Leadership Team

Akeel is the founder of XpertRule and holds a PhD in Telecommunications from the University of Leeds – England. He is an AI pioneer and a veteran of the Decision Automation and machine learning fields dating back to his early work with the late Donald Michie.

Akeel has extensive experience in leading technical teams developing AI software platforms, implementing intelligent automation solutions, and delivering related consulting services to world-wide blue-chip clients in the manufacturing, financial services, telecos, oil and gas, retail, process, and public sectors. He has been involved in the implementation of over 70 successful AI projects in the UK, USA, Europe, Brazil, and Japan across all business sectors.

Akeel has been involved in many R&D collaborative projects with Academia and is currently a visiting Professor at The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). He holds 2 international patents relating to the use of machine learning for adaptive process control and for detecting interactions between events in oilfields.

Iain is a Chartered Engineer and holds degrees in Material Science & Project Management and a D.Eng in Process Modelling and Simulation. He leads our Digital Manufacturing group and has over 30 years’ experience in the Manufacturing Sector, working with Blue Chip Companies, SMEs, and Technology start-ups. He is an experienced CEO with a demonstrated history of working in the industrial engineering sector, strong business development professional, proven track record in Research and Development, Engineering Management, and Process Engineering and Simulation.

He is passionate about manufacturing excellence and growth through the adoption of Data Driven Intelligent Manufacturing Technologies and reaching the Net Zero Emissions goals. He has over 20 years of experience in applying AI technologies to the improvement of the performance of manufacturing plants.

He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Central Lancashire, a member of the Advisory Board of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NW) and an Advisor to Government on Industrial Technologies.

Alex is an intelligent automation expert and thought leader with a deep interest in leveraging AI and automation software to power enterprise-wide digital transformation and deliver measurable ROI. He has leadership experience in both start-up and blue-chip corporate environments, with a track-record in building high-performing teams and innovative businesses that deliver commercial, organizational and shareholder value. He was a member of the global executive management team that took Blue Prism public with a £1bn valuation and was a driving force behind their highly successful indirect go-to-market model.

Alex was previously a management consultant at Deloitte and Accenture, with a background in business transformation. He holds a BA (Hons) from University of Leeds.

Haider holds an MPhil in Machine Learning from the Manchester Metropolitan University. He is responsible for managing both the software development and the technical services teams to ensure the provision of high-quality products & solutions to XpertRule’s clients world-wide. He is also responsible for ensuring that the evolving needs of clients are reflected in the on-going development of the XpertRule product roadmap. Prior to his current role, he held the positions of Principal Consultant and Director of Products & Services

Haider has managed the technical design and implementation of over 40 major Digital Decisioning projects involving the application of the Rules Automation and Machine Learning technologies in financial services, manufacturing and process industries with clients such as Bank of Ireland, BP, APC, Ericsson, Merck, Gehe, Nestle and many others.

John holds a Master’s degree in Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence from the Manchester Metropolitan University. John joined XpertRule as a Graduate Software Engineer and progressed to be the Chief Software Architect behind the XpertRule innovative software products. He pioneered the use of agile / extreme programming techniques at XpertRule almost a decade ahead of the mainstream software industry and his passion for complex algorithms and low-code development is behind the advanced Decisioning, Optimisation, Machine learning and conversational engines powering the XpertRule Platform. John leads the software development team and works very closely with the products managers and applications consultants.

As VP for Customer & Partner Success, Deepak Karwal is responsible for driving sales growth across while supporting and expanding XpertRule’s ecosystem of channel partners.

Deepak brings more than 25 years of experience within the enterprise-class solutions to XpertRule. He has held various management and leadership roles, including supporting the growth of a UK based technology consultancy, leading a high-tech start-up company as well as driving the adoption of automation technologies across a range of world-class organizations, such as Experian, JLR and HSBC.

Deepak is a thought leader in the Intelligent Automation space, and author of ‘The Automated Enterprise: Digital Reinvention through Intelligent Automation’.

Richard holds a degree in mechanical engineering and has over 20 years of experience in implementing complex Decision Automation and machine learning solutions working with large clients world-wide across all sectors. He is strategically integral to the success of many XpertRule’s client projects, ensuring that the XpertRule Decision automation methodology is firmly embedded within clients’ operations. Richard has extensive expertise in developing solutions involving Decisioning powered customer interactions / engagements with applications such Configure-Price-Quote, and complex technical support solutions for call centre agents or for self-service working with large clients such as Qualcomm, APC, Wartsilla, Arneg and SFR.

André Fuochi is a senior-level corporate communications and digital marketing leader who has worked with innovative companies like Blue Prism and SoftLayer (now IBM) to help generate coverage, develop differentiated messages and provide overall marketing guidance. He has extensive experience in planning, managing and executing global marketing and PR campaigns resulting in greater exposure and awareness with reporters, analysts, bloggers and third-party influencers. As part of the XR management team, André is responsible for overseeing and managing all communication channels and efforts for the company.

Dave Atkinson brings more than 30 years of banking and manufacturing industry experience to XpertRule, having joined Lloyds Banking Group in 1988. He has held various client relationship management and senior leadership roles within the group including leading the SME & Mid Corporates Manufacturing sector nationally since early 2014. His senior leadership team works alongside a team of 70 relationship managers supporting around 7000 clients, all turning over up to £100m pa, across all sectors of the economy.

Pascal is part of XR’s leadership team having spent his career supporting global organizations in their understanding and exploitation of new technologies. Prior to joining XR Pascal was Chief Client Officer and Co-Founder of Symphony Ventures, the leading specialist integrator in the Intelligent Automation (IA) sector. During his six plus years at Symphony, Pascal worked with many leading firms in establishing their early IA programs and has supported those firms in cumulative efficiencies totaling more than $600 million annually. As well as speaking at numerous industry conferences on ‘Digital Acceleration’, Pascal has written numerous published articles as well as contributing the Foreword for ‘The Automated Enterprise’, published in 2020.

Andrew worked in Lloyds Banking Group from 2003 to 2021 across a wide range of roles including contact centres, leading 100 branches across the south east of England, complaint management, customer journey redesign/system thinking and then for the last 5 years he has developed, delivered and run enterprise wide automation capability and owned change and delivery across Lloyds digital platforms.
He set up Lloyds Intelligent automation capability which covered RPA, Virtual assistants, digital products (OCR, remote ID&V, speech to text and text analytics) and a machine learning platform allowing data scientists to safely develop machine learning models.
He believes that it is vital to understand what businesses are trying to do for their customers and then helping them to utilise the right automation solution to deliver an excellent customer experience, reduce operational costs and free up colleagues to focus on value adding tasks!
Before joining Lloyds, Andy worked in various store management roles with Tesco and then moved into Marketing, to develop store campaigns and brand awareness.
Married with 4 children, Andy spends his spare time running, cycling, skiing, and going to horse races.