About Us

Our full name is Acumen Professional Intelligence Ltd, but we prefer Acumen PI as it rolls off the tongue easier when answering the phone (and it makes us feel like private investigators of course).

In 2002 our first websites were launched - designed by Charles Delingpole to help his fellow students share their academic and social knowledge and experiences. Since then they've grown to become huge academic and social resources attracting many millions of students every month.

In 2006 Chris Newson and two other investors bought 80% of the company. In 2007 we moved to the exciting seaside metropolis of Brighton, where we are growing fast, and run by the following team of devotees:

Chris Newson

Chris is the Chairman and Chief Executive of Acumen PI. Chris studied Marketing & Finance at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

After starting his career in internet marketing, he progressed to become the Marketing and Operations Director of Jobsite.

Jobsite grew rapidly and profitably and a 49% stake was sold to Manpower Inc in 2000. The Daily Mail & General Trust bought the whole company in 2004.

Chris then worked as an Internet Consultant predominantly for Manpower Inc - the $16 Billion multinational HR Services company - before buying Acumen PI in February 2006.

Chris lives in Brighton and is married with two young children. As well as doing the family thing, he seems to be a man obsessed with gardening and renovating his victorian house.

Pete Taylor

Pete is Acumen PI's Operations Director. He is Acumen PI's longest standing employee, having been with the company since 2003. In his youth Pete used to DJ and is still a bit of a drum and bass afficionado.

Pete studied Geology at Plymouth University before working for Friends of the Earth. Pete likes rocks but only gets to sit on them with his children these days.

He is now (virtually) married with 3 children and a cat. Pete moved to Brighton from Bristol in Summer 2007.

As well as being responsible for Operations, Pete also has Board responsibility for Customer Support, Quality, Finance and Ethics.

Jamie O'Connell

Jamie is our Marketing Director. He studied Zoology at Bangor University before becoming the Content Manager at Jobsite where he first met Chris Newson.

After Jobsite he became the Website Manager for BGCI.org - the international botanical garden organisation at Kew Gardens. After that he was the Science Web Manager at Cancer Research UK, before seeing the light and coming to join us at Acumen PI.

Behind the scenes Jamie has also run his own youth website www.Fazed.com for many years. He plays the guitar - the real one - not just for The Acumenicals - our company Guitar Hero band. Jamie lives in London and gets out and about lots taking full advantage of everything that London has to offer.

Claudine Love

Claude is our Commercial Director. She is responsible for all our business to business sales and manages the relationships with our esteemed sales partners.

Claude studied Cellular & Molecular Biology at Oxford Brookes university before entering the dark world of sales. Most recently Claude worked for The Guardian for 9 years - progressing through recruitment advertising agency sales, into sales management before becoming the Commercial Development Manager for GuardianJobs.

Claude realised her destiny, and terminated her strained relationship with Thameslink trains, when she joined Acumen PI in January 2010. She now lives within a stone's throw of the office enabling her to enjoy the simple pleasures in life - scuba diving, rugby, cider, cooking and Marlboro reds.

Warren Oates

Having secured a dazzling array of A grades in his GCSE and A Levels, Warren went on to study Maths at the University of York before becoming a secondary school Maths Teacher.

However, being a lover of bagels and The Student Room, Warren soon realised that a career at Acumen PI was inevitable.

Having joined us in 2008, Warren has carried out a number of pivotal roles. He is now the Community Manager of The Student Room - working with our moderators and site community to help it grow and flourish.

Chris McNair

Chris is a long term user of The Student Room where he rose to the dizzy heights of Sports Moderator in 2008. He joined us in Acumen Towers in 2009 as an intern and promptly showed us all up, by graduating with a 1st class honours in eCommerce from Coventry University.

We decided he was so good that we tied him to his desk where he remains to this day.

Chris provides support to users on Coursework.Info and The Student Room. He also has an instrumental role in the migration of The Student Room onto the latest version of vBulletin - The full dazzling impact of which will be unleashed on the world later this year.

Steven Cheng

Continuing our tradition of showing ourselves up by recruiting clever people, Steve has recently joined Acumen PI after graduating with a 1st Class Honours in Accounting and Financial Management and Mathematics from Sheffield Uni.

Like most maths magicians Steven is a DJ and proper Drum & Bass fiend. Introducing... Superplex. It seems the world has changed.

Steven is now responsible for setting up and optimising ad campaigns on The Student Room - using his mathematical prowess to ensure our clients get the results they are looking for. Steve also performs most of our day-to-day finance tasks.