Driven by our strong core values of doing the right thing and a real passion for Apple technology, we have built a team we are truly proud of.
The result is a constantly growing list of more than 300 customers, with in excess of 42000 devices supported or managed. dataJAR is widely recognised as the leading technical expert in the Apple space with, by far, the highest number of international conference and community contributions among all UK specialists.
James is the founder and managing director of dataJAR and has worked in the Apple space for more than twenty years. His impressive CV means he has gathered vast experience in all corners of his industry, from enterprise to consulting.
Both commercially and technically astute, James has a solid understanding of Apple technology and how to implement it at any scale. Starting his career as as a designer, he has an eye for detail and it was this love of design that initially led him to the Apple platform.
Previously managing teams of engineers for former employers, he turned his hand to his own business in 2013. Since the conception of dataJAR, James has successfully and steadily grown the business thanks to the talented team he surrounds himself with.
James’s other huge passion is music. In the Nineties and Naughties, you would find him knee-deep in vinyl at clubs such as The Cross and Ocean Rooms. Running and promoting his own regular nights, James has a deep love of house music. When not in the office, head in spreadsheets or deep in code, he is most likely to be behind his beloved turntables, reliving his youth.
When it comes to experienced sales professionals, Mark is at the top of his game. His career to date has spanned more than two decades and most of those years have been spent working within the Apple space.
Check his CV and you will see an impressive background of working for premier resellers, Apple solutions experts (in the audio, video and education fields) and now with an Apple Consultants Network (ACN) partner.
His roles within these well known and respected organisations have predominantly focussed on looking after and managing key customer relationships and sales teams. Mark’s approach to sales is purely client focused and centres around delivering unrivalled personal service and customer experience.
Thanks to his in-depth knowledge, he strives to provide solutions to customers to help them overcome challenges and achieve outcomes through the use of technology. His unblemished track record of success with clients to date speaks for itself.
Mark will admit the most satisfying aspect of his job is the joy he feels when a customer succeeds as a result of the support delivered by the dataJAR team.
Outside of work, he is a doting husband and dad, loves to explore foods from around the world and is an avid Chelsea fan.
Ben joined dataJAR in 2015 as a Systems Engineer and was promoted to Technical Director in 2017.
He’s been tinkering with Macs for 15 years, from OS 9 in music studios through to administering enterprise Mac and mobile environments.
Throughout his career he’s leveraged the brain trust that is the Apple Admin community, also founded London Apple Admins and have given back via his blog (macmule.com), the blog with the tag line: “Doing the donkey work, to make you look like a smart ass!”
He’s been awarded a Deanship at the JAMF Nation User Conference (JNUC) for his contributions to the JAMF Nation community.
He is an admin for macadmins.org on Slack and have released a few open source projects such as AutoCasperNBI and AutoImagrNBI, as well as becoming the maintainer of ADPassMon.
Yannis has been architecting, integrating and managing all things Apple in Higher Education for 15 years. He is a keen advocate of open, flexible and user-led managed environments.
A regular speaker at major conferences such as JNUC and MacAdUK, he is also often invited to sit on panels and attend industry events run by Apple, IBM and LSE, among others.
Educated to an elite standard, Yannis holds an MSc in Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation from the London School of Economics, an MA in Digital and Interactive Art and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. He also holds project management, asset management and service management certifications, and has completed the LSE Leadership Programme and is CMI accredited.
Yannis’s first Mac experience was actually on the creative side. Using early versions of Final Cut Pro, he was a practicing video artist and lecturer teaching multimedia production, before moving on to managing multimedia labs and switching his attention to Xserves, Radmind and, ultimately, Jamf Pro.
In his leisure time he loves to travel and spends time with his family exploring galleries, museums and restaurants.
Richard Mallion has worked in the IT industry for many years and eats, sleeps and breathes Apple. He began his tech journey as a junior developer and later moved into a support role specialising in integrating Macs into PC networks. During this time he had the privilege of working for a number of high profile Apple centres in London.
Before joining dataJAR earlier this year, Richard had been Soho based for the past two decades, working for Amsys, the go-to organisation for Apple training in the UK.
Richard is an authorised Apple trainer, having gained the Apple Master Training certificate and also delivers the CCT course for Jamf.
As dataJAR’s operations manager, Maddy brings quality assurance, analysis, strategy and management skills, all of which compliment the extensive technical abilities already in existence within the team.
Prior to joining the company, Maddy single-handedly set up and established two businesses in the catering industry. She acquired further skills during her time working in aerospace engineering and information management.
Outside of work, Maddy is currently studying a part time degree in economics with the Open University. She is also a keen traveller and has been involved in helping develop small businesses in Africa.
Chris began his Apple journey by introducing iPad solutions to both education and commercial customers. He delivered the first Apple Free School in 2010 and has been heavily involved in the roll-out of numerous, large scale one-to-ones throughout his career.
He also has three years’ experience selling public and private cloud-hosted solutions and services to commercial, media and government customers.
Chris brings to dataJAR a sound knowledge of business and sales strategy, complimenting our team perfectly.
Aside from his exceptional sales skills, Chris has produced music for almost two decades and his passion for DJing has taken him around the world.
Darren has been tinkering with Macs on a professional level for more than 12 years. He started as a fresh-faced hardware repair trainee and has fond memories of iBook G4 Logic Board repairs! Over the years, he progressed on to executive relations and eventually consultancy.
In the latter part of his career, he worked with directors at Amsys (now Moof IT) to expand and develop their professional services department, delivering and managing technical projects.
He saw through the entire project from initial discussions, to technical planning and delivery, as well as long term support.
Along with Ben Toms (Technical Director) and other pillars of the Apple community, Darren helps to run London Apple Admins, and is keen to share his technical knowledge through a range of blogs.
During downtime, he is your typical geek and can be found with his head in books, both of the comic and traditional variety, video games and television shows.
When he does venture out, you’ll find him happy in his local, ale in hand.
Petra is dataJAR’s senior marketing executive so takes care of the management of our campaigns and industry presence.
Originally from Hungary, she has been in the UK for more than seven years. Completing her bachelor’s degree as an economist in commerce and marketing in Hungary, she went onto achieve a master’s degree in marketing, branding and communications right here in Brighton.
With four years’ experience as a marketing executive under her belt prior to joining dataJAR, Petra is our resident expert when it comes to email marketing, analytics, lead generation, event organisation, website and SEO management.
Away from work Petra’s favourite pastimes are eating, playing guitar (although she suspects she enjoys it more than those listening), visiting castles and watching horror movies.
With 12 years’ experience in IT support on his CV, outstanding customer service comes naturally to James.
His career began supporting and training customers to use bespoke POS systems. He then moved into the education sector and used his skills to assist students, teachers and academics with their IT requests.
James’s roles within education started at secondary level then, later, in Higher Education at the University of Surrey, where he worked for six years.
Throughout his career, he has gained a solid understanding of the challenges IT professionals face within the education sector. Having experienced the benefits of dataJAR’s service first hand, he was excited to join the team and has been welcomed with open arms.
Away from the support desk, James is a busy dad of two young children and has a passion for music. He loves writing and used to perform in a number of bands, playing everything from funk to jazz. Ask him nicely and he might just give you a tune.
Neil brings 15 years experience of working in the Higher Education sector to the dataJAR team. He specialised in the technical support of music technology, later moving into IT training then managing Macs and mobile devices. Neil has worked with Apple devices on some level since 2004 and is also an Apple Certified Trainer for Logic Pro.
He is particularly passionate about provisioning workflows, especially for lab environments, which now pose unique challenges following the demise of imaging-based processes.
You can find Neil on the Mac Admins Slack as one of the team admins there (@neilmartin83), where he helps to keep things ticking over. You may also know him through his blog Sound Mac Guy.
If that is not enough, he also works with dataJAR's Ben Toms and Darren Wallace, alongside other members of the community, to organise meet ups for London Apple Admins.
Away from work, Neil enjoys being at home with his wife, four kids and their menagerie of pets. He loves music, particularly prog rock (don't get him started on Spock's Beard!) and plays guitar (badly, in his opinion). He also finds time to dabble in a little motorcycle mechanics.
Sanchi has been supporting end users and administrating Macs for a decade and working in IT for 15 years. After trying the Amstrad, Commodore 64, BBC and RM Nimbus, he first experienced the Apple platform aged 11 thanks to his father, who was a graphic designer and illustrator.
Starting his career as a web and graphic designer for blue chip clients, then as a mobile video editor and award-winning social entrepreneur, Sanchi later moved into the IT arena and his love of Macs remained constant throughout.
Outside of work, the Mac has been a great outlet for his own creativity in art and music production and Sanchi enjoys passing that passion onto others whenever he can, to help them translate their own ideas into reality.
He has an eclectic taste in music from synthwave to rap to chillout, and in his downtime he can be found editing existing music and creating his own. He is also an avid football fan and long time supporter of (the mighty) Liverpool FC.
Theo is an outgoing individual who has always enjoyed socialising and interacting with people. He has worked in various service industries for the past four years allowing him to hone his interpersonal skills.
In a previous role, he became the youngest ever supervisor on the team, giving him the opportunity to manage others and grow as a person. His natural energy and enthusiasm make him an effective communicator and dataJAR is excited to have him on board.
Theo has travelled America and was lucky enough to witness a full solar eclipse in Wyoming and has camped on the famous Bonneville Salt Flats - character building stuff.
A big fan of cookery programmes, he is keen to improve his culinary skills, especially since he has recently moved into a new flat with a friend. Theo’s other passions include motorbikes, football, tennis and snowboarding, plus of course his girlfriend, his mates and the pub.
Based in Sydney, Australia, my career started within the media and post production industry, designing and building recording studios and post production facilities. This is where my experience with Apple technologies began.
I later joined Apple as a post production specialist working closely with the pro apps team and promoting Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server and XSAN.
When Apple first launched the iPhone, I began building out channel partner capabilities to be self sufficient, allowing me to focus on iOS.
I subsequently joined the enterprise team as an iOS business development engineer, helping organisations transform their business with mobility and app based workflows - empowering users with a personal and intuitive technology experience, efficiently transforming their way of working.
Returning to the UK, I joined IBM in London as a senior mobility and digital workplace transformation consultant, focussed on the Apple and IBM partnership. During my time at IBM I was fortunate to be part of the team involved with the now infamous Mac@IBM story.
I am passionate about building partner relationships and developing capabilities to ensure the effective execution of businesses digital transformation.
On a personal note, my family and I returned to the UK five years ago to be closer to loved ones. Away from work, the majority of my time is taken up with my two daughters’ various clubs and activities.
When I get a moment, I enjoy road cycling as a member and treasurer of Cycle Club Luton. I also love motorsport, travel, music production and DJing - and I make a mean pizza.
Gemma brings a wealth of operational and administrative experience to the dataJAR team.
Having started her career as a business and administration apprentice, working for a leading public address and voice alarm manufacturer, her determination to succeed saw her move swiftly upwards within the company.
Landing a role within the sales team, Gemma liaised with customers all over the world and regularly attended exhibitions in the UK and Europe.
Now an important part of the operations team here, her focus and drive make her a real gem in the dataJAR crown.
See what we did there?
Away from work, Gemma loves a snuggle with her cat in front of the TV. She is also a demon when it comes to playing competitive PC video games and loves to go out with her family to shoot some targets with her recurve bow, rewarding her efforts with a GnT in the pub afterwards.
Callum’s love affair with IT began in the late Nineties, when he started building computers with his friend in his bedroom. His time was spent tearing them down, breaking them and then working to buy new components to replace the ones he had broken.
What started as a hobby led him to Linux and this helped him land his first role in IT. To date his career has spanned 14 years, first as a Linux administrator and later in desktop support where he was exposed to the Apple ecosystem.
For the past decade, Callum has been working within the Apple space managing, supporting and delivering Apple projects for universities, government departments and financial institutions.
Away from the grindstone, he is an avid film fan and enjoys reading Manga and watching Anime. He loves cooking and baking, but spends a large amount of his free time gaming with friends.
Graduating from the University of Plymouth in 2019, Rob did not hesitate in diving straight into the technical industry, wanting to put his skills to the test immediately.
While slick and intuitive front-end development was his key drive into programming, he also has a substantial amount of both back-end and middleware development experience too.
Rob has had the opportunity to work within many different industries, ranging from healthcare to geology, each of which exposed him to a varied mix of methodologies, procedures and personalities.
Rob is an upbeat, bubbly individual who is always excited to try new things. He spends his free time either on the rugby pitch, throwing a frisbee or chilling out on a beach.
