Executive Directors

John Nichols (Chief Executive)

After an early career in the RAF, John entered the leisure industry with the Rank Organisation where he held several senior executive positions. John joined H&T as Managing Director in 1997 and subsequently became Chief Executive. He has been instrumental in developing and implementing the business strategy and delivering consistent growth in revenues and profitability. He has also been instrumental in the initiative to obtain the ISO9001 and Investors in People accreditations.

Alex Maby

Alex has spent his career in a variety of financial management and corporate finance roles, gaining experience within both public and private markets and across banking and industry and commerce. He previously worked in Macquarie’s private equity division where he served a number of roles for various portfolio companies, including Chief Financial Officer and Board Director. Prior to this he worked for Mapeley plc as Head of Financial Engineering, playing a major role in both the refinancing and flotation of the business. Early in his career he was an equity analyst at ING Barings and trained at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he gained his Chartered Accountant status. Alex joined H&T in February 2009.

Stephen Fenerty

Stephen has pursued a variety of management roles in the alternative credit sector. Prior to joining H&T, Stephen worked for The Money Shop (part of Dollar Financial, Inc.) where he was responsible for new product development introducing, amongst others, foreign exchange, unsecured loans and loans brokerage. Stephen joined H&T in March 2005 as Commercial Director where he has launched the pre-paid debit card and utilised his expertise in credit management and debt collection. He is responsible both for the project management and implementation of new product initiatives and for origination and execution of new store acquisitions.

Non-Executive Directors

Peter McNamara

Peter spent the majority of his career with Lloyds Bank plc, as Chief Manager for strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and then as the Managing Director of Personal Banking. He subsequently served as Group Managing Director of the Alliance & Leicester plc and Chief Executive of Wesleyan Assurance Society, a mutual life insurance business. In 2002 he left to become Chairman and subsequently Executive Chairman of Moneybox plc, the leading ATM deployer operating in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, which he led to flotation on AIM.

He is presently Executive Chairman of Notemachine.

Malcolm Berryman

Malcolm is currently a Non-Executive Director at Scottish Friendly Assurance and runs his own consultancy business primarily involved in life and general insurance. Between 1990 and 2005, he was Chief Executive of two Insurers, Liverpool Victoria and Crown Financial Management. He qualified as an Actuary in 1983.

James Thornton

James Thornton is currently  a Director at Strand Partners, a position he has held since 2009. Previously James held senior positions with Lord Ashcroft KCMG associated companies – Anne Street Partners and Global Health Partner plc. He has more than fifteen years of experience in UK financial services including UK Finance Director at Old Mutual plc and as Head of Foreign Exchange at IFX plc. James is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and has attended Harvard Business School. He is a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge University where he obtained a MA (Hons) in Classics and Law.