Our Team

Management & Founders

Ben Farren - Managing Director

Before founding Splash in 2007, Ben worked as an Engagement Manager with Marakon, the US strategy consulting firm, from their offices in New York, London and Singapore. While in Asia, Ben notably worked on the launch and roll-out strategy for a series of new retail banking products in Vietnam, on behalf of a leading UK-based financial services client. He has an MA from Cambridge University in History and Management.

Sheka Forna - Founder & Chairman

Sheka has over 20 years experience in sales and marketing in both the UK (for Carlton and ITV) and Sierra Leone (with Sierra Leone Airlines). He left Carlton in 2004 to found Regal Exchange, providing business training and support services to clients in emerging markets. He brings a rich Sierra Leonean heritage and very strong local network. Sheka has a BA in Business Studies from the Polytechnic of Central London.

Sade Akinlade - Commercial Director

Sade has more than 15 years experience as a Sales & Marketing executive in W.Africa, including 10 years at Zain in Nigeria. At Zain she took on Group level responsibility as the Group Manager of Global Accounts, and also ran Zain's Customer Care function in Nigeria. Sade is a graduate of the University of Ibadan with a degree in philosophy and the University of Phoenix with a Masters in International Management.

Shane O'Connor - Group Technical Manager

Shane is a qualified IT professional with over 12 years experience in the industry. He has worked with Splash Mobile Money as the Systems Manager since August 2009 and was part of the team that brought Splash to its market launch. Prior to joining Splash, Shane ran his own successful IT consulting firm in London, with clients mainly drawn from the Banking and Retail sectors. Cove Consulting specialized in IT infrastructure consulting and also provided Managed Services to clients. Shane has an honors degree in Economics and Applied Mathematical Science and a postgraduate in Software Design and Development, both from University College Galway in Ireland.

Advisory Board

Nick Hughes

Before taking on his current role as Managing Partner of Signalpoint Partners, Nick was the Head of Global Payments at Vodafone, where he started M-PESA, the world's largest mobile money transfer service (with more than 10 million users in Kenya.) Nick initiated the M-PESA concept 2004 and grew the business unit into a multi-million euro P&L deploying M-PESA in multiple markets. Earlier, Nick set up an innovation fund within Vodafone to target opportunities in mobile services. Prior to joining Vodafone in 2001, Nick worked at BP, where he headed the climate change program for two years. He holds a PhD In Applied Science, and has an MBA with distinction from London Business School.

Denis O'Brien

Denis is Chairman of the privately-owned Digicel Group, one of the fastest growing mobile operators in the world. Denis founded Digicel in 2001 when the company launched a GSM cellular phone service in the Caribbean. Digicel has extended its operations to 32 markets with over 11 million subscribers in the Caribbean, Central America and Pacific regions. He is one of Ireland's leading entrepreneurs with extensive investments across several sectors including international telecoms, radio, media, property, aircraft leasing, golf and other leisure interests. He also founded Communicorp Group which owns and manages a portfolio of media and broadcasting-related companies in Ireland and eight other European countries

Graham Wrigley

Graham worked at Permira, the private equity firm, from 1989 to 2006 where he sat on the firm's management board as it grew into one of the world's largest private equity firms. Focusing on the TMT sector he has been directly involved in over 20 transactions and served on the board of many of these investments, either as director or chairman. He has now embarked on a second career around international development, beginning with studying for a Masters degree at The School of Oriental and African Studies in London (SOAS). His focus is on sustainable private sector growth in poor countries. He is Chairman of Aureos (the largest SME investor in the world) and in addition is working in the Microfinance field in India and Nepal. Graham is also a visiting professor to INSEAD.

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