Our People

David Puttnam is the chair of Atticus Education, an online education company based in Ireland. Atticus, through a unique arrangement with BT Ireland, delivers interactive seminars on film and a variety of other subjects to educational institutions around the world.

David spent thirty years as an independent producer of award-winning films including The Mission, The Killing Fields, Local Hero, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone and Memphis Belle. His films have won ten Oscars, 25 Baftas and the Palme D’Or at Cannes. From 1994 to 2004 he was Vice President and Chair of Trustees at the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) and was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in 2006.

He retired from film production in 1998 to focus on his work in public policy as it relates to education, the environment, and the creative and communications industries. In 1998 he founded the National Teaching Awards, which he chaired until 2008, also serving as the first Chair of the General Teaching Council from 2000 to 2002. From July 2002 to July 2009 he was president of UNICEF UK, playing a key role in promoting UNICEF’s advocacy and awareness objectives. In October 2013 David stepped down as Chancellor of the Open University a post he was appointed to in 2006, following ten years as Chancellor of The University of Sunderland.

He is Digital Champion for Ireland, President of the Film Distributors’ Association, Chairman of the TSL Advisory Board, Chair of the Academic Board, Pearson College, a UNICEF Ambassador, and Adjunct Professor of Film Studies and Digital Humanities at University College Cork.

He was Deputy Chairman of Channel 4 Television from 2006 until January 2012, and Chairman of North Music Trust (The Sage Gateshead) from 2007 until November 2012 . He was founding Chair of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and chaired both the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television and the National Film and Television School for ten years. He has also served as a trustee of the Tate Gallery, the Science Museum, the Thomson Foundation and many other organisations.

In 2007 he was appointed Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Draft Climate Change Bill, having performed the same role on the 2002 Communications Bill.

He has been Chairman of two Hansard Society Commission Reports on the relationship between Parliament and the Public and has served as a non-executive director on a number of public companies.

David was awarded a CBE in 1982, a knighthood in 1995 and was appointed to the House of Lords in 1997. In France he was made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1985, becoming an Officer in 1992, and a Commander in 2006. He has been the recipient of more than 40 honorary degrees from Universities in the UK and overseas.

He was most recently appointed the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Burma.

Member, AKLO Capital Advisory Board: Until June 2012, David Clayton was Group Director of Strategy and Corporate Development for the Sage Group plc. Sage is a global provider of business software applications and services to small and medium sized enterprises. The company is ranked around 80 in the FTSE 100 with a market capitalisation of around £3.5bn. David assumed this full time Executive role in October 2007 and was a member of the plc Board. He was originally appointed to the Board in June 2004 as a non-Executive Director and also served as a member of the Audit Committee and the Remuneration Committee, in addition to being Senior Independent non-Executive Director.

Prior to joining the Sage Board in 2004, Mr. Clayton was Managing Director and Head of European Technology Research at Credit Suisse First Boston in London. In this role he was responsible for building and leading a team of equity analysts who provided research coverage of companies such as SAP, Nokia, Alcatel, Siemens, Philips, Cap Gemini among many others. The team was ranked first by Institutional Investor magazine for its research each year from 2000 until 2004. David’s own sector coverage was software. He joined CSFB via their acquisition of BZW in 1997. Having left CSFB in March 2004, in addition to the role at Sage, David also served on the Boards of Riverdeep, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and two small private software businesses. David is currently non-Executive Chairman of SDL plc having previously been Chairman of the Audit Committee, SDL is a world leader in language based Global Information Management. He is Chairman of market leading email archiving vendor, Cryoserver. David sits on the Board of Rise China as an independent non-executive Director and serves on the Alumni Advisory Committee for the business school at Sheffield University

Rob Rooney was appointed CEO of London tech company HyperJarin January 2023, three months after he joined the Board.

As HyperJar CEO, Rob is leveraging his extensive industry knowledge and technology expertise to lead the growth stage and global roll out of this award-winning platform. In addition to designing and executing the strategy, Rob is building investor and B2B partnerships. He is also expanding the world class team of founders and highly experienced professionals to ensure that HyperJar delivers cutting edge innovation, operational excellence, and platform resilience.

Previously, Rob spent over 30 years at Morgan Stanley in several senior executive roles, including 10 years on the Firmwide Operating Committee. Most recently, Rob was the Global Head of Technology, Operations, and Firm Resilience, where he led a comprehensive, firmwide transformation centered around technology, data, and workforce modernisation. Responsible for Morgan Stanley’s largest organisation (35,000 staff), he drove rapid change, including directing a complex and innovative Cloud journey and a strategic partnership with Microsoft. Rob also organised the firmwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic, transitioning 100,000 global employees to work-from-home while maintaining platform stability and performance during record volumes of activity and then bringing them back.

As the CEO of Morgan Stanley International, Rob led the firm’s UK and EMEA businesses through the tumultuous period following Brexit. He directed a significant restructuring of the global business to meet the firm’s business objectives within the new regulatory requirements. Rob held various roles within the Fixed Income, Equity, and Capital Markets businesses, ultimately serving as the Co-Global Head of Fixed Income, co-leading a team of 2,000 through the successful, post-GFC restructuring of Morgan Stanley’s largest balance sheet and risk book. He also served as a Board Director for Morgan Stanley International.

Rob is a Board Member and Chair of the Development Committee for The Jed Foundation, the largest charity in the US focused on mental health and suicide prevention for young people. Rob’s work with the Foundation and Morgan Stanley contributed to the establishment of the Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health.

A UK- and US-passport holder, Rob currently lives in London with his wife, Corinne.

Headed up Ogilvy Public Relations in Ireland . Chair of RTE, Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster from 2006 to 2009. First woman President of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. Completed 7 year term as Chair of Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute in December 2011. 2012 completed Advanced Leadership Fellowship at Harvard. Highly experienced non executive director of a number of regulated financial services companies including Canada Life Ireland and Europe, ICS Building Society, London Life & General Reinsurance and, latterly, Irish Life Assurance until December 2018. Currently, a non executive director of 4D Global Energy. and Irish Landmark Trust. Former pro bono directorships include Cheshire Homes, the Gate Theatre and Opera Ireland.

David Mulville is a technology entrepreneur with interests in education, healthcare and the sports fintech sectors. David is currently Chair of Dataflow International group, which includes Dataflow Learning Ltd and Dataflow MedTech Ltd. He is a director and CFO of Swiss based sports ticketing ERP business Tixstock SA. He has been a corporate finance executive for most of his career including senior roles in Riverdeep Group, EMPG, Solidere and the Irish Stock Exchange.

Derron Slonecker is a Partner at Ducera Partners. Derron has over thirty years of experience working on a variety of restructuring and strategic advisory assignments across a broad range of industries.

Prior to forming Ducera, he was a Partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, U.S. Head of its Restructuring Practice, and Co-Chair of its Fairness Opinion Committee. Previously, Derron was a Founding Partner of Kramer Capital Partners. Prior to Kramer Capital Partners, he was a Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey and a member of its Operating Committee.

Derron earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Washington.