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Meet The Team

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Dave Dickinson ParaCode

Dave Dickinson – CTO & Co-Founder

Dave is the CTO and co-founder at ParaCode, he is an accomplished IT professional who graduated in 2005 with a first-class honours degree in Internet Computing.

Starting as a software developer, Dave quickly distinguished himself as a skilled and innovative problem-solver who could be relied upon to navigate complex business requirements and deliver outstanding results for the customer.

After honing his craft developing e-learning, e-commerce and bespoke systems across multiple industry sectors, his experience and tenacity propelled him through various leadership roles, including Team Leader, Head of Development and, ultimately, CTO.

Throughout his career, Dave has played a pivotal role in the successful implementation and deployment of software projects, culminating in the delivery of the Policy and Claims Administration system for KBIS, which has proved to be a great success and ultimately lead to the formation of ParaCode.

Outside of work Dave enjoys exploring the countryside with his family and dog, normally trying to incorporate a farm shop or pub stop along the way!

Will Prest ParaCode

Will Prest Cert CII – Product Manager & Co-Founder

Will’s first career was in the merchant navy as a deck officer, where he was responsible for navigating oil and gas tankers all over the world for the shipping arm on an oil major. After coming ashore, Will joined the family business, KBIS, a specialist equine insurance broker.

KBIS was struggling with its existing software and Will was tasked with finding a solution. After a thorough search of the marketplace and being unable to come up with a suitable offering from an existing provider, the KBIS management team took the bold decision to build their own platform. Will worked closely with the developers to specify the requirements for the platform and was involved in the testing and deployment of the system.

In 2021, after the sale of KBIS, Will became ParaCode’s first full-time employee and continued to work with the developers to build out the system. In 2022, ParaCode purchased the software development company that had built the platform and Will formally took on the Product Manager role. As Product Manager, Will is responsible for specifying user requirements, building products and demos for customers and generally being the “voice” of the customer within the development team.

In his spare time, you will find Will on his boat racing or cruising around the south coast or up a hill enjoying a long walk with the dogs.

Andrew Miller ParaCode

Andrew Miller – Operations Director

Andrew is the Operations Director at ParaCode with a technical and customer focused background.

Having gained a degree in Computer Science from the University of Kent at Canterbury, Andrew took his first job as a Junior Technical Analyst at a large ERP software provider in 2007. There he worked his way up to Principal Technical Analyst before moving to the Service Delivery side of the company as a Project Manager.

In 2018 Andrew joined KLOC, the company who built ParaCode, as a Project Manager before moving into Service Delivery and Operations. Andrew has overall responsibility for the ParaCode customer journey from onboarding into live operation and beyond, as well as always looking at ways to enhance internal processes.

In his spare time Andrew enjoys spending as much time as possible outside with his family, going camping, taking trips to the beach, and playing golf.

Sarah Lambert-Gibbs ParaCode

Sarah Prest Cert CII – Sales & Marketing Manager

Sarah joined ParaCode in June 2022 as the first member of the sales team, coming from a joint insurance and technology background. Having worked for a specialist MGA for 7 years and gaining her Cert CII Sarah moved into the world of IT and worked for the UK’s largest privately owned distribution company. Sarah became a Microsoft sales specialist and transferred her B2B skills to B2C when she moved to a reseller helping them develop their cloud migration services.

Understanding that software is very important and can have a huge impact on productivity, whilst appreciating migrating to new systems can be daunting to end users, Sarah brings her knowledge forward from previous roles to help advise customers looking for a new software partner.

In her spare time Sarah is found riding her horse, walking the dogs and trying to hit some clays out shooting!

Carrie Passmore – Accountant

Carrie is an accountant with over 30 years of experience in various industries, spending the last 7 working within the insurance sector. She has worked her way up from junior accounts roles to a senior manager reporting to the Board. Carrie deals with cashflow, management accounts, budgeting, modelling, payroll, and IT.

In her spare time Carrie and her husband own and run an equine stud in Berkshire. They produce performance horses and ponies and compete all over the country.

Guy Prest ParaCode

Guy Prest – Chairman & Co-Founder

Guy is the co-founder of ParaCode and has been involved with using specialist computer programmes to improve efficiency and outcomes as a result of work-related software all of his career.

His first use of dedicated bespoke software was in the Royal Artillery, directing artillery fire in the mid 70s. After his time in the Army he setup a specialist insurance brokerage, insuring equestrian risks (Kbis Limited). He quickly realised that to compete in the market he needed the smartest systems and found the standard offerings where for Motor or Property and would not adapt to the vagaries of equestrian insurance. To find a suitable solution he developed a dedicated system that enabled the business to become one of the main players in the UK and Ireland.

After twenty years a new system was needed, and a contract was agreed with one of the leading insurance software houses. This turned in to a slow and painful process, and having moved part of the business onto the platform, it was aborted as not fit for purpose. At this point Guy decided to go back to developing his own system making the decision to create a generic insurance policy management system that could be sold to other users. The governing principle was based on ease and speed of configuration enabling new products to be brought to market in days rather than months, which seems to be the huge stumbling block for all other systems.

From this concept ParaCode was born. With the brilliant skills of Jim Parsons and Dave Dickenson the seeds of the new system where first planted in 2018, and with the subsequent amalgamation of Kloc and Paracode a serious player in the Insurance software world was formed.

Guy along with his wife Liz successfully developed Kbis into a leading UK equestrian insurance specialist. This was sold in 2020 and Guy has since been assisting in building ParaCode into a key player in the Insurance software market.

He is a keen equestrian, having ridden as an amateur jockey in his younger days and continues to ride but not at the same pace! He is also an enthusiastic sailor.

Liz Prest ParaCode

Liz Prest – Share holder & Co-Founder of ParaCode

Liz has worked in consumer Insurance for more than 30 years and whilst she could well be described as a technophobe she has always appreciated that the best software system available is vital, both for business efficiency and successful delivery of both good company results and consumer outcomes.

When Guy collaborated with a developer in the 1990’s to create a bespoke system for Kbis Limited the results were phenomenal, we grew the business on excellent customer service and high volume of policy handling per employee growing Kbis Ltd into one of the top five equestrian insurance companies in the UK. When our system needed replacing, we spent many months attempting to move to an offering from one of the leading insurance software houses. The result of this was very poor and meant that business growth was constricted by the system, each rate change or product addition taking weeks and months. From this bad experience Guy started work with Jim Parsons and Dave Dickinson, the result was Paracode. A software platform that is user friendly, enables rate changes and product additions to be made by a user and allows the business owner to concentrate on growth and customer service not trying IT work rounds or chasing developers to make changes in a timely fashion.

Kbis Ltd was sold in 2020, but Liz is continuing as a Consultant for Kbis, enjoying the benefits of Paracode. Spare time is spent riding, and enjoying her grandchildren.

ParaCode Dogs

Nellie – Head of Security

Nellie (on the right) is a 9-year-old Jack Russell who makes sure everyone knows when visitors are arriving!

Coco – Receptionist

Coco is a 10-year-old cross breed who didn’t have the best start in life and Sarah, our BDM, rehomed Coco to give her the chance she deserved. Coco is our receptionist and greets everyone with such enthusiasm and a waggy tail!

Woof!