OneID appoints Paula Sussex as CEO to drive expansion

OneID, the identity service provider, has today announced the appointment of Paula Sussex as CEO who will lead the firm through its next period of expansion. OneID has recently signed deals with NatWest, JCB Finance, DocuSign and Intesi, which enables Adobe Acrobat Sign.

Most recently Paula was CEO for the Student Loans Company. Described by McKinsey in 2016 as “a medium-sized retail bank”, the SLC is a government-owned company that manages a loan book of some £200bn and supports some 6m customers.

With a background in blue chip consulting and technology services businesses, Paula was Senior Vice President and member of the UK Board at CGI, responsible for building new markets in health and public sector with end-to-end profit and loss responsibility for a £400m per annum business unit. Prior to that, she was CEO of Atos Consulting and a Managing Consultant at KPMG.

Paula qualified as a barrister before turning to the tech world. She was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours list. Paula will take over from Martin Wilson who led the company through its build and early growth period. Martin will resume his position as non-executive director on the OneID board.

Richard Little, chairman of OneID, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Paula to the OneID team. Paula has an excellent track record in both public and private sectors and leads with energy, drive and passion. She brings a strong commercial mindset to the role.”

“As an investor in the business, Martin originally joined the Board as a non-executive director before stepping into the CEO position to lead it through its formative years. He has built the OneID platform and legal framework and OneID was the first to be accredited by DCMS as a Digital ID provider, orchestrator and scheme. The service is fully operational with the capability to verify identities of c50m UK citizens. The partnership with NatWest marks a major landmark in the company’s development. The time is now right to bring in a CEO to lead the company through our next growth phase. I am truly grateful for Martin’s contribution and very pleased that he will return to his non-executive director role and help drive OneID’s success.”

Paula Sussex, CEO of OneID, commented:“There is growing recognition that identity technology can help solve huge commercial and social issues such as fraud, compliance and cost of securing data in a business. OneID tackles all of these issues and I’m delighted to be joining at such an exciting time. I look forward to working with the excellent OneID team and board to continue its expansion and enable businesses and consumers to operate online safely and securely.”

Martin Wilson, Non-Executive Director at OneID commented: “During my time leading OneID, the business has laid down solid foundations, including FCA certification, joining BACS’ list of direct debit verification providers and our partnership with NatWest. I am proud that we now have household names onboard who we are helping to thrive by improving their customers’ experience and protecting them and their customers from online fraud. We are truly making the world a safer place. I look forward to working with Paula as we enter this next stage in our evolution.”