Our Executive Management team

Swag joined Centaur in 2016, after creating significant shareholder value previously at several blue chip FMCG companies, including United Biscuits plc, Diageo plc and Virgin, where he operated as a value creator, trouble-shooter and change agent. At Biocompatibles International plc, he led the commercialisation and international growth of the company, whilst running the product licensing division, increasing the share price fourfold in a falling market. Since then, he has been a C-suite director of three private equity backed businesses in a variety of sectors with the common theme of increasing shareholder value through strategy refresh, transformation and revitalising corporate culture. He has also led a substantial number of M&A transactions and multi-lender refinancings. Swag qualified as a Chartered Accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and is a Warwick MBA.

Simon joined Centaur in November 2019. He spent the previous 10 years as CFO of BMI Research, a leading provider through its subscriptions model of macroeconomic, industry and financial market analysis, which was acquired by Fitch Group in 2014. During his time at BMI Research revenues more than doubled as the company expanded internationally with Simon’s support. Prior to this, Simon was CFO of Newfound, an AIM-listed property and leisure group. Simon began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and worked in London and Australia.

Steve joined Centaur in March 2015. He is responsible for the eleven brands in the Xeim portfolio including Econsultancy, Influencer Intelligence, Marketing Week and the highly successful Marketing Week Mini MBA series. Steve has extensive experience in leading content-led, multi-channel businesses in both B2B and consumer sectors. He has played a key role at Centaur in accelerating the growth of the company’s digital information and training business with a focus on establishing long-term relationships with customers and developing repeatable revenue streams. Prior to joining Centaur Steve held Managing Director roles at WGSN, i2i Events, Emap Communications (now Ascential) and Emap Consumer Media (now Bauer).

Sarah is Managing Director of The Lawyer. She joined Centaur in May 2024, following more than 30 years in global market research organisations (Kantar Group, Ipsos) where she worked in partnership with clients across a wide range of industries and target audiences, both B2B and B2C, to deliver actionable customer insight programmes. During 17 years in senior leadership roles at Kantar Media she played a key role in growing subscription revenue for its market-leading consumer intelligence business (the Target Group Index, TGI) and in developing new data, analytics and insights offers.

Ian joined Centaur as part of the 2012 acquisition of The Profile Group, where he was Senior Technology Director, and joined Centaur's Executive Committee in November 2022 as Chief Technology Officer. With responsibility for all technology at Centaur, including digital development, data and IT, Ian has extensive experience running digital and IT teams and specializes in subscription systems, digital strategy, growth and product innovation. He has played a critical role at Centaur leading the transformation of the business's print and digital information services into technology-enabled, scalable, high-growth products. Prior to Centaur, Ian headed technology at research agency MRIB.