Ben Crawford is CEO and Director of Com Laude, and an investor alongside PX3 Partners. Ben brings enormous experience in the domain name industry, together with a long career leading companies in the US and UK, and managing online initiatives for such organizations as Microsoft, IBM and The Olympic Games.

As CEO of CentralNic Group PLC (recently renamed Team Internet), Ben built one of the world’s most successful domain name businesses, growing revenues from $2m to $700m in under ten years. CentralNic brought together an unprecedented range of domain name businesses, including corporate domain name management companies in Denmark, France, Germany and the US East and West Coasts.

After leaving CentralNic at the end of 2022, Ben joined the Boards of games distributor Flexion Mobile PLC and movie/TV/podcast development company Voyage Media, and consulted to the registry for the .Art TLD, a pioneer in bundling DNS domain names with matching crypto domains – giving Ben first-hand experience in the challenges involved in reconciling the Domain Name System with the new world of blockchain domains.

Prior to joining the domain name industry, Ben worked in the art media in New York for six years, and previously in the sports media business, including as Executive Producer of the Official Website of the Olympic Games.

Ben is an Australian citizen who has lived in seven countries. He graduated with a BA with First Class Honours and an MBA from the University of Sydney.

As Chief Operating Officer, Hayath runs one of Com Laude’s busiest teams. She leads an ever-growing team of Domain Strategists, ensuring that they have the necessary skills and depth of knowledge to provide the high quality personal service that our clients, expect and deserve. She is an excellent people manager, and enjoys getting to know and develop her staff.

Hayath brings 20 years’ experience in the domain name industry to the team, including time spent as an in-house domain name expert at a FTSE 100 company, which has furnished her with a thorough understanding of the value a domain name has to its owner. She has a Master’s degree in Information System Analysis from Linkoping University, Sweden.

Kevin graduated from the University of Southampton in 2001, obtaining a BSc (Hons) degree in Accounting and Finance and is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Kevin joined the Com Laude Group in July 2018 bringing over 4 years of experience in the domain name industry having previously been Group Financial Controller of Centralnic Group PLC.

Kevin has a wealth of experience in both financial and management reporting and has worked on M&A transactions and integrations of both UK and multinational companies. Kevin is also our Company Secretary.

Nick is a director and co-founder of Com Laude. Nick has a real passion for the domain name industry and believes that it is currently an emerging industry in a time of great change. It’s a time where best practice is not well-established and not always relevant. However, it is fascinating and challenging to be working with some of the world’s leading brands, helping them to create and implement strategy.

He spends considerable time immersed in the ICANN environment representing client issues in policy discussions and staying abreast of the latest changes, to help keep clients abreast of the latest developments and enable them to make informed decisions about their online IP strategies.

Nick is also deeply involved in several IP organisations: as a director and council member of MARQUES, the European association of brand owners, an associate member of the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys and a committee member at the International Trademark Association.

For many years, Nick has acted at the cutting edge of rights protection in domain names, having edited “The Perfect Sunrise”, the influential booklet on pre-launch rights protection measures. He is a member of the editorial board of Managing Intellectual Property magazine, co-author of Domain Names: Global Practice and Procedure, published by Sweet & Maxwell and co-author of the rights protection mechanisms recommended to ICANN for the launch of new gTLDs.

Gareth is Com Laude’s Chief Technology Officer and joined the company in May 2018. He has 18 years’ experience of working in domain name management and served in multiple operational and technical senior management positions for both domain name registrars and registries. Over that time, Gareth has experienced and managed many of the major technological and operational changes affecting the industry and enjoys tackling the challenges and opportunities that these changes present.

Gareth leads a highly skilful and focused technical team whose primary aim is on providing our clients with the “best in class” online experience in domain name management and online brand protection.

Outside of work, Gareth is a keen road cyclist and is currently secretary of his local cycling club.

He holds a BA (Hons) degree in Geography from Middlesex University and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of South Wales.

Tim is Head of Brand Protection – in our intellectual property protection division. In this role Tim has advised some of the world’s foremost brands on Internet intellectual property matters over the two decades.

Tim also acts as an independent Expert for Nominet’s Dispute Resolution Service – the award-winning dispute system for the .uk domain name space.

Tim keeps up to date with key developments in Internet policy and governance and served as a member of Nominet’s.uk policy stakeholder committee from 2013 to 2016.

Tim has specialised in Internet intellectual property since 1996 when he focused on the interaction between trade marks and domains as part of his IT and IP focused law degree at Southampton University.

Heather is Com Laude’s General Counsel. She is an ICANN veteran having held various leadership positions within the ICANN community including GNSO Council Chair and Vice Chair, GNSO Councillor for the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) and IPC President. She was the first non-contracted party member to be elected Chair of the GNSO, and as yet the only female GNSO Chair.

Heather brings to Com Laude a broad range of skills and experience from past roles. As an Associate and Senior Associate at (then called) Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, Heather advised global brand clients on trans-Atlantic M&A activity, IP portfolio management and the EU’s then-nascent data privacy regime. She had the great pleasure of serving as pro bono legal counsel to LIFT, the London International Festival of Theatre. As Senior Domain Name Industry Consultant at AusRegistry International, she oversaw the development of 140+ new gTLD applications.

Heather’s landmark book, Protection of Geographic Names in International Law and Domain Name System Policy, is the world’s authoritative resource on the intersection of geographic domain names, ICANN policy and international law. It forms the basis of her doctoral thesis from Universität Bern, Switzerland, where it was awarded highest honours (summa cum laude) and the Swiss National Prize for Doctoral Theses in Law in 2013. Her research in the area additionally served as the basis for an expert report in Amazon EU S.à.r.l. v. ICANN. Heather remains an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania in Australia and enjoys following her treasured former students’ experiences and accomplishments.

Stuart is our Chief Commercial Officer, having joined Com Laude in April 2023.  Stuart has nearly 20 years experience in the domain name and brand protection industry, having previously held senior commercial positions at NetNames, CSC, CentralNic and OpSec Security.

Stuart played a big role in the first round of the new gTLD programme in 2012, working with a number of global brands in creating dotBrand strategies and use case scenarios whilst he was at NetNames, and brings that expertise and experience to Com Laude.

Stuart is a published writer, both on subjects around domain names and intellectual property protection but also on football culture.

Ken has been involved with internet domains and intellectual property for over 25 years. He helps advise multinational corporations and IP law firms in setting up enterprise solutions for domain portfolio management, including strategic global registrations, gap analysis, security services (DNS, SSLs, Blocks), monitoring, enforcement, dotBrands, and blockchain domains. He has been a member of the Intellectual Property Constituency at ICANN since 2001, served three terms on the Internet Committee at INTA, and completed two terms on the Cyberspace Team at MARQUES. He is a frequent speaker on domain issues and trademark investigations.

Prior to joining Com Laude, Ken founded Marksmen, a world leader in brand protection, and served as the company’s CEO and Chairman for 16 years. He remains active with Marksmen as a principal shareholder and consultant.

Ken is also founder and editor of selva oscura press a 501(c)(3), non-profit publisher of experimental poetry (selvaoscura.com).

He received his BA in English from Auburn University.

Sara is a Trademark Attorney with a master’s degree in New Technologies Law.
Sara started working on the Domain Name Industry in 2002 and has since worked at Law Firms, Registrars and Registries. She has been a member of INTA since 2008 and part of their leadership group since 2012. She has been a public speaker since 2002 for organizations like INTA, USPTO, APWG, or ACC among others.

Throughout these years she has worked on topics that affect Legal (Domain Name Management, Monitoring Solutions, Enforcement, UDRP, URS, C&D, Acquisitions, Policy), Marketing (Auditing and Managing Social Media, Mobile App, Counterfeit) and Security teams (Auditing and managing portfolios of DNS/SSL/DDoS/DNS Firewall).

Sara’s extensive background allows her to help clients audit their overall online presence so together they can create a tailor-made approach to protect their brand online. She helps brands finding and prioritizing legal and security concerns assisting in developing in-house stakeholder groups to make sure the appropriate internal groups work together in decisions that affect their presence online.

Languages: Spanish, English, Catalan

Yoshi Murakami has been involved in domains and intellectual property since 2002. He has managed extensive gTLD and ccTLD domain portfolios for clients and provided intellectual property advice to big brands throughout Japan.

A veteran of the ICANN community, he managed the applications for 24 dot brands from Japan and South Korea and has worked both as a registrar and registry provider. He has worked with Com Laude since October 2017.

Under Yoshi’s leadership Com Laude Japan offers the full suite of Com Laude and Valideus services: Corporate Domain Name Management for brands and large enterprises through to dot brand registry management services.

Ashley is the Head of New TLD Consultancy for Com Laude and leads the delivery of Com Laude’s Dot Brand Services. Ashley has over 15 years’ experience in the domain name industry, living through the 2012 round of new gTLDs, in which he guided clients through ICANN’s TLD application and launch process.

Ashley developed Com Laude’s Front-End Registry Management service, a fully outsourced product for staying compliant with ICANN’s Registry Agreement.

He continues to work with clients to manage their dotBrands and help them develop valuable use cases for their businesses. Ashley has also been involved with ICANN for a decade, regularly attending ICANN public meetings to effectively represent clients’ interests.

Prior to his role with the Dot Brand Services team, Ashley worked as a Domain Strategist on the registrar side of the business.

Susan is Head of Legal Policy and joined Com Laude from BBC Worldwide, where she was Head of Brand Protection. She brought her knowledge from the other side of the new gTLD application process, having worked on the application for the dot BBC TLD, and been responsible for BBC Worldwide’s brand protection strategy at the second level. Working with limited budgets and personnel resources, she has faced the same problems that many clients are currently facing in seeking to protect their brands in the expanded gTLD space.

At Com Laude, Susan helps our clients navigate ICANN policy, to ensure that they remain compliant with their obligations as a registry operator, and engages on new ICANN policy development, being an active participant in a number of ICANN working groups including those on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures and Rights Protections. Susan is one of the honorary legal advisors to the Brand Registry Group (BRG) and will be the INTA Internet Committee’s subcommittee chair for New gTLD Subsequent Rounds and Geographic Terms during the 2018-2019 term.

Sophie is a Policy Advisor for Com Laude. She has been with Com Laude since 2018 and works with dot Brand and verified registries to represent their interests in ICANN policy work. This has previously included the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team, the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group, and the Geographic Names at the Top-Level Work Stream. Her current ICANN participation includes the GNSO/GAC Closed Generics Facilitated Dialogue and the Subsequent Procedures Implementation Review Team.

She also supports the registrar side of the business with ICANN engagement, participating in the DNS Abuse contract negotiations with ICANN as part of the Registrar Stakeholder Group negotiating team.

Sophie is an Australian Lawyer and holds a combined Bachelor of Business and Laws with Honours, majoring in Corporate Governance from the University of Tasmania.

Trent joined Com Laude in April 2018 and brings over 18 years’ experience in the domain name industry to the team. He has provided brand protection for dozens of the worlds most recognized and valuable brands, most recently as the in-house domain portfolio manager for Amazon and business analyst for their new gTLDs. His past roles also include in-house domain portfolio management for AOL and digital brand management of Fortune 500 clients.

Trent’s diverse background with in-house intellectual property programs, registry, and registrar operations brings a unique perspective to brand owners who face challenges in the rapidly changing domain name space.

Outside of the office, he enjoys family time, attending Washington DC sporting events, exploring the great outdoors, and travel.

Kate is Com Laude’s Lead Portfolio Strategist.  In this role she is responsible for helping clients and the operations team implement strategies to optimise their domain portfolios.

Kate has worked in the domain and brand protection industry for over 18 years, gaining experience in Com Laude in the early days. 

She then worked for Corsearch and Incopro helping brand owners build successful domain management and brand protection strategies before returning to Com Laude in October 2023.

She has a BA in Communications Studies from Dublin City University.

Based in Seattle, Washington, Matt is a Lead Portfolio Strategist and responsible for several North American clients. He joined Com Laude USA in 2015 following two years with a global giant technology firm, where he managed their domain name portfolio. This industry experience, has furnished him with first-hand knowledge of the challenges faced by multinational brand owners in the new gTLD era. At Com Laude USA, he works with clients to fully understand their objectives and service their domain name management needs to enhance their portfolios.

In his spare time he enjoys attending sporting events, learning musical instruments, and expanding his encyclopaedic knowledge of obscure facts.

He has a BA in Business Administration, with a concentration in Management Information Systems from the University of Washington Bothell.

Toneé joined Com Laude at the beginning of 2018 after working in Customer Service and Management for 6 years. Tonee thoroughly enjoys ensuring customers and clients are satisfied with services, and always helps to ensure they receive the best teaching and training.

Outside of the office Toneé loves to socialise and spend time with loved ones and is allegedly the best tea and coffee maker in the office.

Gary is a Senior Domain Strategist for Com Laude. He is an excellent project manager and has a strong will to succeed, passion, endless energy to do well and to contribute to the success of the company. During his time at Com Laude he has been particularly proud of the time oversaw the mass migration into Com Laude’s custodianship of a well-known corporation’s domain name portfolio.

Gary joined Com Laude in 2009 and is a regular windsurfer, so if he doesn’t answer the phone he’s probably to be found somewhere on the water.

Camisa is a Domain Strategist in our Seattle office. Her background of customer service and marketing for large retail businesses means she is well-placed to handle the tricky queries of domain name management for her clients. An organised approach to work, coupled with the ability to connect and communicate with others is ideal for her role.

Camisa joined Com Laude in 2016 and has a degree with a major in Business Administration and a concentration in Marketing from Western Washington University.

Borut is a Domain Strategist – Team Lead, based in the Edinburgh office. He joined the domain name industry over 10 years ago starting as a software developer at a registrar rapidly growing with the launch of new gTLDs, during which Borut quickly rose to the position of Operations Manager, before moving to Scotland in 2016 to work for Demys, a well established online brand protection company, now part of the Com Laude Group.

He keeps a keen eye on the developments in the domain name industry and online brand protection. Borut enjoys keeping close relationship with Com Laude’s clients and particularly thrives on complexities of client account management.

Out of office, Borut can be found on his motorbike in the Scottish Highlands and islands, or in the gym training kickboxing.

Dietmar is a Senior Product Strategist who assists .BRAND clients in running their registries and ensures they stay up-to-date with all new policies, among other responsibilities. His exceptional customer support skills and friendly demeanour serve him well in an environment with forever moving goal posts.

Dietmar manages the validation team and handles operational aspects of the various validation projects, calling upon his strong organisational skills and attention to detail. He is also in charge of the WEB3 team and helps customers understand blockchain domain names and provides strategic advice with their purchases.

Zac is a Senior Product Strategist based out of Seattle, Washington, and is responsible for several North American clients. He joined Com Laude USA in 2015 after three years with a global technology corporation, where he managed their domain name portfolio. His experience within the corporate domain name ownership industry gives him a unique perspective of the challenges that companies face with the ever-expanding industry of domains. At Com Laude USA, he uses his experience to better assist his clients in achieving their brand protection and expansion goals.

When Zac is not at work, he enjoys photography, sporting events, building computers, and reading about the “next big thing” in the world of technology.

He has a BS in Psychology with a minor in Geography from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

Based in Edinburgh, Graeme is one of our Senior Product Strategist. Having joined the industry in 2007, he took the lead on managing client applications within various Top Level Domain launches, such as .ME, .ASIA, .CO, .XXX & more recently .SCOT.

Graeme’s breadth of knowledge within the Domain, DNS & SSL Certificate spaces underpin and support his passion to ensure clients receive the best possible service both from him directly and across the business.

Graeme is an accomplished musician, playing several instruments although his passion is for the Trombone, which he took up over 25 years ago. He has played with several Brass Bands, as well as multiple orchestras and swing/dance band ensembles. One particular, repeated, highlight has been to represent Scotland at The National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 1^st section Finals on three separate occasions.

Louise is a Senior Domain Strategist and being a completer finisher is ideally suited to her role at Com Laude, where clients issues are taken care of from start of query to resolution and fulfilment. Her sense of humour and busy spare time with family mean that she’s able to juggle the many widely varying tasks that she is faced with every day with ease.

She joined Com Laude in 2007 having previously run a graphic design company for over twenty years. Away from the office, Louise enjoys cooking and walking the dog.

She has a BA in Graphic Design from LCP, London.

Based in Valencia, Spain, ​Jasna is a Senior Domain Strategist whose clients know her as reliable, patient, and thorough – and being determined and quick to complete their orders. Jasna has held a number of roles with the business since joining in 2009, including client invoicing and projects and research. She particularly enjoyed her research position, which included working closely with registries, staying abreast of their rules and regulations, and completing the onboarding process.

Jasna has handled domain names since the dot-com boom of the early noughties, when she worked with one of the largest web hosting and email providers. Then she moved in-house to lastminute.com, working as a marketing analyst and executive, handling the domain name portfolio for one of the UK’s most successful internet brands.

Away from work, Jasna enjoys gardening and swimming.

She has a BSc (Hons) in Biology.

James joined Com Laude in July 2016 and currently works in the Eastbourne office. His day-to-day tasks involve registrations, transfers and management of clients domains. Outside of the office, James plays tennis and his favourite football team is Crystal Palace.

Umberto is a Domain Strategist and is our transfers expert. Tenacious and with the patience that Neopolitans are famed for, he is regularly consulted by colleagues who require his expertise with a portfolio transfer. A wide variety of previous roles in industries as diverse as property and transport has loaded Umberto with excellent customer relationship skills. With more than five years’ experience in the domain name industry, he speaks fluent DNS as well as Italian.

Umberto is a people person – outside of work he likes to spend time with family, play tennis and host dinner parties. He has a BBA (Hons) Business Administration (Tourism Management), (2:1) from the Faculty of Villa Campolieto, University of Herculaneum.

Lam has been a Domain Strategist on the Tokyo Operations team since 2019. Here’s what sets Lam apart: he hails from diverse backgrounds, speaking multiple languages fluently. Whether it’s English, Japanese, or Dutch, he bridges communication gaps seamlessly. Precision matters to Lam.

Leaving no stone unturned with his meticulous approach, he ensures smooth operations and client satisfaction. Chaos has no place here as he thrives on structure and order. With streamlined workflows in place, projects stay on track, deadlines are met, and stakeholders are informed.

Natalie is a Domain Strategist on our Global Operations team, based out of Santiago, Chile. As a bilingual English-Spanish speaker, she works with Com Laude’s clients in the USA and LatAm markets. She advises on the ins and outs of clients’ domain portfolios, analyzes areas for targeted growth, and best practices on IP defense strategies.

Natalie is an adventurer from Seattle with a deep love for the outdoors, and a passion for new and exciting foods (read: extreme lover of Mexican food, shellfish, and cheese).

Michael is a Domain Strategist on the Seattle team, working remotely from Florida. His background consists of a range of skills, including excellent customer service, servant leadership, project management, and crisis management. He is a conscientious person who pays attention to detail, is flexible, quick to pick up new skills, and eager to learn from others.

His hobbies include traveling, gaming, coding, and watching sports. Michael holds a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, as well as a certificate in Business Administration from St. Petersburg College.

Jim Morales is a Domain Strategist based in our Seattle office. Jim worked in a number of different sectors in the past including five years for the US Air Force.

The fact that Jim has gained a great deal of experience in client and project management before joining Com Laude has been a real bonus, as he is able to consistently work to very high standards in an extremely professional manner.

Jim holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas in San Antonio as well as an Associates of Applied Sciences from Seattle Central College in Social Work.

Afton joined Com Laude in 2016 and is a Renewal Manager based in the Eastbourne Office. She grew up in Germany and before joining Com Laude worked in various sectors and countries.

Afton has a great deal of experience in project management and customer service which helps with her day to day tasks such as transfer, reassignment and registration projects.

She enjoys bringing a new clients portfolio into our management, and building a friendly relationship with the key contacts.

Afton loves travelling and visiting new places, although her bank balance doesn’t quite like this as much as she does!

Mercedes is Lead Registry Relations & Compliance. In a previous role, she built and maintained a database of domain registry requirements, policies and prices.and is known amongst our clients for her wealth of domain name experience. She is responsible for looking after two main clients and organising and managing the research team, being sure that deadlines are met, issues/news looked into and contracts are signed on time for new gTLDs. She also helps solve issues for Client Managers, data cleaning, contact with new gTLDs registries for queries and Premium names, amongst other tasks.

Calm under pressure and highly organised, Mercedes works from our Valencia base and helps out with Latin American and French-speaking registries. After a decade in the domain name industry, Mercedes has assembled a three-dimensional picture of how domain names increase awareness of a brand, an asset as prized as her ability to manage the team.

She joined Com Laude in 2006 and has a BSc in Business and Economy from the University of Valencia, Spain and a Masters in Translation from the University of Westminster, London.

Clare is a Registry Relations & Compliance Manager working out of our Eastbourne office. She is responsible for liaising with new gTLD Registries around the world, looking into updates and developments in the domain industry and writing news articles on them. Clare is involved in researching registry requirements and ensuring internal compliance with contracts and regulations. She also works on domain due diligence and internal trade mark matters.

Before joining Com Laude in January 2018, Clare had 10 years’ experience in the Trade Mark profession, latterly working in top tier firms advising on brand protection, portfolio management and domain name recovery. Clare is a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney, and she holds an LLB (Hons) from the University of Surrey.

Kirsty joined Com Laude in 2012 after having worked for over 13 years in the Intellectual Property department of the second largest luxury goods company in the world, where she centralised and managed the domain name portfolios and digital certificates for a large number of prestigious global brands, reduced costs significantly by establishing relationships with registries, as well as provided trade mark, domain name due diligence and other searches and strategic domain registration advice. Prior to this she worked for 4 years as an IP Administrator, primarily on global patent formalities, in the Patents & Licensing Department of a china clay research laboratory in Cornwall, where she grew up.

With so many years of experience in the Intellectual Property world, Kirsty now works in Com Laude’s Registry Relations & Compliance Team and provides meticulous attention to detail researching current domain policies and regulations for ccTLD and gTLD registries, conducting special client research projects, TLD registrar onboarding, as well as writing newsflashes and newsletter articles for the Group. Kirsty’s work assists both Domain Strategists and clients, keeping them up-to-date on TLDs and their requirements. Kirsty also works to ensure that Com Laude’s compliance obligations are kept in top order as an accredited registrar for multiple domain registries around the world.

She single-handedly managed the launch timetables, registrar onboarding and client news updates for the first-generation of new gTLDs launched from 2013 to 2017, liaising with registries and ensuring that Com Laude achieved accreditation status in as many open new gTLDs as was possible in time for the Sunrise launch periods for clients.

Kirsty also researches the new gTLD content for the yearly Com Laude & Valideus Gazetteer of Top Level Domains, providing an overview of 1,600 domain registries and their policies.

Away from work, Kirsty enjoys singing as a soprano in one of the leading choirs in the South-West of England, the Three Spires Singers, as well as playing folk and international music with her partner in their piano-violin duo We’re ÓK and the Cornish coastline.

Caitlin is our Lead Brand Protection Strategist based in our Edinburgh office. She holds a LL.B. in Business Law and a LL.M. in Intellectual Property and IT Global Licensing.

She gained her first practical experience in defending big brand’s intellectual property at two established law firms in Berlin. In 2021, she joined our intellectual property protection division and is since safeguarding our clients’ online presence, image, and trademarks.

Caitlin has a passion for advising on brand protection matters and IP strategies. In her role she works closely with our clients to monitor and enforce brand protection measures, preserving the integrity and value of their brands and trademarks in the online space. She particularly enjoys working with various stakeholders around the world and analysing international legal frameworks using her experience and strategic skills.

Furthermore, Caitlin has a bilingual background and speaks both German and English.

Dino Kusanovic obtained a marketing degree from DOBA Faculty of Applied Business and Social Studies, Slovenia, in 2014. He moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2016 to start his career at Demys Limited as a Domain Name Consultant. Dino was quickly promoted to the role of Client Manager and managed portfolios for some of the world’s biggest brands, providing assistance with their domain names, DNS and SSL certificates.

In 2019 he joined the Intellectual Property protection division as a Brand Protection Manager and in 2024 became a Brand Protection Strategist. Utilising his broad range of skills and expertise, Dino supports famous brands in protecting their online presence and safeguarding their image in the ever changing cyber environment.

Athina is a Brand Protection Strategist working from our Edinburgh office. She holds dual Bachelor’s degrees in Law Faculty and Greek Literature, specialising in Linguistics, from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and an LLM in Intellectual Property and Digital Economy from the University of Glasgow.

Since joining our Brand Protection team, she is responsible for the delivery of our domain name watching service – Com Laude Watch.

Furthermore, Athina’s meticulous attention to detail, coupled with her strategic approach, allows her to navigate the legal frameworks required to effectively provide our suite of enforcement services.

Athina is passionate in providing expert guidance on all aspects of brand protection matters. Outside work, she enjoys world cinema and keeping fit.  

Huw is Com Laude’s Head of Product Management. Huw comes from a development background has managed development teams and worked in the domain name industry since 2001. Huw was operated in roles for both registrars (Net Searchers, Register.com, Com Laude) and registries (Telnic). Huw holds a BSc Honours(1:1) in Computer Studies from the University of Glamorgan. Outside of the office Huw is a keen Cyclist – ‘Miles are my Meditation’.

Mike has been in the domain industry for nearly 20 years, and with Com Laude since 2006. A shrewd investigator with a keen eye for detail, Mike ensures all aspects of Com Laude run smoothly and are done in the interests of both the company and our clients. Colleagues turn to Mike for counsel on approaches to complex processes and data analysis. He’s a problem solver. That might be why he is also our resident Excel expert. He loves it – others don’t, so they come to him for advice and encouragement when their brains can’t quite switch to Excel mode.

Outside of the office Mike is a competition winning travel photographer who, in the same time he has worked for Com Laude, has visited over 40 countries and had work exhibited across the UK, and in venues which include St Paul’s Cathedral.

David is Com Laude’s Head of Architecture. With experience at both registries and registrars he has a very deep understanding of the domain industry and the technology that drives it. Keen on experimenting with new products and technologies David is the first to volunteer to producing a programmatic solution to any challenge. He primarily works with the intellectual property protection division on Big Data to identify any references to client’s brands online.

His previous role with Demys was Chief Technology Officer with a focus on developing company technology provision to improve service delivery and enhance the client interaction and experience with the company’s systems; together with working on the development of new service offerings for all domain name matters – be they brand related, technology related or of a policy and governance nature. Prior to that, his first involvement with the domain industry began in 2013 when David worked at a registry as Head of Technology.

David holds a Bachelor (Honours) of Computer Science (Programming) from the University of Maribor, Slovenia and speaks English, Russian and Slovenian fluently.

Michael is Com Laude’s Head of IT Operations. With a background in development, he joined Com Laude in 2005, and has been involved in settings up Com Laude’s IT systems since the company was founded, including technical infrastructure, DNS, front end systems, and registry integrations. Outside of IT, Michael is a windsurfer and fantasy writer.