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

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.

Fergus Reid - Senior Developer

Fergus is the dad of the company and with his age it's fair to say that he brings an equal amount of wisdom and a little maturity. Fergus's background is vast and pre Urban Element he has worked for the MOD (he'd tell you about it but having to kill clients is an obvious faux pas), been a professional sound engineer and taken the time to teach himself all the way to a MCSE qualification. Fergal is also very much the pedagogue of the development team and with him in the office every day is a school day for us all. He certainly knows his stuff and has an unhealthy obsession for chocolate based cake products.

fergus@urbanelement.com

Tim Vaines - Consultant

Tim founded Urban Element in 2003 before resigning as MD in January 2010. It is fair to say that his commitment and entrepreneurial drive were key factors in its success. Tim now works in a consultancy capacity with Urban Element.

tim@urbanelement.com

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

Chris Avery - SEO Executive 

Chris has been working in Web Design and Search Engine Optimisation for over 4 years. Since studying an HND at Brighton University he has worked on a number of freelance projects for a number of different clients. Before he started with Urban Element he was working for a company called AEI Security and was heading up Search Engine Optimisation and the company’s Internet presence as well as working alongside the graphic designer. He achieved many top rankings for a number of different websites while working with AEI Security and helped to increase Search Engine popularity and their internet presence.

chris@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.

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

Alex Minchin - SEO Specialist 

Alex is the latest recruit to join the team (July 09), contributing over 4 years experience in SEO and online marketing to Urban Element. His main focus is climbing those Search Engine ladders!

His background in SEO and web marketing stemmed from his very first project making a website for some family friends and he hasn’t looked back since. Alex has achieved top rankings with a number of keywords, and has driven tens of thousands of visitors to an array of different niches and industries.

Alex isn’t just an SEO head; he graduated with a 2:1 in graphic design, likes to make things look good, and loves the whole online marketing industry. Aside from the computer, Alex likes to balance his life by keeping fit, eating good food and chilling out to a movie!