Our Leaders
Meet the team of talented, experienced individuals whose leadership guides Promethean into a bright future of innovation and success.
Graham Howe (Chairman)
Graham Howe became Promethean’s chairman in July 2005. He was the co-founding director of Orange, having joined with Hans Snook in 1992 to plan the strategy that led to the launch of Orange in April 1994. Initially as Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Howe led Orange’s debut flotation in March 1996. In June 1996, Orange became the youngest company ever to enter the FTSE 100, with Mr. Howe as one of the youngest ever FTSE 100 Finance Directors.
Whilst at Orange, Mr. Howe was also Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer before leaving in 2003. Previously, Mr. Howe held senior positions at Hutchison Telecom, First Pacific Company and Touche Ross Management Consultants. He has also served on the board of Cable and Wireless PLC as Senior Independent Director.
Mr. Howe is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Birmingham.
Jean-Yves Charlier (Chief Executive Officer)
Jean-Yves Charlier joined Promethean in 2007. Prior to joining Promethean, Mr. Charlier served as CEO of Colt Telecommunications, the alternative business telecommunications company in which Fidelity holds a majority stake. After leading the turn-around of Colt from losses of €200 million into profit and strengthening the business with a €450 million equity offer, he returned to Fidelity International as a Managing Director.
Before his tenure at Fidelity International, Mr. Charlier served as Chief of Operations of BT Global Services, and prior to that he was President, Marketing and Sales, at Equant, a global telecoms network services company. He is currently a member of the Vivendi SA Supervisory Board and has held board positions with several companies including Colt Telecommunications and Radianz, a Reuters joint venture.
Mr. Charlier holds a Bachelor of Arts (summa cum laude) from the American College in Paris and an MBA from the Wharton Business School.
Neil Johnson (Chief Financial Officer)
Neil Johnson joined Promethean in November 2005 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Promethean, Mr. Johnson was Group Financial Controller at British Energy Group PLC during its financial restructuring and re-listing to the FTSE 250. Mr. Johnson also held the position of Finance Director at Teradyne Inc., a leading global supplier of electronic test equipment.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Johnson was European Finance Director for GenRad Inc., and held various senior Finance positions at Courtaulds PLC, both in Europe and the United States, and at Deloitte in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Mr. Johnson holds a First-Class Honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Aston University and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Lord Puttnam (Senior Independent Director)
David Puttnam, Lord Puttnam, CBE, was appointed a non-executive director of Promethean in September 2006. Lord Puttnam was the first Chancellor of the University of Sunderland from 1997 until 2007, when he moved on to became Chancellor of the Open University. In 1998, he founded the National Teaching Awards and became its first Chairman—retiring in 2008. From 2000-02 he served as the inaugural Chair of the General Teaching Council. Prior to that he had served for 10 years as Chairman of the National Film and Television School, and also founded Skillset, which trains young people for careers across the whole of the audio-visual sector.
He is currently a trustee of the think tank, The Institute for Public Policy Research, and the Eden Project having also served on the foundation board of the World Economic Forum. In 2002, he was elected President of UNICEF UK. He was awarded a CBE in 1983, a knighthood in 1995 and was created a life peer in 1997.
Tony Cann (Non-executive Director)
Tony Cann is the founder and was the first chairman of Promethean until July 2005. He is also chairman of several other private companies, a Trustee of The Ruskin Foundation, member of the Strategy Board of the Institute of Effective Education at the University of York, and Trustee of the Bowland Charitable Trust.
Mr. Cann has served as a Director of the University for Industry, a Governor of Nelson and Colne College, a member of the National Advisory Council for Education and Training Targets (NACETT), Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes Committee at Lancaster University, as the founding Chairman of the East Lancashire Training and Enterprise Council (ELTEC), and a founder member of the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC).
Mr. Cann was awarded the CBE for his work in education and training, and has received an Honorary Doctorate from Lancaster University.
Philip Rowley (Non-executive Director)
Philip Rowley is Chairman of HMV Group plc, and a non-executive director of ARM Holdings PLC, and Misys PLC. He is also Chairman of Livestation Limited and Pouncer Media Limited. Mr. Rowley held a number of roles in AOL Europe, the Internet services provider, from May 2001 to February 2007, becoming Chairman and CEO. He was Group Finance Director of Kingfisher PLC from 1998 to 2000, and Deputy Chief Executive and Finance Director of Kingfisher’s General Merchandise Division from 2000 to 2001. Previous roles include Executive Vice President and CFO of EMI Music Worldwide.
Mr. Rowley is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Imperial College, London.
Dante Roscini (Non-executive Director)
Dante Roscini is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. Mr. Roscini spent 20 years in investment banking and was Head of European Capital Markets for Goldman Sachs, Head of Global Equity Capital Markets and Head of the European Capital Markets and Financing Group for Merrill Lynch where he was also a member of the Capital Commitments Committee and of the Managing Directors Promotions Committee. Mr. Roscini was Country Head of Italy and Chairman of European Capital Markets for Morgan Stanley and a board member of Morgan Stanley International Bank.
Mr. Roscini holds an MBA from Harvard and a summa cum laude Laurea degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Rome, Italy.
Jean-Yves Charlier (Chief Executive Officer)
Jean-Yves Charlier joined Promethean in 2007. Prior to joining Promethean, Mr. Charlier served as CEO of Colt Telecommunications, the alternative business telecommunications company in which Fidelity holds a majority stake. After leading the turn-around of Colt from losses of €200 million into profit and strengthening the business with a €450 million equity offer, he returned to Fidelity International as a Managing Director. Before his tenure at Fidelity International, Mr. Charlier served as Chief of Operations of BT Global Services, and prior to that he was President, Marketing and Sales, at Equant, a global telecoms network services company. He is currently a member of the Vivendi SA Supervisory Board and has held board positions with several companies including Colt Telecommunications and Radianz, a Reuters joint venture. Mr. Charlier holds a Bachelor of Arts (summa cum laude) from the American College in Paris and an MBA from the Wharton Business School.
Neil Johnson (Chief Financial Officer)
Neil Johnson joined Promethean in November 2005 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Promethean, Mr. Johnson was Group Financial Controller at British Energy Group PLC during its financial restructuring and re-listing to the FTSE 250. Mr. Johnson also held the position of Finance Director at Teradyne Inc., a leading global supplier of electronic test equipment. Earlier in his career, Mr. Johnson was European Finance Director for GenRad Inc., and held various senior Finance positions at Courtaulds PLC, both in Europe and the United States, and at Deloitte in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Paul Pickup (Chief Operating Officer)
Paul Pickup has been with Promethean from its inception. As Chief Operating Officer, he is responsible for globalizing all operation functions, including manufacturing, supply chain, logistics and service and customer support. Mr. Pickup has led the operations team through extensive growth and advanced the manufacturing capabilities from the production of 500 systems in 1999 to approximately 180,000 in 2010. During 2004 to 2005, Mr. Pickup was responsible for the establishment and development of the factory and manufacturing operation in Shenzhen. In 2008, he led the transition of the UK manufacturing process into the Shenzhen facility. This established the Shenzhen factory as Promethean’s global manufacturing and supply chain hub. Also in 2008, Mr. Pickup led the efforts to continue to globalize the service and support infrastructure and organization with the development of the technical call centers in Blackburn, United Kingdom and Atlanta, Georgia along with service support centers across all the key regions.
Reggy-Charles Degen (Chief Human Capital Officer)
Reggy-Charles Degen joined Promethean in 2007 as Chief Human Capital Officer. Prior to joining Promethean, he spent four years with BT Global Services as Vice President of Human Resources, International Markets. Mr. Degen began his career as a corporate lawyer with the Belgian branch of Allen & Overy law firm and Procter and Gamble. He has held senior executive positions with Xerox and Orange (Mobistar) in Belgium, where he led the Human Resources and General Services functions from start up to a €1.5 billion business. Mr. Degen holds a Masters of Law degree from the Universities of Namur and Louvain in Belgium, International Trade from Brussels University—Coormans Institute and Human Resources Management from Economisch H.S. Sint-Aloysius in Brussels. He is a lecturer at the University of Brussels.
Paul Berry (Chief Marketing Officer)
Paul Berry joined Promethean in 2006 as Managing Director of the UK and Ireland business unit. In February 2008, Mr. Berry took on creation of a European unit, including UK and Ireland. As President of Europe, he was responsible for defining and implementing the sales and marketing strategy for this region. In August of 2010 he took on the role of Chief Marketing Officer based in the US. Before joining Promethean, Mr. Berry was Executive Director of Compel PLC and Managing Director of Compelsolve Ltd., where he was responsible for managing the company’s existing hardware implementation business and creating software and solution revenue streams. Mr. Berry was also responsible for building Europe’s largest Oracle solutions implementer in a five-year span, winning 15 major awards in the process. Earlier, Mr. Berry held a variety of sales, marketing and general management posts in the automotive and IT hardware and service sectors with companies such as Bull IS, GKN Vandervell and Unipart. Mr. Berry holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Hull and a post-graduate diploma in Marketing from the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Jim Wynn (Chief Education Officer)
Jim Wynn joined Promethean in April 2010 as Chief Education Officer, responsible for the company’s education strategy. Prior to joining Promethean, Mr. Wynn led the Public Sector and Education team in the Emerging Markets Public Sector Practice of the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, where he advised government and public sector organizations on the intelligent use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to transform education. Previously, Mr. Wynn held various positions including Head Teacher of two secondary schools in the UK, where he pioneered the use of ICT, Head of Research at RM PLC, and Partners in Learning lead for EMEA at Microsoft. Mr. Wynn holds a First-Class Honours degree in Mathematics from the University of Hertfordshire. He is a director of the 21st Century Learning Alliance Board in the UK.
Andy Dennis (President of Interactive Display & Collaborative Systems (IDCS)
Andy Dennis joined Promethean at the beginning of 2007 as Chief Technology Officer, leading Promethean’s product and technology innovations function. Prior to Promethean, Mr. Dennis was Group Engineering Director with Radiodetection Limited, an SPX company, specializing in the development and manufacturing of electromagnetic-based location equipment, and opto-mechanical systems for surveying underground pipes. Mr. Dennis’ career began at Philips, where he progressed to senior management positions with Philips Research, Philips Consumer Electronics and to Group Engineering Director at Simoco, responsible for the development of turnkey TETRA radio systems. Mr. Dennis holds a Master’s Degree in Physics from the University of Texas and a First-Class Honours degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Aston, United Kingdom.
Brent Taggart (President of Community and Content (C&C) Product Division)
Brent Taggart joined Promethean in 2007 as Chief Strategy Officer, responsible for defining the company’s long-term strategy, as well as leading the growth of Promethean Planet, the world’s largest online interactive learning technology community. Mr. Taggart spent eight years at Equant, joining in 1996 to lead the company’s strategy function. He developed Equant’s pre-IPO strategy framework and storyline and managed the three-year plan process that grew the company from $300 million to over $1.3 billion. Mr. Taggart has held various executive positions in Europe, including Director Finance and Systems at Unisource Business Networks BV in the Netherlands, Principal Associate at Coopers and Lybrand Management Consultants in London and Senior Director of Strategy at C&W. Mr. Taggart holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of Chicago, a Masters degree from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College in California. He is also a qualified Prince2 Practitioner.
Iwan Streichenberger (President of LRS & Assessment (LRSA) Product Division
Iwan Streichenberger is responsible for product development, marketing and sales strategy for the Learner Response Systems and Assessment Division. Prior to joining Promethean in 2008 as CMO, Mr. Streichenberger served as President of Edusoft, a Houghton Mifflin acquisition, where he led the company’s growth and success in becoming the premier formative assessment company in the United States. Previously, Mr. Streichenberger was Chief Operating Officer of Flipside, Vivendi Universal’s European online gaming portal. When Vivendi Universal acquired Houghton Mifflin, Mr. Streichenberger was actively involved as the educational publisher and entered numerous partnerships with content, services and education players in multiple countries. During that time, Mr. Streichenberger was the Vice President in charge of the strategy, mergers and acquisitions for the company. Mr. Streichenberger began his career as a consultant with Bain and Company and The Boston Consulting Group and spent two years working for L’Oreal in South Africa. Mr. Streichenberger holds a Master’s Degree in Management from ESCP Europe in Paris.
Jim Marshall (President of North American Markets)
Jim Marshall joined Promethean in 2011 as President of North American Markets. He was previously CEO of SpectrumK12, a company that produces software solutions to improve the performance of at-risk and special education students. Mr. Marshall previously held the position of CEO at Agentis Software and took the company through a management buyout to sustained profitability. He has held a number of high-profile executive positions, including Vice President of Apple’s US Education Division and has extensive experience of helping technology companies to build and develop accomplished management, sales, marketing, professional services and channels teams. He is an active member of the Cobb County Education Foundation and Director for the Florida Council on Economic Education, an organization that teaches fundamental finance and business concepts to high school students. Mr. Marshall has received public recognition for his work in education in the states of Michigan, Maine, Florida and Georgia. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management and General Sciences from the University of South Florida.
Mark Elliott (President of Business & Government Division)
Mark Elliott joined Promethean in 2005 as President of North American Markets, following 28 years of experience in sales, marketing and operations for both technical and software organizations. Prior to joining Promethean, Mr. Elliott was a Senior Director of Apple Computer’s Education Division, where he managed all solutions outside of the hardware platform, including Apple Care, Apple Software, Strategic Initiatives, Alliances and Channels. Previously, in his 14 years at Burroughs/Unisys, he was promoted several times within the company, leading ultimately to his appointment as Regional Director of Marketing. Mr. Elliott served as Vice President of Lawson Software’s Retail Division, Vice President of sales, marketing and product management for Education Networks of America and served for a number of years as President for the Americas with the E3 Corporation. Mr. Elliott holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Economics and Master of Science degree in Industrial Management.
Eugene Viskovic (President of International Markets)
Eugene Viskovic joined Promethean in 2008 as President of Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets and President of Promethean International. With over 20 years of experience in technology and telecommunications, before joining Promethean, Mr. Viskovic was Head of Data Centre Services at Colt Telecommunications, where he was responsible for shaping the future strategy of operations and for product management and development, engineering and marketing. As Managing Director at BT, one of the world’s leading communications services companies, he successfully repositioned BT Switzerland in the market as a key supplier for multinational organizations and transformed the company into a key contributor to BT Global Services in Europe. Mr. Viskovic also served as Vice President for Equant’s Integration Services line of business, responsible for delivering Equant’s suite of Integration Services for mission critical networks to more than 800 global companies in 191 countries. Mr. Viskovic holds a Master’s Degree equivalent in International Trade from Ecole d’Administration et Direction des Affaires in Paris, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architecture from Institut Universitaire de Technologie, in Amiens, France.