SmartSearch continues growth with three senior appointments

03 December 2020

Leading UK anti-money laundering (AML) firm SmartSearch expanded its senior team with three new appointments in November. The recruitment reflects the continuing growth of the Ilkley-based business which has also broken into new international markets this year.

The roles of vice president of customer success, head of sales and enterprise development manager have been created in response to the increasing demand for the award-winning solution.

SmartSearch’s anti-money-laundering verification platform conducts individual and business searches, both for the UK and international markets. It includes automatic worldwide sanction and politically exposed person (PEP) screening and ensures users are compliant with Know Your Customer (KYC) regulation.

Chris Clayton-White has been appointed vice-president of customer success and will be responsible for overseeing the client services team. With a background at established fintech businesses, Clayton-White brings a wealth of expertise along with significant experience of leading an enterprise client management team.

Lee Carter has joined as head of sales and will be responsible for delivering new business sales targets. Carter’s main focus will be on developing SmartSearch’s enterprise business solutions and sales methodology. Carter is a leading industry expert in KYC and fraud and has held senior sales and business development roles over the last 10 years.

Finally, Matt Bevan joins as enterprise business development manager and will be responsible for enterprise sales to large financial services firms, as well as introducing SmartSearch to new markets in gaming, telecommunications, insurance and retail. Bevan has experience working for a global IT company and has a background in identity and fraud business.

The new senior appointments follow SmartSearch’s recent hiring of international development director Martin Turvey to oversee expansion into US and European markets. Reflecting the global demand for the market-leading AML solution.

John Dobson, CEO of SmartSearch said: “Having made good progress this year, our sights are now set on accelerating our success in 2021 and beyond. Our award-winning solution already serves around 40,000 users every day and this senior recruitment will support our growth into new sectors in the UK.

“Many of our clients enjoy the unique simplicity and comprehensive functionality delivered from our SmartSearch ‘plug & play’ platform, however, we are experiencing more demand from businesses that require an enterprise solution that they can tailor and integrate into their own technology.

“With the invaluable collective experience, Lee and Matt will help drive our expansion in to new and existing markets with our enterprise solutions whilst Chris will focus on the continued development of our extensive 4,500 client firms and oversee the delivery of our new enterprise solutions. They each bring new ideas and skillsets which will be invaluable in helping us to achieve our long-term aims.

“There is a huge market for anti-money laundering solutions in the UK and the events of 2020 have brought issues such as ID verification to the fore. This has generated great demand for our product, as we recorded our busiest ever month in September. These three new appointments will build on the success so far and help us achieve our goals in 2021.”