OUR TEAM
The minds behind DarkSkope
Alan Gardner
Executive Chairman
Alan Gardner is Executive Chairman and founder of Darkskope, guiding the company’s strategy, governance and growth. He brings a practical understanding of how intelligence supports critical decisions—helping organisations establish who they are dealing with, uncover hidden relationships and understand their exposure to risk.
Alan has more than 27 years of leadership experience across the military, government and private sector. His expertise spans intelligence, organisational resilience and crisis management, supporting boards, executives and critical infrastructure operators in situations where decisions carry significant consequences.
Alan has founded, led and exited multiple businesses, served on national UK resilience and civil protection boards, and contributed to major emergency management programmes. At Darkskope, he brings that experience to a clear purpose: giving decision-makers the intelligence and confidence to act.
Neil McElhinney
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Neil leads the company’s mission to help organisations find the truth in data and make defensible decisions when the consequences are real.
A seasoned business leader with over 25 years’ experience across cybersecurity, data, intelligence and commercial delivery, Neil brings the commercial acumen, operational discipline and strategic focus needed to fuel DarkSkope’s growth.
He has led complex projects across global markets, working with security-sensitive clients to uncover hidden risk, strengthen resilience and turn fragmented information into trusted operational intelligence.
As CEO, Neil is focused on scaling DarkSkope as an intelligence partner for organisations operating in complex, high-consequence environments.
Chris Hilton
Chief Product Officer (CPO)
At DarkSkope, Chris drives product strategy and innovation across the company’s portfolio. With 15 years of experience in national security and law enforcement, he has led the delivery of multiple intelligence-focused products and solutions designed to meet mission-critical needs.
Chris has a proven track record in building and scaling technology businesses. He previously co-founded a data platform for UK law enforcement and successfully scaled an analytics solution to deliver significant revenue growth.
Jay Hawkins
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Jay helps organisations make confident decisions in complex, data-intensive environments by turning fragmented information into clear, reliable intelligence.
As CTO at DarkSkope, he leads the design and delivery of systems that sit at the core of decision-making, from large-scale data platforms and entity intelligence to risk and screening solutions. His work focuses on unifying disparate data, improving signal quality and ensuring systems perform under real-world conditions where accuracy, speed and trust are critical.
He has deep hands-on experience building and scaling technology in high-stakes domains, working across data engineering, distributed systems and intelligence platforms. His background spans environments where systems must operate at scale, handle ambiguity and support decisions with real consequences.
Jay is particularly interested in how technical architecture and data design directly shape the quality of downstream decisions – and in building systems that surface meaningful signal early, rather than overwhelming users with noise.
Adi Kolnati
Head of Software Engineering
Aditya leads engineering at DarkSkope and is responsible for the people, platforms and practices behind the company's intelligence and screening products. He sets the technical direction, works closely with product and leadership to turn business priorities into a realistic roadmap, and owns delivery from first design through to ongoing operation. Alongside this, he builds and develops the team by hiring deliberately, mentoring engineers into technical leaders, and holding a high bar for reliability, security and observability. That way, ambiguous product ideas become dependable, production-grade systems that customers can rely on day after day.
He brings over a decade of hands-on engineering experience across high-stakes domains, including UK Government, law enforcement and financial crime, where the cost of a defect is measured in trust as much as in time. That background shaped a leadership style that balances pace with rigour, and a firm belief that quality and momentum are not opposing forces.
As Head of Engineering, Aditya is championing AI-powered delivery at DarkSkope. He embeds AI-assisted development, automated testing and intelligent tooling across the software lifecycle so the team can move faster without lowering the bar. For him, AI amplifies engineering discipline rather than replacing it. Clear service boundaries, fast feedback loops, strong testing and a healthy code-review culture still decide how quickly a product can be trusted in production. He cares less about which tool is fashionable and more about whether the team can ship change safely and repeatedly, with the same confidence on day three hundred as on day one.
Mathew Jennings
Principle Engineer
An experienced IT Engineer and Data Specialist, Mathew has spent many years working in UK Defence, including roles within highly secure environments and operational deployments.
He has extensive experience working in a Cyber Security Operations Centre (SOC), analysing large datasets to identify patterns and unusual activity. His expertise spans cloud platforms, data engineering, multiple programming languages and a wide range of modern technologies. He has a strong drive to keep learning and developing new skills, while outside of work he values spending time with his family.
Jacob Potts
Head Investor Relations & Corporate Development
Jacob Potts is a British financial services professional with nearly 30 years’ experience across capital markets, equity sales and investor relations, known for building high-trust relationships with institutional investors and corporate clients. Currently the Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at DarkSkope Ltd, he drives capital strategy, investor engagement and market positioning as the company develops advanced AI-driven intelligence solutions.
Over his career, he has held senior roles at firms including Commerzbank, Macquarie, ING and Dresdner Kleinwort, leading revenue growth, navigating major regulatory shifts such as MiFID II and advising on IPOs, M&A and investor engagement. Equally comfortable on both sides of the market, his experience spans working with global asset managers, corporate IR teams and early-stage companies, with a consistent focus on delivering candid advice, long-term value and strong governance-led outcomes.
Jamie Burnham
Director, Govenment & Defence
Jamie has served in defence and national security for over 25 years. He brings an instinctive understanding of how to deliver real-world outcomes by applying emerging technologies to complex operational challenges.
He has served across the Middle East and Africa, tackling challenges ranging from terrorism to counter-proliferation. He is a former Rekanati-Kaplan Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and has advised defence technology companies on market entry across the UK and Europe.
Jamie mentors British Army specialist units on capability development. He is an Associate of Creative Destruction Lab Estonia, advising founders of emerging technology companies.