Management team
Ray Pierce – Chairman
Ray was appointed Chairman of Parasol in February 2007, and brings a wealth of business experience to the company.
He held a number of senior positions in the financial services industry, including a Main Board position at Guardian Royal Exchange Plc, Chief Executive of Robson Rhodes and also of the Mortgage Corporation Group, prior to which he was a senior Vice President with American Express.
He now holds several Non-Executive roles, including a recent appointment to the Board of Tesco Bank. He is also Chairman of Credit Solutions Group Holdings, of Ortus VCT Plc and Puma High Income VCT Plc, and is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.
Rob Crossland – Chief Executive
Rob Crossland founded Parasol in April 2000 after a career in the IT industry working for a range of software companies, latterly working as a freelance Project Manager.
Under his leadership, Parasol has remained staunchly loyal to the principles of innovation, service delivery and value for money on which he based the company.
As a contractor himself, Rob spotted a gap in the market for a service to help freelancers and contractors maximise their income and minimise the hassle of being self-employed. He went on to develop Parasol into one of the fastest growing companies in the UK before leading an MBO in November 2006.
A pioneer for best practice and innovation in employment, Rob has steered Parasol to become one of the most respected and secure professional employers in the UK, providing support services to thousands of contractors and works with hundreds of recruitment agencies large and small.
Rob is also vice chairman of Super League rugby league club, Hull Kingston Rovers, and is also a keen Manchester City supporter, neither of which should be held against him!
Anita Whittle – Group Chief Operating Officer
Anita joined Parasol in 2006 after a successful career in senior finance roles for companies including Lastminute.com and Littlewoods Shop Direct. Those roles followed training at Big 4 accountancy firm Ernst and Young where Anita qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1997.
Anita is responsible for the strategic financial planning and development of the Parasol Group alongside overall responsibility for the operations and finance of the professional employment organisation. Her remit also includes leading and managing the 30 strong team of financial professionals within the Parasol Group.
Anita remains a keen sportswoman after being a county and national swimming champion in her younger days. She now spends her weekends and spare time kayaking, rock climbing, snowboarding and mountain biking. She recently completed the National 3 Peaks Challenge with other Parasol colleagues, raising £10,000 for Childline.
Derek Kelly – Managing Director
Derek joined Parasol from KPMG after 14 years and was most latterly the Director responsible for their Employment Taxes practice in the South West of England.
Derek has considerable experience in providing no-nonsense advice to accountancy service providers, employment outsourcing specialists, as well as agencies, having operated in this arena for over 10 years.
Clearsky Accounting – the specialist accountancy services business within the Parasol family – is managed by Derek; his teams in Poole and Warrington benefit from his extensive experience in this specialist environment.
Derek’s additional role within the business is to ensure that Parasol remains compliant with changing regulations (both tax and employment law) so that Parasol maintains its position as the leading supplier of employment solutions in the UK.
In his free time Derek can be found SCUBA diving, skiing, climbing or hill walking; but is never far away from his iPad!
Lesley Sweetman – Operations Director
With a background based around service support, customer retention and sales and marketing, Lesley joined Parasol in 2006 after 16 years managing both operational and sales departments in mobile telecoms companies.
Lesley’s role in the company is to manage the overall operations functions, having responsibility for the whole Employee and Agency lifecycle at Parasol. She has built a robust scalable support model incorporating further development of the web applications to support self care, a proactive lifecycle management strategy based on employee profile, a loyalty and retention strategy to reduce churn and recognise and reward employee loyalty and an ongoing business systems review to support strategic partnerships and product development.
Away from work Lesley is a keen wine buff and loves to cook, regularly visiting wine tasting and food events at the week-ends. A pro-active member of her local dog agility and obedience club, Lesley assists with the development and training of dogs and regularly attends shows along with her pet Labrador Egg.
Rodger Armstrong – Group Sales & Marketing Director
Prior to joining Parasol, Rodger was Managing Director of Fit2Sell, a specialist sales and marketing consultancy which he founded himself. Clients included multinational IT and financial services companies for which Rodger was involved on a daily basis, including time spent in the role of Interim European Sales Director.
In addition, Rodger’s previous experience includes senior roles with global brands such as Reuters, where he was COO for Reuters Mobile, and five years spent on the board of Group NBT as Group Sales and Marketing Director.