Geeks and Proud

John Keating

Founder & CEO

John is the founder of Dark Horse. In his eyes, he is not important in this process, it's all about the team. He tries to make the best decisions he can for the good of the pack and works hard not to mess things up. He sees leading as hiring people who don't need leading. Also hates dinner parties and modern music.

Dale Jago

Group Operations Director

Dale keeps the ship afloat. Operationally, he ensures the brains have everything they need to deliver results. He is also a technical wizard. Before he became a dad with responsibilities, his claim to fame is that he once hacked into SPOILER mainframe. If he has a superpower it would be his ability to remain calm in even the most stressful situations.

Nicola Frendt

Account Manager

Nicola leads client communications and keeps our team on time and on track. If she had a superpower it would be her ability to get s**t done! This makes her the perfect person to manage delivering our clients goals.

Dave Karellen

Head of PPC

Dave is in charge of our PPC proposition, ensuring all our clients get the best results possible across Search, Shopping, and Display. Dave has over 9 years PPC experience and applies a mathematical and analytical approach to PPC optimisation. In his spare time you can find Dave tackling escape rooms, cycling, going to comedy nights, or following Liverpool FC (Dark Horse needed to have a Scouser in order to hit its diversity quota).

Tom Chapman

SEO Project Manager

Tom is responsible for ensuring the wheels of our SEO department turn smoothly. An SEO generalist, he’s skilled in matters related to technical, content, and off-site optimisation. He’s also arguably more radioactive than most of the team after spending time touring Chernobyl. Want a good ice-breaker? Ask him what radiation tastes like.

Ryan Bartram

PPC Executive

Ryan is one of our PPC superstars. He also has the strength to lift a car and has great banter and chat. Partridge afficianado as everyone should be.

Keith Skelly

PPC Specialist

Keith is our inhouse genius, he is a born and bred Manc with an IQ over 140. Numbers, algorithms and data analysis are his thing, this makes him PPC gold. If he had a superpower it would be his ability to solve the world's problems through maths and not politics.

Matt Hurst

A strategist who adopts the big picture outlook to generate client success at scale. As an experienced paid social advertiser, Matt has worked with a range of brands. When he’s not providing campaign insight, he’ll be carrying out market research within the UK’s grubbiest pubs. A true dive bar connoisseur. Matt is also known to have won a succession of back-to-back European titles (x6 and still going!) on Football Manager, although he still haven’t had a call from the FA.

Steph Dyson

Content Manager

Steph is our resident wordsmith, who combines compelling prose with a forensic eye for detail and data-informed strategy. She built her own website up to a million annual views and has authored books for major publishers about her adopted home, South America. She once spent a weekend with ex-FARC guerrillas in the Colombian jungle, so very little fazes her.

Sara Kavanagh

Content Manager

Sara has a passion for the Oxford comma and a love for Star Wars. She focuses on using the SEO power of research, keywords, and exciting copywriting to get those pages to rank. With a special superpower in content auditing, she lives for spreadsheets and planning how to fix up websites.

Carl Eden

Digital PR & Outreach Manager

Coming from a link-building background before moving into digital PR, Carl focuses on creating and implementing creative campaigns for our clients. Carl has generated linking coverage on sites such as the LA Times, Glamour, MSN, Huffington Post, Fast Company as well as every major national newspaper. He is also fond of movies.

Sam Cobden

Digital PR Executive

Sam is a confident researcher able to leverage critical thinking skills. Able to leverage critical thinking skills to identify, evaluate and communicate information for audiences at any level. A keen fitness fanatic she is often either hiking, kayaking, climbing, practicing Judo and Japanese jiu-jitsu.

Andrew Maylor

Business Development Manager

Andrew is the chap that connects Dark Horse to new businesses. He is always on the lookout for companies that share our beliefs and values. If Andrew was to have a superpower it would be his ability to make friends and make people laugh. Think Jack Whitehall and you would not be too far off.

Joshua Hobson

Head of Marketing

Joshua is our Head of Marketing. With over 6 years working in ecommerce. Joshua is known for building brands and growing marketing agencies by building strategies, event management, partner marketing, organic and gated content marketing, direct mail and more...He’s the whole package! Joshua loves all things to do with board games and pub quizzes, he even runs his own quiz nights. Be sure to ask about these when you talk to him. Be warned, they are no walk in the park.

Alex Pugh

Business Development Executive

Alex has worked within marketing for the last 3 years originally working at an agency. Since then, Alex decided to move over to business development. If you're ever in need of a friendly, helpful chap, Alex is your man. He is a big fan of sport playing both football and cricket, he also DJs in his spare time.

Katie Turnbull

Marketing Manager

Katie is our inhouse digital marketing manager. She is in charge of the positioning, branding and marketing of Darkhorse. She has played a pivotal role in the growth of the company. If she had a superpower it would be her ability to turn dreams into Adobe gridlines.