Board
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Andy Bell
Director & Co-founder
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Jason Belcher
Director & Co-founder
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Paul Massey
Non-Executive Director
Andy Bell
Director & Co-founder
Andy started Vanilla, along with Jason in 2009. His main passion lies in taking complex ideas and concepts and breaking them down into clear and simple pieces that even he can understand! Andy has worked with IFS Applications since 2001, with a functional focus on manufacturing, planning and costing. Andy heads up Vanilla’s US operation as well as co-Directing our UK company.
News Articles
Bring Your Children to Work Day
Dynamics 365 Business Central Partnership
Jason Belcher
Director & Co-founder
Jason founded Vanilla with Andy in 2009 after working on both the consultancy and industry sides of the fence. His vision for Vanilla was to provide a no-nonsense, cost-effective service to users of IFS Applications and to make sure his customers get the best value from their investment.
His role now is making sure that the company grows but maintains the core principles it was founded on. He is determined that we continue to treat our customers as we did our first – like they are our only one.
News Articles
Capital Orchestra Announcement
Bring Your Children to Work Day
Whitworths Upgrade to Qlik Sense
Dynamics 365 Business Central Partnership
Paul Massey
Non-Executive Director
Paul’s role is to guide Vanilla in creating rapid, but low-risk growth and long-term success. He is a pragmatic leader with a legacy of building thriving organisations on foundations of enjoyment and sustainability and believes that durable success begins with strong, motivated employees. Paul brings a rich experience in people development, believing that strong and enthusiastic talent loyal to the company will always benefit a business through both growth and challenge.
He is also thoroughly seasoned in the ERP and business systems world, having spent the last twenty or more years showing how these tools can quickly optimise the potential and value of hundreds of organisations across a wide spread of different industries.
News Articles
Management Team
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Joe DeVroy
Vice President, Sales and Operations
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Paolo Zaino
Global Support Manager
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Frazer Doe
Head of Sales
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Paul Darwin
Head of Consulting
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Mike Hollifield
Head of Technology
Joe DeVroy
Vice President, Sales and Operations
Joe has been around IFS the last 3 years. Coming directly from Partnerships, Joe has extensive knowledge of IFS’ product, positioning, capabilities, and ecosystem within the industry segments Vanilla works with. Because of working with all groups within IFS, Joe is well known throughout the publisher and ecosystem.
Paolo Zaino
Global Support Manager
Paolo has over 30 years of experience in engineering and manufacturing. Having spent the past 10 years implementing and supporting IFS in a multi-national organisation, he understands the important role a well-managed ERP system plays in helping an organisation achieve its strategic goals.
Paolo will continue to improve the 24×7 support offering at Vanilla to maintain its position as the preferred support partner.
Frazer Doe
Head of Sales
Frazer joined Vanilla in 2019 to fulfil a new role as Head of Sales. Prior to Vanilla Frazer has spent 15 years working in the IT Services and software industry, the past 6 years of which have been working exclusively with IFS ERP.
Blog Posts
News Articles
Paul Darwin
Head of Consulting
Paul is an energetic Supply Chain professional with experience working across different industry sectors including Consumer Electronics, Automotive, Distributed Power and Yellow Goods. He has significant Supply Chain and ERP experience, having worked as a Sales and Operations Planning manager including the responsibility for Supply Chain and Operational elements in a full ERP system implementation.
In 2018, Paul was promoted to Head of Consulting, taking charge of all the consulting staff within Vanilla. He’s able to build relationships at all levels within an organisation and ensure our consulting team is working to the high standards we set.
News Articles
Fujichem Continuous Improvement
Charity Challenge 2018 – Yorkshire 3 Peaks Completed
Mike Hollifield
Head of Technology
Mike is an innovative technical consultant, coming from a dedicated industry background he joined the Vanilla consulting team in 2017. Mike has advanced technical ability and fantastic communication skills, allowing him to express his ideas and opinions in a clear and constructive manner to both technical and non- technical members of the businesses we work with.
In 2018 Mike was promoted to Head of Technology, taking responsibility for the development team in Vanilla as well as leading our R&D activities into new technologies.
Blog Posts
The Vanilla Archiving Approach
The Benefit of Scheduling Your Archiving
What is Data Archiving for IFS Applications™?
News Articles
Oxford Biomedica – Vanilla MTD for IFS Case Study
Consulting Team (USA)
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Baltazar Nunez
Consultant
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Angelo Bertola
Consultant
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Erika Bishop
Consultant
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Dawn Wallace
Consultant
Baltazar Nunez
Consultant
With over 19 years of Supply Chain experience, Baltazar joined Vanilla in July 2021. The last 6 years spent implementing IFS v8 and upgrading to v10 in over 12 sites in 7 countries. He has over 15 years of hands-on IFS experience as a super-user in the Manufacturing and Supply Chain areas. He is customer focus and self-driven that enjoys problem solving and assisting users. He has the ability to work confidently in a team or independently; and enjoys challenges and diversity. Baltazar is a fluent Spanish speaker.
Angelo Bertola
Consultant
Hello, My name is Angelo Bertola. I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, where you learn how to skate before you walk thus, my true passion is to follow and stay active playing hockey. I subsequently moved to Southern California, with my wife 21 years ago and we have a 20-year-old son and 15-year-old twin girls.
Professionally, I am an enthusiastic Consultant and specialise in Service & Maintenance. I worked for 19 years at Magnaflow Exhaust products, where we manufactured exhaust systems, and catalytic converters and mufflers. I primarily worked in Service & Maintenance in the last 12 of 17 years with IFS. I also had a hand in Quality and Manufacturing where it helped manage the factory floor and operations.
Erika Bishop
Consultant
Dawn Wallace
Consultant
Working on IFS implementations, Dawn found that learning and teaching IFS is what she was passionate about. The change in career has allowed her to work with clients to help bridge the gap between IFS and their functional needs. Dawn has 30 years’ experience in manufacturing and materials management in the following environments: Aerospace & Defence, Pharmaceuticals, and the food industry.
Consulting Team (UK)
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Caroline King
Lead Consultant
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Christopher Thompson
Graduate Consultant
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Eeman Nazir
Graduate Consultant
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George Armstrong
Consultant
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Karol Pietrzak
Consultant
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Kelly Breakwell
Consultant
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Kelvin Robinson
Consultant
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Gavin Owen
Senior Consultant
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Janine Procter
Senior Consultant
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Tim Boulton
Senior Consultant
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Maria Nikolaidou
Senior Consultant
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Graham Lomas
Senior Consultant
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Stephen Lindsay
Senior Consultant
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Hayley Cairns
Lead Consultant
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Wayne Humphries
Lead Consultant
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Piotr Swierszcz
Lead Consultant
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Andrew Wormald
Lead Consultant
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Tim Hughes
Group Lead - Projects & Maintenance
Caroline King
Lead Consultant
Caroline joined the Vanilla consultancy team having previously been a Business Change Manager for a major UK port authority, responsible for the implementation and ongoing development of IFS. Her breadth of knowledge in IFS spreads across many of the core functional areas. This, coupled with her excellent interpersonal skills, collaborative approach and drive for continuous improvement ensure solutions deliver sustainable business change.
Christopher Thompson
Graduate Consultant
Christopher is a first-class business graduate who was educated in both the UK and Switzerland. Being fresh out of university, Christopher is keen to embark on his professional journey of developing his IFS skillsets to become a strong consulting team member. Prior to joining Vanilla, he gained multiple years of experience in retail and has become well-versed in online learning, ensuring a solid foundation of varied competencies to build an IFS-consultancy career upon.
Eeman Nazir
Graduate Consultant
Eeman is one of our most recent graduate recruits with a degree in Business and Management from the University of Lincoln. She comes from a sales background in the retail sector. Eeman has recently begun her IFS training to accompany her in becoming an established IFS consultant.
George Armstrong
Consultant
George joined us as a business graduate before developing his skills in the IFS industry, allowing him to become an effective and established IFS Consultant.
News Articles
Karol Pietrzak
Consultant
Karol joined us from AMAG Technology where he was database analyst. After initially joining our support team as support analyst, Karol has recently been promoted to Consultant specialising on Finance
Kelly Breakwell
Consultant
Kelly joined Vanilla in 2019 after spending 5 years in the Scientific Research and Development Industry. She is a passionate and enthusiastic Consultant with experience of Implementations, End-User Training and Functional ERP knowledge in the following sectors; Pharmaceuticals, R&D, Food Industry, Aerospace and Engineering, Plastic Extrusion and Furniture Manufacturing. She is enjoying the change in career as this allows her to be involved in the process mapping, continuous improvement, and interactions with people entwined with business change.
Kelvin Robinson
Consultant
Kelvin previously worked in the Automotive Industry for 10 years in a Customer Service and Sales Capacity dealing with global leaders in the OEM Off and On-Road industry.
He has gained a wealth of knowledge of IFS Applications 7.5 and the Sales and Marketing (CRM) module during his career. End-User Training and Functional ERP delivery are one of his key areas, coupled with excellent Customer Service skills allow him to build strong relationships at all levels.
Gavin Owen
Senior Consultant
Gavin joined the Consultancy team at Vanilla in January 2021. Prior to joining Vanilla, Gavin led a business change team delivering a wide range of improvement initiatives for a global engineering practice. He has a profound appreciation of client requirements, having spent over 15 years in Professional Services within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry. Gavin brings excellent critical thinking and analysis skills, teamed with a deep understanding of business process and human behaviour. He is an experienced consultant with a true passion for working with people at all levels to solve business problems. He believes lasting value comes from collaborating directly at a human level.
Janine Procter
Senior Consultant
Janine joined the Vanilla team in 2013 as a Senior Consultant with over ten years’ experience working with IFS Applications. She has previous experience working in Export Logistics for an industrial and medical equipment supplier.
News Articles
Tim Boulton
Senior Consultant
An enthusiastic consultant with a broad range of functional knowledge and a solid background in managing IFS full implementation and enhancement projects. Tim has 7 years’ experience managing complex ERP projects; overseeing requirement capture, solution design, testing and business change. Confident in analysing the needs of a business and understanding quickly how they operate, Tim can recommend solutions and improvements at all levels of an organisation.
Maria Nikolaidou
Senior Consultant
With more than 13 years of international experience working within the manufacturing industry and 12 years of IFS Applications experience, Maria boasts a varied technical and manufacturing background. An IFS Applications specialist who’s capable of handling complex assignments effectively whilst possessing the confidence to work independently or as part of a large team. Maria has worked and lived across the globe and speaks five different languages.
News Articles
Graham Lomas
Senior Consultant
Graham joined the team in 2020 as a Senior Consultant with 5 years’ experience working with IFS Applications in a food manufacturer. Graham has specialised in Service and Maintenance and through robust development incorporated many aspects of the application. Graham is experienced with leading workshops and training end users. Graham has been managing maintenance departments and projects for 20 years.
Stephen Lindsay
Senior Consultant
Stephen has worked in manufacturing businesses for over 10 years and has 5 years functional IFS experience across a wide range of modules. He has led several IFS implementations and directed end to end system pilots, including requirement capture, managing workshops, delivering training and documenting efficient processes. Quickly able to understand a businesses requirements, he can offer improved solutions with a real appreciation of the upstream and downstream requirements.
Hayley Cairns
Lead Consultant
Hayley has joined the Vanilla team as a Lead Consultant with over 13 years’ experience of working with IFS from an end user perspective leading the Finance function, implementing Finance and Supply Chain modules within global implementation projects as well as supporting numerous implementation and upgrade projects as part of the IFS Partner Network. Hayley is a qualified FCCA accountant with strong experience working across both Finance and IT.
Wayne Humphries
Lead Consultant
Prior to joining Vanilla, Wayne has been working with IFS for over 20 years in a number of businesses. These companies have used the full suite of IFS modules, working through the early versions of IFS to the latest versions. He has led new implementations for these businesses as well as for new acquisitions in the UK and overseas. His real value is his understanding of business processes and his ability to link this with the IFS modules and follow these through into the Financials to deliver the Key Drivers for the Companies and their owners.
Piotr Swierszcz
Lead Consultant
Piotr is a dedicated professional with a wide range of experience in systems implementation and business improvement. He adopts a people focussed approach to project engagements to ensure that solutions and improvements deliver sustainable business change. Piotr’s key strength is in developing operational and strategic finance solutions using IFS Applications. Piotr has 24 years’ experience, analysing, designing, configuring and project managing business systems.
Andrew Wormald
Lead Consultant
Andy joined Vanilla from Pukka Pies, where he was Business Systems and Process Manager.
An experienced IT professional, Andy is experienced with managing IT projects. With strong functional and technical skills, he combines his experience of day to day operations with his IFS knowledge around supply chain planning, manufacturing, operational performance recording and monitoring and business analysis.
He is looking forward to the opportunity to interact with Vanilla’s client base to work cooperatively to improve business effectiveness
Tim Hughes
Group Lead - Projects & Maintenance
Tim has 18 years’ experience of requirement capture, solutions design and implementation in a range of businesses. Very confident at leading workshops, analysing processes and recommending improvements. Tim quickly understands different business solutions and is comfortable building relationships across all levels of an organisation.
News Articles
Delivery
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Karen Elliff
Administrator
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Michelle Richardson
Project Manager
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Jenna Mitchell
Project Manager
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Kieran Garry
Project Manager
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Peter Kolton
Project Manager
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Olivia Davies
Project Administrator
Karen Elliff
Administrator
Karen has joined Vanilla as an administrator to our Delivery Team, she has excellent experience in administration having worked as an administrator for a roofing company for the last 15 years. She is looking forward to developing new skills within the Delivery team and Vanilla.
Michelle Richardson
Project Manager
Michelle joined Vanilla in January 2021 and has over 20 years of experience as a business analyst and project manager in Supply Chain Operations and Manufacturing, implementing solutions in Oracle E-business suite for the food and beverage industry. Prior to joining Vanilla and as an independent consultant, she has applied elements of Business Value Engineering and Lean Process design to a chocolate factory, coffee roastery, and a construction company (using Deltek+ComputerEase and associated web apps).
Jenna Mitchell
Project Manager
Jenna joined Vanilla in March 2021 and has previously worked in software for the last 10 years in employee benefit platforms and company intranets. Jenna has delivered a number of successful projects and some of those with tight timeframes. Quickly able to understand the project requirements Jenna enjoys establishing and maintaining relationships with her clients.
Kieran Garry
Project Manager
Kieran joined the Vanilla team in 2014 and in 2017 was promoted to Project Manager within the delivery term. His role is to work closely with the customer and internal teams to manage projects through to successful completion.
News Articles
Peter Kolton
Project Manager
Peter’s IT career started as a software developer having graduated from the University of Hull with a Computer Science degree. He moved into managing the development and delivery of ERP solutions, including IFS, in 2007 after joining a major construction company as Software Development Manager. As a diversion from IT activities, Peter has also obtained an LLB degree in Law and worked as a proofreader for an academic publisher.
Olivia Davies
Project Administrator
Olivia joined Vanilla in 2018 as a Support Analyst. She also manages some small to medium-sized projects. She has previous experience of being an IFS customer & managing a busy IT department with a support desk so knows what customers expect.
News Articles
Support
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Rachael Hinckley
Support Analyst
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Rachel Clifford
Support Analyst
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Claire Valentine
Senior Support Analyst
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Gary Warner
Technical Support Analyst
Rachael Hinckley
Support Analyst
Rachael has been with Vanilla since October 2018 and arrived with 15 years of experience in Supply Chain/Logistics and 6 years of IFS experience. As part of the support team, Rachael thrives on investigating issues and solving customer problems
Rachel Clifford
Support Analyst
Rachel joined the Support Team at Vanilla in 2020, coming from one of our old customers Thompson and Morgan. There she worked with IFS Applications for several years, particularly focusing on Finance and Manufacturing.
News Articles
Claire Valentine
Senior Support Analyst
Claire joined Vanilla’s Support Team in 2017 and as a Senior Support Analyst, enjoys solving the more complex issues that are presented to our support. She has previous experience in the Oil & Gas, Food Packaging and Pharmaceutical industries.
Claire also found and set up our Newcastle office.
News Articles
Gary Warner
Technical Support Analyst
Gary joined Vanilla in 2018 as a Developer. Gary has come from an IFS technical background where he supported a global IFS implementation. Gary likes to resolve problem issues and is keen to learn new skills along the way
Technology
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Aleksandra Bijacik
Technical Consultant
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Steve Bagwell
Technical Consultant
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Neil Carter
Senior Developer
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Chris Elliston
Senior Developer
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Paul Trownson
Senior Developer
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Sean Armstrong
Senior Developer
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Andrew Nicholls
Senior Developer
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Brandon Ellis-Cairns
Developer
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Ian Hannaford
Developer
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Victory Obot
Graduate Developer
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Taiwo Ojolola
Graduate Developer
Aleksandra Bijacik
Technical Consultant
Aleksandra joined Vanilla Technical Team in April 2021. She has nearly a decade of experience in implementing IFS, delivering business enhancements and improving performance by re-engineering business processes, implementing complex custom solutions and in-house applications.
With a background in manufacturing, distribution and inventory management she has a wide range of functional as well as technical and analytical skills.
Always looking for new challenges and opportunities to develop new skills.
Steve Bagwell
Technical Consultant
Steve joined Vanilla in October 2019 as a Technical Consultant. He has a proven record of delivering practical business value and competitive advantage from business systems in manufacturing environments. His executive level, business leadership experience, coupled with a hands-on approach drives the transformation of business processes, data capture and delivery of business intelligence. He is a strong advocate of Lean Manufacturing principles and has the vision to surface the true value that IFS can offer to help businesses achieve world-class standards.
Neil Carter
Senior Developer
Neil joined Vanilla in 2017. He has a broad IFS application knowledge gained in the Manufacturing and Construction sectors in techno-functional roles. His Project Management background allows him to quickly understand customer requirements and interpret these to deliver user-focused technical solutions. He has strong attention to detail and possesses the ability to learn new skills quickly.
Chris Elliston
Senior Developer
Chris joined the technology team as a Developer in July 2019, coming from one of our old customers Thompson & Morgan, who have recently chosen to move away from IFS. He has been working with IFS since 2012 and brings a wealth of experience with him.
Paul Trownson
Senior Developer
Paul joined the Vanilla team in 2013 and has a background in computing. He works across many of our clients as part of the delivery team and is heavily involved in SQL reporting and producing training documentation.
News Articles
Sean Armstrong
Senior Developer
Sean joined Vanilla in December 2020. Sean has a decade of IFS functional and technical experience within the IFS Partner Network. With a background within Inventory Management and Distribution, Sean has an in-depth knowledge of Supply Chain and the variety of technical solutions and products that can be incorporated into those sectors.
Sean has a history of working within project teams providing IFS upgrade and implementations from both a functional and technical perspective giving a deep understanding of the IFS Implementation Methodologies.
Andrew Nicholls
Senior Developer
Andrew is a dedicated professional with a wide range of experience in the technical side of IFS ranging from Data Migrations to PL/SQL. Working within a team, Andrew has excellent communication skills at all levels, using his initiative. His role includes using third party products, NovaCura Flow allowing customers to have a more productive ERP system. Andrew has over 5 years’ technical experience configuring business systems and process improvements.
News Articles
Brandon Ellis-Cairns
Developer
Brandon joined Vanilla in 2014 as a Trainee Consultant and is now a fully-fledged Developer. He has a strong background in technology and wrote Vanilla’s Making Tax Digital software. Away from the Office Brandon has a keen interest in motorsport, gaming and snowboarding.
In 2019, he won the Hull and Humber Young Person in Tech Award.
Blog Posts
News Articles
Ian Hannaford
Developer
Ian graduated in 2019 form De Montfort University with a degree in Cyber Security and has joined us as a graduate developer. He looks forward to learning new skills and developing his understanding of IFS Applications.
News Articles
Victory Obot
Graduate Developer
Victory recently graduated from Brunel University with a first class degree in Computer Science. Having already spent a year on placement as a back-end developer, he is excited to continue improving his skills and gaining industry experience with Vanilla.
Taiwo Ojolola
Graduate Developer
Taiwo recently graduated with a MSc degree in Automation Control and Robotics from Sheffield Hallam university. With a background in computer and network technologies, Taiwo has a keen interest in learning more about the Internet of Things ( IoT) and its benefits towards the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).
Business Development
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Joel Francis
IFS Sales Consultant
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Yvonne Armstrong
Business Development Representative
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Philip Haddon
Account Manager
Joel Francis
IFS Sales Consultant
Prior to joining Vanilla in 2020, Joel has been working within the IFS ecosystem for the past 7+ years, spanning his experience from placing consultants in projects to assisting businesses around the globe in every step of their ERP product lifecycle, including implementations, upgrades, rollouts and support.
Yvonne Armstrong
Business Development Representative
Following a successful career in the Royal Navy, Yvonne entered the world of Sales over 25 years ago, working mostly within the FMCG industry. More recently, Yvonne worked in the IFS Partner Network in a Sales Support capacity where she helped qualify inbound leads and followed up on Marketing campaign activity.
Philip Haddon
Account Manager
Philip joined Vanilla in September 2020 to fulfil a new role as Account Manager for our installed base customers. Prior to joining Vanilla, he has spent over 19 years at IFS UK working in various positions, most recently as a Senior Account Manager. Philip has previous experience in a number of other roles including logistics director, IT manager and as a consultant, selecting and implementing ERP solutions.
HR & Accounts
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Sarah Bartram-Royston
Accounts Manager
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Rachel Belcher
HR
Sarah Bartram-Royston
Accounts Manager
Sarah joined Vanilla in April 2019 as an Accounts Administrator and has recently been promoted to Accounts Manager. She previously worked for a Finance company as an IT Service Desk Coordinator for 20 years and is enjoying her change in career.
Rachel Belcher
HR
Rachel joined Vanilla in 2012 as Payroll Clerk and is now our HR Manager and Mental Health First Aider.