Let us introduce you to our leadership team

Our team are passionate about the products that we sell, about the way in which we deliver them and they work extremely hard. Thanks to them, the service that our customers receive and the relationships that we enjoy with them, and with our partners, are outstanding.

Executive Leadership

Russell Attwood

Russell Attwood

Founder & Business Development Director

Russell first had the idea for a next-generation contact centre technology provider whilst on a road trip along Route 101 - it’s where we got our name. A communications industry veteran, Russell founded his former company Call Centre Technology (CCT) in 1997 and ran it for 14 years until it was acquired by Capita IT Services. He was appointed Sales Director and remained with the business for another year before taking the now-infamous road trip along the West Coast and founding our business in 2012.

With a passion for customer engagement, Russell works closely alongside our team to ensure that we consistently deliver the very best results for our customers.

Ken Day

Ken Day

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Ken joined Route 101 back in November 2017, taking over as COO in June 2020. Prior to joining, Ken worked with Russ and other members of the team as a customer and colleague for over 20 years. As COO, Ken is responsible for the entire Route 101 operation post-sale – including the Professional Services, Project Management, Customer Support, Finance and Legal functions.

As a chartered fellow of the British Computer Society Ken has held senior roles at Eduserv, Capita Group, SunGard Public Sector and Defence Support Group, focussing on Service Management, IT Professional Services and Project Management mainly in IT outsourcing environments.

Martin Deaker

Martin Deaker

Head of CXi Practice

Martin heads up our Contact Centre and Unified Communications practice – he’s responsible for the successful delivery and implementation of our contact centre and UC projects and ensures that they run smoothly and deliver against requirements.

Prior to joining our team in 2015, Martin worked for Russell’s previous venture CCT as Services Director. He’s an extremely capable and experienced project manager and works hard to consistently deliver the best experiences to our customers

Peter Thompson

Peter Thompson

Head of Zendesk Engagement

Peter is responsible for all post-sales consultancy and delivery of our enterprise Zendesk solutions. He and his team manage the omnichannel transformation projects for our enterprise Zendesk customers, ensuring everything runs smoothly. Key to Peter’s role is the development of our Zendesk partnership, and he was instrumental in securing our status as Zendesk Master Partner and Master Implementation Partner.

Peter has held numerous senior transformation roles in large Enterprise organisations, Bristol Community Health, Amazon (AWS) and Thomson Reuters to name a few. Peter joined our team in 2019, and prior to joining worked with us on several large bids and dealt with us as a customer for several years.

Dave Blenkinsop

Dave Blenkinsop

Head of Support

As Head of Customer Support David is responsible for managing the Route 101 support team. He is passionate about delivering exceptional customer experience, working collaboratively with our partners to provide an assured service across all our platforms. He also runs regular customer service reviews and identifies continuous improvement opportunities for our customers.

He joined Route 101 in 2020 having worked for many years in the mobile sector and previously completed an MBA at Henley Business School. His previous roles have always been focused on technology within an ITIL Framework and include Service Management, Transition Management and Project Delivery roles at Vodafone, EE and BT, as well as leading Network Management and Service Operations functions at Energis, EE and at Ericsson.

Amy Ford

Amy Ford

Company Accountant

As our Company Accountant, Amy is responsible for everything finance. As the head of our Finance team, nothing gets past her!

Whether she’s producing the Management Accounts, raising invoices or (most importantly) coordinating the company payroll, Amy’s the one with her finger on the pulse.

Non-Executive Leadership

Shaun Lawson

Chairman & Non-Executive Director

Shaun’s career began in stockbroking. Working for 10 years at Laing & Cruickshank in London, Shaun reached the position of Senior Corporate Finance Partner before establishing his own business: Lawson & Partners Limited.

Shaun has worked at Director level for companies like Rickitt Mitchell and Priory Investments and holds numerous non-executive directorships and chairmanships which include NDSL Group Ltd., J&E Sedgwick Ltd, and of course, Route 101.

Richard Houghton

Non-Executive Director

Richard (Dickie) Houghton is the other of Route 101’s two non-executive directors. With a proven track record of growing, managing, and selling businesses across a wealth of industries, Dickie previously owned Bristol-based accountancy firm Houghton Stone, before it was acquired by Milstead Langdon in 2018. Alongside numerous commercial achievements, Dickie became the youngest ever President of the local Chartered Certified Accountants – so rest assured nothing gets past him on the finance side of things!