Meet the People at the DB Group

Lorraine Clinton – Chair

Lorraine is an experienced, portfolio Chair and Non-Executive Director, and also operates her own business providing Board, CEO and business mentoring services, operational excellence and governance support. Her key interest areas are strategy definition, major change management and stakeholder engagement. Previously Lorraine spent twenty years in global manufacturing and construction with Pilkington plc.

Wayne Zakers – Chief Executive Officer

Wayne joined the DB Group as CEO in June 2016. A Chemical Engineer by background, he started his career with the chemicals arm of a multi-national oil and gas company. His early career was spent in operations management and engineering, and led to Chartered Engineer status. A desire to develop his career in a different environment and with new challenges led him to move to a premium supplier of construction chemicals. His role grew from General Manager to Vice President level in sales & marketing, and in running the international export team, selling into four continents.

When approached about the CEO role at DB Group, Wayne was struck by the enthusiasm and passion of the team, as well as the support and long-term commitment of the shareholders. The high service levels offered in the waterproofing business, based around the famous PUDLO brand, stood out and were highly valued by the customer base. The ability to significantly reduce the environmental impacts of the construction industry through the Cemfree technology was an important factor in Wayne’s decision to join the company.

Martin Coles – Group Finance Director

Before joining DB Group, Martin trained as a Chartered Management Accountant and worked in numerous sectors. He has gained all-round experience in financial management, planning & analysis and costing. Martin has also lectured on professional accountancy courses and took up the opportunity to be an author for two educational publishers. After joining a stock exchange listed company as financial controller, and subsequently promoted to Finance Director, he played a major role in several business acquisitions. After this he was Finance Director at Sylmar Technology, and together with the MD completed a successful MBO at the height of the financial crisis.

William Kendall – Non Executive Director

William read law at Cambridge University and completed an MBA at INSEAD. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University College Suffolk.  In his twenties he had short careers as an army officer, a barrister and an investment banker.  Over nine years he built up The New Covent Garden Soup Company before selling it to a public company.  He and several colleagues then bought the embryonic Green & Black’s from its founder and grew it to an international brand which they sold to Cadburys in 2005.

William and two partners formed Nemadi Advisors in 2000 to advise and finance early stage businesses. He is advisor to and director of many organisations, both public and private including Cawston Press, a fast growing premium soft drinks brand, Samworth Brothers, a large, family owned food manufacturer and, main market listed investment trust, Keystone.  He is a Trustee of The Grosvenor Estate and director of Wheatsheaf, the holding company of Grosvenor’s non-property businesses.

Fiona Emmett – Non Executive Director

Fiona is Director of Finance at Wheatsheaf Group, a UK based business which directly operates, invests in and helps to develop businesses and which has investments across the food, agriculture and energy sectors. Through the activities of over 2,500 people across 34 countries, Wheatsheaf aims to reduce waste, using raw materials more efficiently and have less reliance on harsh chemicals. In her role Fiona is responsible for the strategic and operational finance and accounting function. Fiona joined Wheatsheaf in 2012 having previously held the position of Finance Director at The Chester Grosvenor Hotel. She is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA) and holds a diploma in Corporate Treasury (AMCT).

Victoria Ball – Non Executive Director

Victoria Ball worked at DB Group after graduating from Cambridge University, where she read Middle Eastern Studies. She conducted postgraduate studies at Oxford University in Sustainable Development and then joined one of the world’s largest brand consultancies, where she specialised in devising strategy to launch new products and determine optimal brand architecture. Victoria now runs her own business which trains clients to develop skills such as confidence, empathy, emotional intelligence and leadership. She is a consultant for Debrett’s, the authority on social and professional behaviour. She has lived and worked in many countries and speaks several languages.

Ed Boyle – Non Executive Director

Ed started his career as an accountant in 1972 for Chrysler UK before taking on accountancy roles for various companies within the construction industry. He is now Company Secretary and Finance Director for the Altro Group, a role that he embarked on in 1984 and still relishes today.

Wayne Zakers – Chief Executive Officer

Martin Coles – Group Finance Director

Before joining DB Group, Martin trained as a Chartered Management Accountant and worked in numerous sectors. In his early career these included engineering, capital goods distribution, hygiene rental and a government ‘quango’. He gained all-round experience in financial management, planning & analysis and costing.

At the age of 34, in a quest to widen his experiences, Martin trained as a secondary school teacher. He taught A-level students and lectured on professional accountancy courses. He also took up the opportunity to be an author for two educational publishers.
Back in industry, Martin joined a stock exchange listed company as financial controller, and was subsequently promoted to Finance Director where he played a major role in several business acquisitions. After this he was Finance Director at Sylmar Technology, and together with the MD completed a successful MBO at the height of the financial crisis.

Martin was attracted to DBG because of the huge growth opportunities both in the UK and worldwide and he looks forward to seeing the company go from strength to strength.

Tony Sheridan – Group Commercial Manager

Dr Kostas Koutselas – Group Technology Manager

Kostas has extensive technical experience in concrete and admixtures, as well as a strong record of delivering innovative concepts and identifying market technical needs within concrete technology. The technical, commercial and development aspects of his role here at DBG create a unique opportunity for Kostas to utilise his know-how and expertise to help create new products for DBG to introduce to the market.

Oliver Minett – Group Operations Manager

In this role, Oliver is responsible for the integration of sustainable production and procurement into our company working practices. He oversees the sourcing of equipment and materials as well as international export and importing of products. Furthermore, Oliver is responsible for new product development in conjunction with Technology, Commercial and Finance functions. He oversaw the planning and execution of the company’s transition from offices in Bar Hill to its new site in Bourn – which involved managing stock on both sites – without any disruption.
Oliver has a BA Hons in Management from Anglia Ruskin University. He is also IOSH qualified for managing safety.

Deirdra Bartholomew – Marketing & Commercial Services Manager

Liam Leonard – Technical Standards Manager

Liam joined DBG in 2008. His role is to support all the brands across the DB Group as Technical Standards Manager and manage the technical team. Liam plays an important part in building on the Group’s relationships with clients and is also involved in new product development. In 2016, Liam became an Associate Member to the Institute of Concrete Technology after successfully completing his Certificate in Concrete Technology and later that year, Liam qualified as a CSSW Certified Surveyor in Structural Waterproofing. He represents PUDLO on the PCA Waterproofing Steering Group and has recently become an examiner for the CSSW examinations.

Soresh Meeda – Bourn Site Operations Manager

Matt Smith – PUDLO Commercial Manager

Michael O’Neil – Non Executive Director

Michael is an Investment Director with Grosvenor which he joined in 2015, and represents the company on several Boards. He joined from Europe’s largest cleantech private equity fund where he managed all elements of the deal process and represented the firm at several of the portfolio companies. Prior to this Michael was an Investment Analyst at an entrepreneurial, family-office backed, clean-power investment business operating across Europe. Prior to his investment roles, Michael was a Strategy Consultant with Accenture, working with clients in the Utilities and Energy sectors on major transformation projects.

Michael is a CFA Charter holder and graduated with a first-class Engineering, Economics and Management degree from Oxford University.

Marta Diez-Garcia – Concrete Technologist

Marta studied chemistry (BSc+MSc) at the university of the Basque country in Spain. Her first approach to construction materials was through the analysis of the degradation of Middle Ages wall paintings. Marta studied for one year in Florence and worked in the cultural heritage conservation laboratories at the university. After that she did a master in “environmental pollution and toxicology” researching how environmental factors in coastal areas would affect the conservation state. She then furthered her career in construction materials doing a cotuttele PhD thesis on advanced materials under the Euskampus umbrella.. During her thesis she worked on the synthesis of crystalline tobermorite using a new flow process based on supercritical water, demonstrating the possibility of producing this material within few seconds instead of hours. This product was proved to be acting as seeds on cement pastes, accelerating the hydration on early ages. After the completion of the doctoral thesis she started working as inorganic chemical researcher in the global research laboratories of a multinational cement manufacturer. During the 3 years she gained experience on the cement industry and improved her laboratory skills using different analytical techniques such as XRD-Rietveld, XRF, calorimetry… In 2021 she joined DBG as concrete technologist to keep developing the products of the company, specially cemfree.