Board of
Directors

Donna Troy

Chairman
Independent

Donna Troy

Chairman
Independent

Committee Membership:

  • Nomination Committee
  • Remuneration Committee

Donna joined the Board of FD in January 2018 and was appointed Chairman in January 2020. She has extensive experience in both senior executive and non-executive roles within multi-national technology companies. She is based in Austin, Texas.

Donna has held CEO, division general management, and sales leadership roles in organizations including IBM, Partnerware, McAfee, SAP, Dell, and Epicor, delivering revenue and margin growth and implementing global go-to-market strategies in business from start-up to $8 bn in revenue.

Donna holds a Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude, in Computer Science from North Carolina State University and in 2017 was inducted into the North Carolina State University Computer Science Alumni Hall of Fame.

Other Appointments:

Donna is currently on the board of directors at Aptean and Marlin Technology Corporation.

Séamus Keating

Chief Executive
Officer

Séamus Keating

Chief Executive
Officer

Seamus was appointed as CEO in January 2020. He was first appointed to the Board as an independent Non-Executive Director in December 2012 and was appointed Non-Executive Chairman in July 2013. He has over 20 years’ experience in the global technology sector in finance and operational roles and has held a number of non-executive roles since 2012.

He was Chief Financial Officer of Logica plc from 2002 until 2010 when he became Chief Operating Officer and head of its Benelux operations. Prior to his role at Logica plc, he worked for the Olivetti Group in senior finance roles in the UK and Italy.

Other Appointments:

Seamus is currently a non-executive director of BGL Group Limited.

Ryan Preston
Ryan Preston

Chief Financial
Officer

Ryan Preston
Ryan Preston

Chief Financial
Officer

Committee Membership:

None

 

Ryan joined the Board of FD in January 2021 and has responsibility for the Group’s financial operations. Ryan was formerly Chief Financial Officer of Independent News & Media plc and at OVO Energy Retail, having spent the early part of his career in senior finance roles at Tesco, including Group Finance Director, Europe. He was appointed Deputy Chief Financial Officer at FD in January 2020.

 

Other Appointments:

None

Virginia Gambale

Non-Executive Director
Independent

Virginia Gambale

Non-Executive Director
Independent

Committee Membership:

  • Audit Committee
  • Nomination Committee (Chair)

Virginia joined the Board of FD in March 2015. A US citizen, she is managing partner of Azimuth Partners LLC, which assists its clients in the development of strategies for growth, innovation and international expansion. Prior to forming Azimuth, Virginia was a partner at Deutsche Bank Capital Partners and has also held senior management positions such as CIO at Merrill Lynch, Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank and Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.

Other Appointments:

Virginia is currently lead director of Nutanix, and board director of Virtu Financial and Regis Corporation.

Usama Fayyad

Non-Executive Director
Independent

Usama Fayyad

Non-Executive Director
Independent

Usama joined the Board in January 2022. Usama is the inaugural Executive Director of the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University in Boston, and is also the founder and Chairman of Open Insights, a company focused on helping enterprises drive full value from their data assets. He started his career at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab and after leadership roles at Microsoft Research and Microsoft SQL Server, he became Yahoo’s first Chief Data Officer. From there, Usama became Global Chief Data Officer at Barclays in London where he led digital transformation projects that reduced costs and helped create new data products.

Ayman Sayed

Non-Executive Director
Independent

Ayman Sayed

Non-Executive Director
Independent

Committee Membership:

  • Nomination Committee
  • Remuneration Committee (Chair)

Ayman joined the Board of FD in July 2020. He brings to the Group extensive experience in enterprise technology and a track record of driving business success through growth strategies focused on product innovation. He is currently President and CEO of BMC Software Inc., a global enterprise software company headquartered in Houston, Texas. Prior to his current role he was President and Chief Product Officer of CA Technologies Inc., a Fortune 500 company acquired by Broadcom Inc., where he was responsible for the vision, strategy, development and success of the company’s portfolio of products and solutions. Ayman holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Cairo University.

Other Appointments:

In addition to his role at BMC Software, Ayman is also a Director of Elisity Inc.

Thomas Seifert

Non-Executive Director
Independent

Thomas Seifert

Non-Executive Director
Independent

Committee Membership:

  • Audit Committee
  • Remuneration Committee

Thomas joined the Board in July 2020. Thomas is Chief Financial Officer of Cloudflare Inc., where he is also responsible for the company’s business data analytics and data science. He provides a wealth of expertise across the cloud, SaaS and data analytics, which is highly relevant to FD’s growth ambitions. In addition, Thomas has extensive operating experience growing and scaling technology companies across cybersecurity, software and semiconductors. Prior to his current role Thomas was Chief Financial Officer of Symantec Corp, a leading cybersecurity company, where he was responsible for the implementation of transformation and M&A strategies. He was also CFO at Advanced Micro Devices, where he held an interim CEO position.

Other Appointments:

In addition to his role at Cloudflare Inc. he is also a Director of IPG Photonics Corporation.