. Prior to this he was employed by MasterCard International at their global headquarters in New York. Over eleven years, he had a variety of global responsibilities, ranging from franchise management, security and risk management, finance, internal audit, Canada region, executive services and central operations, and product development, leading to his final role as chief risk officer. Previously Chris was for 27 years a leading banker with Midland Bank, European American Bank and HSBC, working primarily in the UK but with postings in New York, Sydney, and Lausanne.
Ted Friedman
Chief operating officer
Ted holds responsibility for all US operations. He previously held several senior roles at MasterCard, including global head of credit products, senior positions at ClearStream, and was head of corporate strategy at Europay.
Daniel Holden
Chief financial officer
Daniel is responsible for all financial and commercial aspects of the UC Group. He previously held senior positions at Deloitte and Capita, and was involved in a number of venture capital-backed companies.
Oliver Eckel
CEO of Cognosec
Oliver is responsible for business development and management of Secure Trading’s sister company, Cognosec. He has over 20 years’ experience in the IT security and regulatory compliance industry, and is an advisory board member of Agiliance. Oliver was formerly a board member of eCogra and head of audit, security and risk at BWin.
Mike Norton
Head of Secure Trading Financial Services
Mike leads the development of Secure Trading’s acquiring bank arm. He previously set up a new direct acquiring business in Europe for First Data, and held other senior positions at First Data, Euronet Worldwide and BNP Paribas.
