Who We Are

Chairman – Bob Bright

As Chairman, Bob looks after 50connect’s shareholders’ investments.  He is also a non-executive Director of Fortis, which is responsible for RIAS; the over 50s insurance company. Having held senior board level positions with HSBC for 25 years, Bob successfully instigated and executed a management buy-out of an HSBC insurance company, which he continued to head for four years and sold to the Fortis Group in 2006. He is now involved in several companies including 50connect, where he provides general business expertise.  

CEO – Shirley Densham

Shirley is responsible for the growth of the 50connect business and its continued success in the mature market. Her 23 year career spans both corporate and entrepreneurial businesses. Prior to joining 50connect in 2006, Shirley ran her own consulting business for a number of years. She previously spent nine years as Head of Sales and Operations at Telecommunications UK, where she also became Sales Director following a successful acquisition by PNC Telecom. This involved managing the telecom and web product sales and marketing department, along with its 40 staff. Shirley then re-joined the founder of Telecommunications UK to set up a new land acquisition business. Her career began at Kodak in 1984, where she spent ten years in sales and marketing roles. Other positions include Business Centre Manager at Coopers & Lybrand; where Shirley helped to relocate the company’s 13 London sites within the City.

Editor – Rachael Hannan

Rachael’s background is in public relations and journalism. After graduating, she worked for Brodeur Worldwide, a PR firm owned by Omnicom. Having gained experience on this side of the media she decided to move into consumer journalism. Rachael has been at 50connect since its launch in 2000 and has been instrumental in its full content development. She is passionate about the internet and has witnessed its widespread growth. The mature market is an area she is particularly interested in and she is an ardent campaigner for anything anti-ageist. Rachael has overseen the continued growth of the site, leading to 50connect being awarded eSuperbrand status in 2006.  Rachael’s specialist areas are health, travel, food and drink, history and human interest articles.

Director of Sales – Julia Ellis

Julia has extensive experience in buying, implementation, strategic planning and sales across all media. Originally from South Africa, Julia’s 16 year career first saw her take a role at OMD where she worked on a number of projects including the launch of Virgin Atlantic South Africa, then at TBWA Hunt Lascaris as a Strategic Planner across all media on a variety of retail and FMCG clients. Returning to OMD in 1998 to head TV, Radio & Cinema she was responsible for one of the biggest media budgets in South Africa. A move to Mediaedge CIA to become Strategic Director across all media on two of Capetown’s biggest clients followed. By 2001 Julia was ready for a new challenge, so moved to London and the field of online media sales. Julia has been Director of Sales at 50connect for five years and has extensive knowledge of the mature market and the UK online industry.

Operations Manager – Chris Lunn

Chris’ remit at 50connect is to ensure the smooth running of services and take advantage of new technologies to continually improve the site’s offering to members and corporate partners. Chris was previously Online Marketing Manager at eteach.com, a job board for the education sector, for over four years.  Here he was responsible for building relationships with major educational organisations as well as managing online advertising activities and the company’s online customer relationship strategy. Chris was also responsible for product development, and was instrumental in eteach.com receiving the Hitwise Top 10 ranking for traffic in the 'Employment and Training' web sites category; eventually receiving an award covering the whole of 2006 for the site’s continued presence in the Top 10.

Financial Controller – Graham Jones

Graham’s career spans some 30 years in both large corporate and small businesses. Initially studying accountancy at Alberto Balsam and Johnson Wax, Graham then moved to a Finance Director role within the advertising sector. Following this he went on to run and part-own a medium sized retail operation covering the Southeast. Over the years Graham has experienced various company acquisitions and mergers and worked with several financial institutions including venture capitalists, banks and other investment bodies. Since 2002, Graham has been working as a consultant for a variety of clients, covering the roles of Financial Controller and Financial Director.