Sharon Cooper new CFO and Shaleen Dastur new US Sales Director

Xceptor, a global provider of software for intelligent data automation, today announced two strategic appointments following a period of unprecedented growth that has seen the company revenues increase by 57% in the last year alone. The new hires will also underpin its ambitious expansion plans into the US, where it is seeing strong demand for its services.

Joining as the firm’s new Chief Financial Officer and Board member is Sharon Cooper. Sharon has extensive experience of running the finance and head office functions of major corporates in addition to operating within the private equity and public markets arenas.

Originally an auditor with Ernst and Young, Sharon became the Group Financial Controller of Sophos, where she ran the due diligence process in the sale to Apax Partners. Her first CFO role was at Digital Barriers plc, an Aim-listed company, where she built the finance team and head office function, prior to leading the sale of the business to Volpi Capita.

Shaleen Dastur has a strong track record of sales success, particularly with the buy-side in the US. Prior to joining Xceptor, Shaleen spent almost 10 years at NorthPoint Solutions as Business Development Manager and later as Head of Sales for the Financial Services Practice before moving to Gresham Computing, as Senior Solutions Executive for North America and most recently to S3 Partners, where she was Director of Business Development.

Andrew Kouloumbrides CEO of Xceptor said: “I am so pleased to welcome Sharon and Shaleen, both are senior executives of the highest calibre and will help us to consolidate our growth and meet the surge in client demand for our data automation technology that is increasingly recognised as the lynchpin for operational and digital transformation programmes.”

With offices in London, New York, Singapore, Cape Town and Sydney, Cooper and Dastur will be a welcome addition to the rapidly expanding team that is already some 80-strong. With statistics showing that only 25% of senior management roles are held by women in the global financial services industry, 23% of board members are women and 18% of women can be found in global CFO roles, Xceptor is a supporter in driving gender diversity across the industry and helping to raise female representation at board levels.

In 2017 Xceptor was the highest new entry at number 3 in the Megabuyte Top 50 2017. Most recently Harrington Starr’s ranked it in its Definitive List of the 100 Most Influential FinTech Companies for 2018.