Alan Welsman
As founder and principal consultant of Rubber Shirt, Alan Welsman has managed a variety of digital transformation and innovation projects for: VCs, multi-national brands, UK brands and 7 start-ups. Prior to this he held senior digital, brand and marketing roles within TMT businesses where his career traversed the introductions of the internet, mobile internet, social and search platforms as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA).
The idea of digital technologies disrupting or enhancing business, is something that Alan has grappled with since 1997. Since beginning his career in TMT in 1990, Alan has been well positioned to identify and act on the variety of ‘disruptions’ that have occurred, working closely with amongst others, Warner Bros., PlayStation, Nokia, France Telecom, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, TenCent and AliBaba.
Simon Jobling
Simon has created, managed and run major development projects for over 25 years starting with product and service transformation programs in the Cosmetics, DIY and Retail sectors and then leading major disruptive strategy/technology/digital projects for PlayStation, Kodak, Sainsbury, Freeport Retail and Telstra Australia.
In 2008, Simon established an agency which was one of the pioneers into Augmented Reality in the UK, initially educating the market in the wonders and possibilities of AR, putting together a network of best in class developers and then creating and managing projects across a variety of market sectors. He launched the first ever (and highly successful) mobile AR app in the UK and created commercially-focused solutions for companies such as Guinness, Ford, Shell, Cartoon Network and Bayer Chemicals amongst others.
Simon has never espoused “ Technology for Technology’s sake” and has a demonstrable record of success in harnessing the benefits of technology to drive benefit for the consumer and improve commercial performance.
Sophie Welsman
With over 25 years’ experience in research, media strategy and consumer insight, Sophie Welsman manages the Research team and provides Rubber Shirt with the expertise to analyse business sectors, market opportunities, competitive analysis and audiences as well as producing ongoing investigation reports into emerging technology trends in a variety of categories.
Sophie has worked in both private and public sector organisations and for a wide variety of businesses, from large corporations to small start-ups. Coller Capital, The Environment Agency, GWR, Global Radio, Virgin Radio and Hearst Media are a number of the brands Sophie has worked for.