About

Since 2006, Curverider has been building a reputation for a forward-thinking, innovative approach to the social web. Our award-winning open source social networking platform, Elgg, was recently highlighted as a rising star in the CMS market and was named as the world's best in its class.

Curverider was founded by people with a shared vision and passion for social technology. This team has grown into a creative group of experts that specializes in sophisticated, web-based solutions for real-world problems.

You can find out a little more about the team on our Flickr account or follow our Twitter account.

 

Management

Ben Werdmuller

Founder and CTO

Ben has nearly fifteen years of experience working with innovative web technologies. He believes that online communities and social collaboration have the potential to change the world, and co-founded Curverider with David Tosh as a way to help that happen.

Blog | Twitter
 
David Tosh

Founder and CEO

Before forming Curverider with Ben Werdmuller, Dave was working and studying at the University of Edinburgh. It was there he met Ben and they started working on Elgg together. David likes nothing better than simple software that just does what it needs to. He is passionate about the web and what it can do to enhance everyday life.

Blog | Twitter
 
Marcus Povey

Director of Interoperability

Marcus Povey is an expert in security and interoperability whose prior work includes financial systems, encrypted communication gateways, medical technology and grid computing. His commercial background now comes into play developing the Open Data Definition and Elgg's sophisticated APIs.

Blog | Twitter
 
Pete Harris

Creative Director

Before joining Curverider Pete had his own business as a freelance web/multimedia designer and programmer. He has 12+ years of commercial experience in the web design industry and a passion for simplicity, functionality, usability and detail. He has a unique blend of graphic and technical skills.
   

 

Executive board

Mike Powell

Mike is a founder and managing partner of a Private Equity fund which invests in new and emerging technology companies that have application to the financial services industry. He is particularly interested in social networks for commercial use and is a personal investor in a number of startup companies in this area. Prior to this Mike was Global Head of Markets for HSBC where he managed 3500 staff across 85 countries. Mike has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Australia and London where he has established numerous contacts across a wide range of Institutions.
 
Ken Yeadon

Ken is (with Mike) a founder and managing partner of a Private Equity fund with a particular focus on the application of Social Media technologies and "Software as a Service" to the wholesale finance and trading markets. He has also invested personally in a number of technology start-ups within Finance and Media as a "business angel", and served on a number of boards as a non-Executive director. For the past 7 years, Ken has been a strategic consultant to several banks, brokerages and technology companies in the areas of electronic trading and risk management enterprise infrastructure, and business process reengineering. Before that he was Head of Trading and Sales and Head of E-Commerce at HSBC, having lived in Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York and London. He has a wide network of contacts in both the technology and finance sectors.
   

 

Advisors

 

Leonard Lin

Leonard Lin has spent more than a decade developing social media and online community tools for the Web. He first got involved with Elgg while working on campus-wide projects at USC. Since then, he has gone on to co-found Upcoming.org (acquired by Yahoo! in 2005), and subsequently ran Yahoo!'s Hack Day program. He is currently working on web technology for the Obama campaign.
 
Matthew Fix

Matthew is a Principal at Vodafone Ventures, a $200M fund focused on the mobile and digital media space. Matthew has invested in and is an active board observer for Amobee, Evolution Robotics, and Caringo and also works with the boards of SNAP-in and Brilliant Telecom. Prior to joining Vodafone Ventures at the end of 2006 he was at Intel Capital with a focus on software, open source, and Internet/digital media. Investments included Financial Engines, Datallegro, Spike Source, Black Duck, BayPackets (acquired by Genband), and Incesoft.

Prior to Intel Capital, Matthew worked at a boutique merchant bank and for Robertson Stephens. He also founded a small communications company while an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, traded equity options on the floor of the pacific exchange, and was in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Matthew has an MBA from the University of Oxford.
 
Biz Stone

Biz Stone is the co-founder of Twitter, a global service for the social exchange of news, ideas, events, and more. Biz's past projects include Xanga, Odeo, and Google's Blogger.
 
Stan Stanier

Stan is Head of Learning Technologies at the University of Brighton - home to the largest HE installation of Elgg. He also acts as technical consultant for a number of commercial Elgg installations within the public sector.
 
Sasan Salari

Sasan has been immersed in technology since 1995. As one of the founders of eLearning software WebCT, he has witnessed first-hand how technology has transformed the educational experience over the past decade. He is currently involved in projects involving social software in higher education and in business applications. Sasan lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife and 2-year old son.