Meet the Team

The Urban Element team are a small but perfectly formed bunch. Each member of the team is unique in their own way and are loved for their diversity.

We believe that our past experiences and the differences in our backgrounds contributes highly to our success as innovators and aids us in our creativity.

Jon Ellard - Managing Director

Jon is the driving force behind Urban Element, directing our operations and building strong relationships with our clients. He likes nothing better than meeting new clients while maintaining close contact with established customers.

Jon possesses excellent people skills and also brings considerable marketing experience to his role. Moreover he possesses the valuable ability to explain technically-complex subjects and make them comprehensible. He is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a qualified Professional Trainer. He is also a registered consultant on The National Business Link Consultants Register.

jon@urbanelement.com

Fergus Reid - Operations Director

Fergus has recently become a Director at Urban Element having been the Senior developer for the last four years. 

Fergus has developed and project managed two enterprise level applications whilst at UE. One an environment health and safety collection and reporting tool for Smiths PLC, the other a health and safety training delivery and reporting platform used by several large investment banks.

He originally studied electrical and electronic engineering at Bristol, after which he joined an independent sound studio in London. Having developed as a sound engineer he then moved back to a more technical role, first travelling widely for Solid State Logic as product specialist and troubleshooter, and then as an engineer working on an 8 channel surround sound "internet" recorder for the company's large format mixing consoles. 

He loves going camping with Sophie and the littles Alex and Evie but also sneaks off  for the occasional bike trip to the Isle of Man.     

fergus@urbanelement.com

Malcolm Maclean - Creative Director

Malcolm, a self pronounced CSS guru, is the creative force behind Urban Element. As a founding member, and our Creative Director, Mal has his finger on the pulse as to what's hot and what's not in internet design. Malcolm's skills lie not only in producing a multitude of designs (some contemporary, some corporate and some off the wall) but he is also accomplished at CSS and designing websites which conform to web-based standards.

malcolm@urbanelement.com

Bob Bradley

Bob joined Urban Element in July 2009 as a Non Executive Director to help guide Urban Element on a strategic level.

Bob is a specialist in running high value added service businesses, having run 5 such businesses as General Manager, Managing Director or Chief Executive.  He left Computeach International, a £16M, 200 person family owned business in July 08 having previously run Xpertise Group plc, an AIM listed company which he grew from £4M to £12M in 3 years through two acquisitions and organic growth, and QA Training a corporate subsidiary where he was responsible for delivering £10M profit on £45M turnover through 450 staff.

Lizzie Green – Project Manager

Lizzie helps get your projects running smoothly!

Lizzie has wide experience of project management having previously worked within educational publishing, managing the creation of print and e-learning resources – while more recently working in the web design and development sector.

Organisation is Lizzie’s middle name. Well, actually her middle name is Anne, but she is certainly capable of making sure that the projects Urban Element undertakes on your behalf run smoothly and accurately! She’s even had her organisational skills officially recognized with a Prince2 qualification.

As an experienced team player Lizzie demonstrates commitment and dedication to every aspect of a project and all its resources. But perhaps most importantly, Lizzie possesses excellent people skills, enabling her to engage in clear communication with colleagues and clients alike.

Now you can rely on Lizzie Green as Urban Element’s Project Manager to help keep you informed about project developments and ensure that your web projects remain on track and on target.

Jonathan Soffe - Senior Graphic Designer 

Jonathan is the Senior Graphic Designer at Urban Element, as well as supporting Malcolm through his abilities in front-end web design. Prior to joining Urban Element he spent over 18 years in the publishing and design industry.

Jonathan is well versed in Adobe Creative Suite having delivered brand development, illustration, graphic design and web design for some well known names such as Coca Cola (UK), Willmott Dixon Group, Oxfam, Oxford City Council and Shepherd & Woodward.

Working with such clients has given Jonathan an insightful appreciation of branding and corporate identity, which he now brings to the clients of Urban Element helping new businesses develop their corporate identity through logo design, stationary packages and print marketing and existing businesses by bringing a fresh perspective to promoting a well established name.

jonathan.soffe@urbanelement.com

Richard Howe - Web Designer

Since attending Oxford Brookes in 2005, Richard has worked as a web developer at Sparks Computer Solutions, heading their design activities and building sites for clients such as Elsevier Science and Oxford Orthopaedic Biomedical Engineering. More recently he has been in an I.T. development role at Tex Automotive, a Witney based company which manufactures classic car parts. Richard has joined Urban Element to assist Creative Director Malcolm Maclean in a web design role.

richard@urbanelement.com

Mark Lyne– Graphic/Web Designer

Mark has joined the Urban Element team as our Graphic/Web Designer to support Jonathan in the design team.

With over 10 years of graphic design and marketing experience working at agencies in Oxfordshire and Manchester, Mark has a wide range of design and strong CSS skills.   Having previously worked on brands like Bank of Scotland, Halifax, Paddy Power Bookmakers, Karcher, Four Pillars Hotel Group and Sportsworld creating concepts and designs for integrated marketing and design briefs, Mark brings a fresh creative flare to our web designs, branding and corporate identity services.

Nicola Stasyszyn - Online Marketing Specialist

Nikki is one of the newest recruits in the SEO department at Urban Element. She graduated from Loughborough University in 2008 with a 2:1 in Information Management and Business Studies.

Nikki has previous experience in SEO implementation which stemmed from an online marketing position where she undertook projects to improve existing company websites and intranet sites which involved using natural search and working with Google on Pay Per Click (PPC) projects. She has also been in a customer facing role where she set up and tailored IT systems within car dealerships. This also involved training employees by holding group training sessions, one-on-one training and creating bespoke user documentation.  

Outside of work Nikki enjoys football, badminton and karate as well as music.

Andrew Stewart - Developer

Andrew is a keen .NET developer with strong C# skills and an engineering background. Previous work includes several .NET driven websites and a Content Management System for the UK's largest independent tyre wholesaler ‘Mitcheldever’. He has also worked on an online 360° performance management platform for a firm of business consultants specialising in Leadership Coaching, and has supplied technical support to a leading producer of training materials for the pharmaceutical industry. Andrew moved into web development after several years in the electronics industry (including Siemens and Oxford Instruments). Andrew’s primary role is to provide maintenance and support to one of Urban Element’s largest clients.

andrew@urbanelement.com

 Witold Paprotny - Developer

Witold’s contribution to the Company, beside Polish culture, is four years of previous development experience, specializing in web development and database administration. Witold is educated to M.Sc. level acquired from the Wroclaw Technical University in Poland where he specialized in Internet Engineering. Before joining Urban Element he worked in Eurosoft Invent acquiring commercial experience and knowledge about database design and .NET Development.

witold@urbanelement.com

Sasha Lantukh

Sasha has just moved to Oxford to work as a web designer for Urban Element. He has got over 7 years of experience working with a diverse array of clients, ranging from freelance designers and advertising companies to dedicated web design agencies.

Sasha's main areas of expertise are brand and website development using the latest technologies in industry.

Aside from his work as a graphic and web designer he has got a wide spectrum of skills. He is a professional English-to-Russian and Ukrainian language translator and has experience in portrait photography.

In his free time he loves to travel, read books and blogs, take pictures and enjoy good food... amongst other pursuits.

Katie - Online Marketing Specialist

Katie is a recent recruit to the Online Marketing department at Urban Element. Graduating with a First in Creative Advertising, Katie spent her time at university on placements at some of London and New York’s top advertising agencies and has gained several industry awards.

Katie joins Urban Element after interning at Oxfam where she was responsible for the creation and implementation of Oxjam’s online communication strategy as well as the management of their social networking sites. Social media is an area Katie has a particular passion for having written a dissertation on the subject as well as maintaining an active presence on her personal blogs and social networking sites.

When she’s not blogging Katie enjoys going to and performing at local gigs, taking pictures on old film cameras and collecting vintage bikes.

Nicola Gargan

From supporting Jon in his role as MD to testing websites prior to launch, Nikki will support the Urban Element team members to ensure they can concentrate on doing what they do best – meeting your requirements! She will most often answer the phone, and will do her best to help with any queries you may have. Nikki has a wealth of experience across a variety of industries from printing and publishing to manufacturing and e-procurement.

Away from work, Nikki tries to run regularly (fair weather only!), enjoys cooking, and is training as a holistic massage therapist.