Continual innovation is essential to provide leading intelligence and investigation software. Our Senior Release Manager, David ensures we successfully communicate and deliver regular software releases to customers.

Below, we learn more about David, his crucial role, achievements, background and more.

Hi David, tell us a bit about your background…

I graduated in 1992 with a degree in Food Science and worked as a Food Technologist and Food Hygiene Auditor for eight years before making a move into IT. Since that career change, I’ve worked as a Customer Support Agent, IT Trainer, Quality Auditor, Support Manager, Change Manager, Release Manager and, most recently, spent 10 years in several Service Delivery leadership roles with Hilton. Between roles at Hilton, I also had a short spell as acting Chief Executive for a small national charity. 

I joined Clue in October 2022 as Senior Release Manager, working as part of the Product team. 

What does your role at Clue entail?

My role comprises a blend of inward and outward-facing work, largely focused on communicating the progress with our product development. I work closely with the Development and Test teams to ensure that we are delivering high-quality and timely releases of Clue and work with our Customer Success and Support teams to help plan and communicate software updates to our customers. 

Additionally, I am working on developing our use of data analytics to better understand and visualise how Clue customers are using the application, to help validate our feature delivery roadmap. 

Success in my role is measured by making sure that customers have the most up-to-date version of our software installed, and are utilising new features, while also considering their feedback and usage analytics to discover how we can further improve Clue.

What’s inspired your career?

My career has always been focused on delivering service or product quality in one form or another. I think my main inspiration is gained from ensuring that whatever I am working on is making the ultimate customer happy. 

When I worked as a Food Technologist, I was driven by ensuring that food was safe and of the right quality to meet the specifications. Since working in IT my focus has shifted toward keeping service users and customers happy with what they are getting, and if they aren’t happy, making sure that we take steps to resolve that as quickly and efficiently as we can. 

At Hilton, the ultimate objective was ensuring that hotel guests had the best possible stay, and here at Clue it’s all about ensuring that our software is reliable and fit for purpose for their important work protecting society in various ways. 

In terms of successes, which accomplishments are you most proud of?

So far with Clue, I am most proud of improving the visibility of our product releases across the business, and of working with some of our customers to ensure that they are getting the most out of new features. I was incredibly surprised and flattered to be selected by my colleagues as Clue’s Employee of the Quarter recently, which spurred me to keep striving for success. 

What inspires you about Clue?

I am excited about helping to improve how we do things and engaging my colleagues with the product delivery process, as well as being able to bring new releases to our customers, enhancing their use of Clue to deliver their objectives. 

Our customers are deeply committed to investigating and putting right much of the wrongdoing in society, and it inspires me to know that my efforts can make a small difference in enhancing what they are doing. 

Do you have any secret talents?

In the late 1980s, I competed internationally for the Under-19 and Under-21 GB target rifle shooting teams, firing outdoors on ranges from 200 up to 1,000 yards. I was a long-range specialist, competing at the 900/1000 yards and 800/900 metre ranges. Representing Team GB on tour in Canada (and coming home as the winning team) as an 18-year-old was a real highlight and something that I’ll never forget. 

Tell us something about you that most people don’t know…

Since I was a student the first time around, I’ve been a passionate advocate for the environment, and I’m currently studying part-time for a master’s degree in Sustainability and Behaviour Change at the Centre for Alternative Technology, based in Machynlleth, mid-Wales. I am hoping to graduate in 2025 and use my expertise in this academic field to encourage societal change to help combat the climate crisis. 

A couple of years ago we installed an air source heat pump and solar thermal at home and switched to an electric car, and at Clue I have recently started to help coordinate our journey towards reducing our environmental impact as an organisation. 

Interested in joining David and the team at Clue?

Look at our latest openings here. 

Is technology being used effectively to drive a proactive, intelligence-led approach to anti-doping, or is testing still confined to a mere ‘numbers game’? This pressing question takes centre stage in our upcoming sports integrity webinar.

On October 5, 2 PM BST, esteemed experts will assess the efficacy of our present strategies in the battle against doping breaches in sports. Our panel will delve into the potential imbalance between quantity and quality, where valuable time, budget, and resources are expended without delivering proportionate gains in testing accuracy.

From safeguarding the anonymity of confidential reporters to the seamless dissemination of intelligence across sporting domains, this webinar will seek to advance beyond the rhetoric to scrutinise the technology advances at our disposal and answer whether we are fully capitalising on these innovations to create more inclusive, athlete-centric anti-doping frameworks.

Sports law expert Richard McLaren joins the panel

Preeminent sports law expert lead investigator Richard McLaren will join the experts to explore whether technology is being used effectively to drive a proactive, intelligence-led approach to anti-doping in sport.

A former member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and founder of McLaren Global Sport Solutions, McLaren was a lead investigator into allegations of state-sponsored doping at the Sochi Winter Olympics. His ground-breaking McLaren Report shed light on a deeply rooted scandal which rocked the sporting world and featured in the Oscar-winning Netflix documentary Icarus.

The full panel includes:

• Chair: Greg McKenna, Head of Unit, Biathlon Integrity Unit
• Richard McLaren, Co-founder and CEO, McLaren Global Sport Solutions​
• Nicole Sapstead, Senior Director, Anti-Doping, International Tennis Integrity Agency​
• Tim Naylor, Director of Integrity and Regulation, British Horseracing Authority​
• Nicholas Raudenski, Head of Intelligence and Investigations, International Testing Agency​

Register for the webinar

As our Director of Customer Success, Leigh is tasked with ensuring our customers are deriving the most value from our software. 

In the following Q&A, we get to know a bit more about Leigh, her background, achievements, inspirations, and more. 

Hi Leigh, can you tell us a bit about your background?

I have quite a varied background which, I think, has really helped within the world of customer success.  

Having started out at a financial firm supporting financial advisors, I moved into Professional Development, working with heads of departments to understand and plan their teams’ training needs. I trained in coaching & mentoring, training needs analysis, and internal communications, and ran the company’s Employee Engagement programme.  

I eventually moved into software and the wonderful world of Customer Success. Working in a small SaaS (Software as a Service) provider of webform and SMS survey products for well-known businesses, I would advise the team on business changes needed to improve their customer experience.

I then found Clue, and I haven’t looked back!

What does your role at Clue entail?

Having recently moved into the role of Director of Customer Success, I am working closely with our Customer Success Managers or ‘CSMs’ to ensure that all our customers are maximising their value from Clue. But, more importantly, that we understand what ‘value’ means to our customers.  

We aim to serve as partners to our customers, working closely with them to understand their challenges and find solutions. But we also want to help them plan for the future and support them in getting to where they need to be. We are the customer ‘voice’ within the company and are with them at every step of their Clue journey.  

What inspired you to pursue the career you have today?

When I moved into my first Customer Success role I was within an incredibly talented team, and I was just in awe of what they did!  

I learned everything I could from them, and this was really where I found my passion for customer success.

There is no other job like it. 

In terms of successes, which accomplishments are you most proud of?

It must be having the opportunity to head up the amazing Customer Success team here at Clue. They are excellent at what they do, and I am excited to continue the journey with them.

What motivates you about working at Clue?

Clue is one of very few companies where you will find that every single person working there genuinely cares about what they do.  

Although we have different teams and various objectives, we are all working with the same purpose and with the same goal of supporting our customers who have some of the most important jobs in protecting our society.  

How could I not be motivated?  

Do you have any secret talents?

Some people may know this, but I can eat fire and I have worked as a professional stilt walker.

Tell me something about you that most people don’t know.

I rode horses from the age of 6 through to 28, and competed in showing jumping, cross country, and a little dressage – my horse was not a fan of dressage!

Interested in joining Leigh and the team at Clue? Look at our latest openings here.