Who we are - iungo Solutions

Who we are

Co-Founders

iungo was founded upon a unique partnership between driven opportunists Jessica Leigh Jones MBE and Tom de Vall. A powerful combination of human capital management skill and cross-sector industry experience gives iungo a unique positioning within the careers ecosystem to create the connective tissue between employers, training providers, and policy makers.

Tom de Vall

Co-Founder & CFO

An experienced General Manager having spent over 15 years working across a range of industries and operational environments in South Wales. He has predominantly worked in the Manufacturing Engineering sector for companies such as International Rectifier, KSR International, Sony, and more recently with Amazon.

Tom completed a BA Hons Management degree in Cardiff before enhancing his career development and business acumen through completing an MBA in 2016. He is currently studying a BSc in Economics and Mathematics with the OU.

Tom’s involvement and interest in apprenticeships stemmed from the difficulties experienced in fulfilling specific technical roles across a range of levels and industries. Through more recent successes to grow talent internally, he has developed a strong belief that the potential value creation of an efficient and effective apprenticeship system can radically transform the landscape of industry in Wales and is passionate to support this movement.

Jessica Leigh Jones MBE

Co-Founder & CEO

An award winning Engineer and Company Director specialising in governance and organisational design and development. She is a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor and Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Wales Trinity St David’s, where she is leading the flagship Enterprising Engineers Programme for engineering students and apprentices.

Jessica graduated from Cardiff University with an honours degree in Astrophysics in 2015 and is a Chartered Quality Professional (CQP MCQI) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). She is the new Chair of the Centre for Digital Public Services in Wales, a Non-Executive Director of Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), and Vice Chair of Wales’ largest exam board, WJEC. She is the Womenspire 2020 Board Member of the Year.

Jessica received an MBE for services to women in Engineering in Wales in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Group Leaders

Robert Hall

Estates & Continuous Improvement Lead

Rob manages the day-to-day estates operations at iungo Solutions. Working closely with Group Leaders, Rob overseas all delivery and continuous improvement (CI) activities. Rob manages critical projects, and works closely with the technical team to continually improve the digital learner journey. He supports the EX team to ensure we are continually developing our employees to keep abreast of changing industry skills requirements. Rob is also leading the Semiconductor Skills Academy Wales project

Mason House

Software Architect

Mason is leading our Technology & Automation Strategy and designing our platform and data architecture. He is pioneering the development and integration of new technologies into our evolving platform to meet customer and internal requirements for an end-to-end Learning Experience (LX) platform. He works closely with our technical and operational teams to ensure a high-availability and effective service to all of our users.

Bradley Tanner

Quality & Compliance Manager

Brad is an experienced manager and educator having worked in a range of sectors and in a range of roles within education across the UK and Europe. Brad oversees the delivery of our apprenticeship programmes and works closely with our clients, Awarding Organisations, and regulators to ensure that we provide a high quality user experience and are compliant in all aspects of our contract, including IQA, Health & Safety, and Sustainability.

Matt Ettridge

Lead Tutor-Practitioner

Matt oversees the Tutor-Practitioners. They are an experienced Senior Tutor-Practitioner specialising in Front-End Development technologies and Games Development. They tutor in Python, JavaScript, C#, Unity and Blender. Prior to being promoted to a Lead Tutor-Practitioner, Matt was responsible for the development of customer-facing applications and services for iungo.

Ploy Nilduang

Employee Experience (EX) & Recruitment Lead

Ploy is responsible for Employee Experience (EX) at iungo, managing all aspects of HR operations, mental health and wellbeing, and employee engagement. Ploy oversees our learner recruitment operations across all our programmes including Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps and Professional Learning Programmes.

Zaheer Abbas

Data Scientist

Zaheer is an Advanced Data Scientist developing and optimising data algorithms using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to improve our learner recruitment and retention. Zaheer works closely with the Software Architect and Digital Growth Executive to automate and optimise the learner journey, creating a seamless User Experience (UX) for our customers.

Our Team

Jade Lesh

Digital Growth Executive

Jade is an inspirational User Experience (UX) Researcher and a competent programmer, and User Interface (UI) designer. She is responsible for developing and maintaining a seamless end-to-end User Experience (UX) for learners and clients across a multi-channel eCommerce architecture. Jade is currently heading up our website redesign… Watch this space!

Kiirthana Rajarathnam

Recruitment Analyst

Kiirthana has a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management from Cardiff University. She is responsible for managing our pipeline of learner recruitment across all of our programmes. She provides front-line customer service support to learners and clients, assesses eligibility for funding, and advises clients on ways to make their Learning & Development budgets go further.

Lauren Tucker

Operations Analyst

Lauren Tucker is a game developer working in C# and Unity. She has a passion for games with a strong narrative and visual identity. Lauren loves creating her own 2D digital art assets in Procreate, and is now learning to create 3D models for games in Blender. Lauren gained her BA Translation (French and Spanish) in 2010 and a PGCE in secondary education in 2015. Lauren is putting her teaching experience to good use at iungo as Operations Analyst, making sure participants are supported and challenged to achieve their best.

Michael Smart

Senior Tutor-Practitioner – Immersive Technologies & Creative

Michael is an experienced Virtual Reality (VR) Developer, Learning Experience (LX) Designer, and Tutor. He is leading the delivery our Games Development modules in Unity and Blender. Michael also has a broad range of skills in Internet of Things (IoT) development, Robotics and 3D Printing. He is developing and delivering employer-led provision in each of these areas.

Daniel Hughes

Senior Tutor-Practitioner – Data & Sustainability

Daniel has an MSc in Sustainable Resource Management from Cardiff University. He leads our Data Analytics, Data Visualisation and Business Intelligence programmes across our Skills Bootcamps, Apprenticeships and Professional Learning Programmes. He also delivers our Lean Six Sigma White, Yellow and Green Belt provision and is shaping a new suite of Sustainable Product Design programmes using waste reduction and circular techniques.

Tom Gaze

Senior Tutor-Practitioner – Cloud & Software

Tom delivers our Cloud Services training to clients using AWS, Microsoft Azure and GCP tech stacks. He is a Physics graduate of Cardiff University and is proficient in Python programming, Data Analysis and Machine Learning (ML). Tom is developing our suite of Digital & Cloud programmes for professional audiences. He also tutors on our Skills Bootcamps.

Fatme Topkeva

Tutor-Practitioner – Data & Lean Six Sigma

Fatme, a multi-faceted individual driven by a profound passion for data analytics and machine learning, has embarked on an extraordinary journey of transformation and enlightenment. Despite her reservations towards statistics during her undergraduate statistics degree and a career pause of twelve years for raising children, Fatme’s intellectual journey took an unexpected turn. She now finds herself deeply immersed in the domains of applied statistics, quality management, machine learning, and data science, particularly in their practical applications within the business landscape. This metamorphosis reflects her insatiable thirst for knowledge and her ability to adapt and grow. Beyond the analytical world, Fatme is an avid reader, drawn to the profound insights offered by psychology and personal development literature. Fatme’s most cherished endeavour is teaching. She has dedicated over eight years to volunteer teaching, passionately breaking down complex concepts for children, including topics as intricate as religion.

Jose Luis Diaz Pulgar

Tutor-Practitioner – Software & Data

Jose Luis is a versatile professional with a diverse educational background and a passion for continuous learning. He holds a master’s degree in civil engineering with a specialization in structures, demonstrating his strong foundation in mathematics and problem-solving. Jose Luis transitioned his career into web development and data analysis, showcasing his dedication to staying at the forefront of technology trends. Proficient in JavaScript and Python, his background in mathematics, particularly statistics, acquired during his university years, has equipped him with a solid understanding of the quantitative aspects of data science. This knowledge has paved the way for his exploration of the world of machine learning.

Bryony Brown

Tutor-Practitioner – Games & Software

Bryony is an enthusiastic individual who is passionate about personal growth and challenging herself. With 8 years experience in the education sector she is keen to continue helping others learn and thrive, while still developing and growing her own skill set. Having worked with children using the Scratch block programming tools, she realised how creative programming could be, and how it provides tools in itself to help others learn not only other programming languages, but many other skills too. This fuelled her desire to expand her skills in this industry. Since then Bryony has been learning with Iungo through the Games Development Foundry where she has been developing her skills in C# and utilizing Unity.

Ruben Nkameni

Tutor-Practitioner – Data & Software

Ruben is passionate about data-related activities such as data analysis, and holds a Master of Science in Data Science from Cardiff Metropolitan University, a Master’s degree in Finance and Accounting from the University of Douala, Cameroon, and a Bachelor’s degree in Management Sciences. Ruben delivers our Data Analytics and Business Intelligence training including Power BI, Google Looker and Tableau, as well as database management with tools such as SQL, and programming languages like Python. Ruben has also volunteered as a Digital Support Volunteer with Cardiff City Council to help, to the best of his ability, to support the community in solving the challenges of the developing digital world.

Chanel McKenzie

Business Administrator

Chanel Provides general administrative support to all aspects of the business including Operations, EX and Recruitment, and the Executive. She is also a talented writer and supports the Digital Growth Executive with Marketing Operations (MOps) including Social Media Schedule and email campaign management.

Maureen Treanor

Tutor-Practitioner – Financial Services

Maureen is a Certified Gallup Strengths Coach with an extensive background in Human Resources and Financial Services. Maureen was Head of Human Resources and Change Management at AfrAsia Bank in Mauritius. She is a lead tutor on our Financial Services, FinTech, Project Management and Entrepreneurship programmes.

Kendra Tanner

Tutor-Practitioner – Entrepreneurship

Kendra Tanner is a Leadership Coach and Business Growth Consultant. She co-founded Three-Sixty Aquaculture, a start-up that designs and operates land-based systems to grow non-native marine species, with a mission to increase UK food security and reduce food miles. Kendra helps leaders streamline business’ operations, bring the best out of themselves and their people, and make strategic decisions that create less stress and more (cash) flow.

Karen Howells

Tutor-Practitioner – Marketing & Digital

Karen is an academic with 28 years experience in higher education, which followed 12 years as a software engineer. She is a chartered engineer, chartered IT professional, and registered as a European Engineer. She will be delivering your Software Design Module. Karen leads on our marketing and Software and Systems Architecture Design programmes.

Büşra Algeç

Tutor-Practitioner – Engineering & Entrepreneurship

Bee is an experienced Trainer and Workshop Facilitator with previous education, work and training experiences in engineering, professional facilitation community building. Bee delivers our suite of Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship programmes including Social Entrepreneurship Creative Entrepreneurship and Enterprising Engineers©.

Find out more about what it’s like to work with us.