Zahara was founded in 2015 with a simple vision – Create user-friendly software to simplify time-consuming and overly complicated financial processes. Since then we have gone on to create a complete Purchase-to-Pay / AP Automation solution with customers across the globe. Here is the team behind the decisions, the designs and the support of Zahara as a global application.
Founder & CEO
UK
Chief Operations Officer
UK
Systems Manager
Vice President Operations
Asia Pac
Paul Droguet
Paul is based in Brisbane, Australia and manages Zahara in the Asia Pacific region. Paul has a technical career working in both Australia and the UK. He has a great knowledge of business processes and associated technologies that improve efficiencies. Paul is the territory manager for Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific providing real-time support and sales insight for both existing and new customers.
Customer Success Manager
Onboarding Lead
Onboarding Coordinator
Vitória has over eight years' experience in customer facing roles where she has met a variety of clients and has catered successfully and attentively to their individual needs, no matter the situation. Vitória loves being social and offering support to others, she can help you in English, Portuguese, or Spanish, so take your pick! When not at work you'll find her practicing her photography, climbing walls, or making colour coded spreadsheets. Vitória loves everything organisation and hopes to bring her creative flare and sunny personality with her, be careful her enthusiasm for lists is contagious.
Nadia joined the team in 2023 after graduating from Coventry University with a degree in Biomedical Science. She’s already got 6 years of customer service experience under her belt, and loves that it gives her the opportunity to meet new people all the time. She’s an avid traveller, makes a cracking coffee, and is always up for a natter (especially if it’s about dogs).
Stephen joined the team in 2023 as an Onboarding Specialist. Having graduated with a BA in Education and four years’ of experience working in customer facing roles, he brings an invaluable blend of educational knowledge and customer service skills to your onboarding experience. Beyond work, you can catch him playing cricket, watching rugby, swinging a golf club, or baking banana bread.
Head of Sales
Head of Marketing
Marketing
Content & SEO
Marketing
Designer
Harry joined Zahara in October 2022 as Head of Marketing with almost 10 years’ experience working with fast growing businesses. In his free time, he spends as much time as possible with his family, exploring the New Forest or walking his two dogs.
Rosa joined us in 2022 after completing two degrees in English Literature. Now she’s our resident wordsmith and is responsible for creating all Zahara’s written content. Her favourite thing about the job is helping to bring the Zahara brand to life with words. She’s an absolute stickler for grammar, but controversially is a die-hard fan of the Oxford comma. She's another Cornish member of the Zahara team, and feels most at home when she’s by the sea.
George’s creative background before he joined the team was at Kingston School of Art, where he trained in practical industrial design. After some time in industry (and pulling pints) he made the move to digital design, and dedicates his creative flare to Zahara’s web branding. He’s most content when he’s got a coffee in hand and is listening to the most obscure music life has to offer. His weekends are usually spent having a boogie and enjoying the underground music scene with pals.
Senior Developer & Architect
Design & Development Manager
Software Developer
Senior Developer
James is one of the founders of Zahara and is the lead developer and a real stickler for well tested code. Leading the internal development team, he tackles every project with calm professionalism, encouraging the team to find the best way to do things.
In his spare time he plays Minecraft, reads a lot of sci-fi, and explores the rich cultural diversity that is his home town of Brighton.
Having spent eight years in hospitality and retail management, including selling doughnuts for Krispy Kreme, Ant switched his focus to software six years ago. Since joining Zahara in January 2019, Ant looks after all things user-focused. Always looking to add strings to his bow, he is currently learning to code. Ant is also a keen sportsman, with skiing and football being his sports of choice. He has spent two seasons living and skiing in Canada.
Starting in 2016 as our primary support engineer, Carl worked through the ranks with his strong coding and analytical skillset to become a Software Developer. Working with Carl is nothing if not memorable, he bolsters optimism. He enjoys spending time with his wife, little border terrier dog called Chester, and coding in his spare time. He is the happiest when sat watching a cinematographic masterpiece (like 'Road to Perdition') with his little family.
Simon joined us in 2024 as a Senior Software Developer. He graduated with a degree in Electronic and Electrical engineering from Loughborough University in 1999, and made the switch to software testing in 2000. He’s been in software development since 2001, creating contact centre and data processing systems. He’s now using his over two decades of experience in industry to develop Zahara further. Outside of work Simon enjoys life with his family, playing board games, and walking and cycling as much as possible. He’s also a major coffee lover (and probably needs to cut back a little!).
Software Developer
Software Developer
QA Manager
Testing Developer
Tomasz joined us in 2021 as a full stack developer after graduating from the University of Hull with a degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering. Outside of work he loves to travel, competes in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and is completely devoted to his two adorable Siberian cats.
Having graduated from university with a degree in Outdoor Leadership, Lewis decided to challenge himself by finding a career in the technology industry. After spending 5 years as QA within the gaming industry, he decided to change sector and joined Zahara in August 2022. Having a passion for all things QA, it is his role to implement testing and oversee all QA processes at Zahara. Lewis is a huge fan of rugby union, enjoys playing video games and guitar, and likes spending time outdoors and exercising.
Josh finished studying Computing and Software Development at the University of Plymouth, and promptly joined the Zahara team in 2022. He has always had an interest in software and technology, particularly with web technologies. As a software tester at Zahara, Josh wants to use the experience to further develop his technical skills and work towards becoming a full stack developer.
Mat has a keen eye for programming and a keen ear for AI. He loves the power that coding gives a person and is always trying to put that power in the hands of others. Bristol born, bred and fed, he keeps the team moral high with his Bristolian accent and West-Country covers of songs. He travels everywhere on his skateboard and, at his best, can solve a Rubik's Cube in 52 seconds.
Developer
Developer
Software Testing
Software Testing
Cormac entered the world of work as junior test technician in the electronic manufacturing industry where he quickly discovered a passion for programming. After a lot of e-tinkering, 404 error messages and infinite loops, he managed to land a role as an apprentice web developer where he worked on numerous bespoke web applications across a range of technologies. He’s now doubling down with the aim to specialise in front-end web development.
In his spare time, you might find him paddling for dear life in his kayak, walking his 2 dogs, drinking obscene amounts of coffee or gaming!
Having spent most of her working life in customer service, Courtney decided to have a complete career change and become a software tester, something she had long been curious about! She started working at Zahara in October 2022, and her passion for QA has only grown since. Courtney is a strong advocate of environmental preservation, has a love for nature and animals (in particular cats), and enjoys drinking tea, wine and playing games!
Jordan graduated from the University of South Wales in 2019 with a degree in animation. From there, he developed an eye for detail (and more importantly, patience!), as well as an interest in game development and coding. He joined Zahara in 2023 where he was able to combine all these passions as a Software Tester. A former barista, he also enjoys a good brew as well as travelling, learning languages, and getting creative with personal art projects.
Alex joined us in 2024 as a Junior Software Developer after a varied career. Alex has done it all, from graduating with a Master's in Chemical Engineering, working in a brewery, as a chef, and completing a PGCE. Alex decided to go down the Software Development path due to his love of problem solving and computing. In his spare time you can find him cycling around Bristol, looking after his Sprocker Spaniel, or adding to his vinyl record collection.
UX Design
Product Manager
Having graduated from the University of Gloucestershire with a degree in Computer Games Design, Tom has always had a hands-on interest in new software. He's responsible for keeping the website as user-friendly as possible. Outside of work, Tom spends his time travelling and is slowly ticking off every European city. Luckily for us, he’s got a great eye for photography so we can live vicariously through him when he returns from his adventures. His every other waking moment is dedicated to Arsenal FC, and he wouldn’t have it any other way!
Emma's role is to help tune Zahara to our customers needs, making sure features and improvements make the modern finance team better. Her experience working in large finance departments ensure she understands end-user needs and how to get the most from Zahara. She is a stickler for the detail, loves a project board and will nudge the developers when they need nudging.
Support Manager
Support Engineer
Support Engineer
Support Engineer
Jenna has worked in various customer support roles over the years, particularly in the financial sector as she enjoys helping people and problem-solving. In her spare time she enjoys dancing, reading, southeast Asian language and philosophy, Kung Fu and a good K Drama on Netflix.
George graduated with a degree in Creative Computing from Bath Spa University and accumulated nine years' of experience in customer facing roles along the way. He joined Zahara in 2021 and always wears a smile, and the odd Hawaiian shirt. If he isn't hunched over a computer at home, he's busy cooking up a storm, most often making it up as he goes along. He also enjoys musical pursuits, video games and exploring the local delicacies and history of Bath.
Ethan has been in various IT customer support roles over the last five years. He has worked with several different technologies and programming languages along the way. He's a very keen learner, enjoys cricket in the summer, gaming, Liverpool FC, walking, going to the gym, and is a lover of cats.
Matt has vast customer service experience, working in retail since leaving college. More recently he studied at Swansea University as a mature student and gained a Web Development degree. He enjoys developing his web skills in his spare time as well as supporting Manchester United (don't judge him!) and going to gigs. But most of his time is spent running around after his son, playing football and Lego.
Support Engineer
Eve joined the Zahara team in 2022 after graduating from the University of Bristol, where she wrote an awful lot about History. When she is not rolling twenty-sided dice, she can often be found at a local cinema or enjoying one of Bristol’s best music venues.