OakNorth strengthens leadership team

By Bridging Loan Directory 5th August 2019

OakNorth, the next-generation credit platform, has today announced the appointment of Jackson Hull as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO).

With over 15 year’s C-suite experience in London and San Francisco, Jackson is a leading expert in building high-volume eCommerce applications, global SaaS platforms, mobile and IoT platforms, as well as award-winning products and services in finance, fintech, travel, accommodation and retail.

Most recently at GoCompare, Jackson completed a data-first transformation of the business, developing analysis, data science, machine learning and data engineering capabilities to personalise the experiences of over 25m customers.

Jackson also serves as an adviser or non-exec director for several companies, including Bloom & Wild, the British florist; Kindred Capital, the London-based VC firm; and, Hubble, the online platform for flexible office space.

He has managed large technology teams globally, including in China, Singapore, India, Ukraine, Europe and South America, and has a Bachelor’s in Engineering from UC Davis and a Master’s in Information Systems from UC Berkeley.

At OakNorth, Jackson will be responsible for all application delivery, including application enhancements and customisations, data science and machine learning, new technology development, and systems integrations.

He will have ownership of the delivery of the portfolio of technology programs and projects across the business and will be focused on the organisation’s current and future-state architecture.

He will also have accountability for the compliance and infrastructure teams as well as pre and post-sales technology support.

Joel Perlman, co-founder of OakNorth, said:

“Jackson has been a technology executive at several institutions, and a founder or early-stage employee at successful startups.

He therefore not only has the knowledge and expertise that will be pivotal for this stage of OakNorth’s evolution, but also knows first-hand what it’s like to be an SME founder – the exact market our platform helps banks serve.

As CTO and COO, he’ll be helping to build our world-class engineering team and the engineering culture required to develop and support our globally scaling platform.”

Jackson Hull, CTO and COO of OakNorth, continued:

“As a founder of several companies in the past, OakNorth’s mission to help small and medium-sized businesses achieve their growth ambitions was one that really resonated with me.

Over the years, I’ve watched as the business has grown from a fledgling start-up to a mature, global fintech with exceptional talent, impressive growth metrics and a proven proposition.

Given how significant the market opportunity is – $7tn globally – this still feels very much like day one so I’m excited to be joining at this stage and look forward to playing a key role in the company’s future success.”