Management Team

Hugh Spear - CEO & Founder

Hugh founded Dialogue Systems, alongside Paul Griffiths in 1994, which became Dialogue Communications Ltd in 1995.

As Dialogue’s first employee Hugh has played an active part in almost every element of the business from creating, developing, selling and supporting the first products, to overseeing the growth of the company into a multi-national organisation employing over 50 people and providing services in multiple territories.

In 2004 Hugh moved to Australia to set up Dialogue Communications Pty. Ltd, He now lives in Sydney with his wife and two children.

Following the death of Paul Griffiths in 2007, Hugh took up the position as Dialogue’s CEO. He travels regularly between the Dialogue offices in order to continue his hands-on role in both the UK and Australia, Hugh is also responsible for driving the company’s corporate strategy.

Hugh has an MSc in Organisational Psychology and an MSc (Distinction) in Software Engineering.

Read Hugh Spear's Blog >

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Steve Lovell – Chief Operations Officer (COO)

Following previous senior technical management roles at new media organisations and two of the UK’s largest telecommunications companies - Orange and BT , Steve joined Dialogue in 2007, managing the technical services team.

 

In October 2011, Steve was promoted to the role of Chief Operations Officer (COO) and now manages the UK business, and the operational delivery of Dialogue Group’s global services. Steve has a wealth of technical knowledge and experience in this industry, and has operationally managed the delivery and support of a wide spectrum of multimedia applications, platforms and services.

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Perry Offer – Global CFO

Perry joined Dialogue in February 2011 as Global Chief Financial Officer after having worked on a project basis with the company since 2005. With over 30 years’ experience in financial, commercial and operational management at board level across numerous business-to-consumer and business-to-business sectors, Perry will play a key role in strengthening the group’s Board of Directors.

Perry is a qualified Chartered Accountant (CIMA), bringing with him the added financial and strategic expertise needed to support the Group’s growth across the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and USA.

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Dave Colclough - Chief Product Officer (CPO)

Dave joined Dialogue in 2009 and has over 10 years’ experience within the telecommunications industry. Previously Dave was responsible for service management of multi-million pound contracts for BT Global Services and the John Lewis Partnership.

Utilising his strong business sense and technical background, Dave now plays a pivotal role in the strategic direction and product development underpinning Dialogue’s business objectives.

Dave has a BSc degree in Physics and a postgraduate diploma in Human Resource Management and Organisational Development.

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Pete Neal – General Manager APAC / Head of Messaging

After graduating from Loughborough University in 2005 with a first class masters degree in Electronics and Software Engineering, Pete joined Dialogue’s UK division as a developer. As part of his degree, Pete was responsible for developing an innovative international SMS messaging bridge.

In March 2006, Pete relocated and joined Dialogue’s Australia office as part of the business development team, helping to grow revenues. After a successful year in 2007, he was appointed as General Manager (APAC) in 2008.

In October 2011 Pete was also appointed Head of Messaging for the Dialogue Group where he is responsible for managing and developing the core infrastructure for Dialogue’s high capacity SS7 messaging platform and platinum connectivity service.

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Don J Lange – Managing Director Dialogue, South Africa

Don is Managing Director for Dialogue’s South African division and, along with his team, is responsible for driving operations and expanding the business across the region. Don is passionate about messaging and prior to joining Dialogue in 2008, he was responsible for founding Messagesquare Messaging Solutions, where he still acts as Managing Director, developing complimentary products and services for the mobile industry.

Don has extensive industry experience having been Vice President of Clickatell Online where he was responsible for developing and executing the strategy, oversaw sales and identified future alliances. This saw Don acquire agreements with all the major mobile operators in the UK including Vodafone, T-Mobile, Virgin and Orange.

Using his expertise and knowledge of the mobile industry, Don has already helped Dialogue to sustain longstanding relationships with customers and build a business that offers exact solutions for the South African market.

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Dialogue would like to remember Paul Griffiths

Paul Griffiths - Late Co-Founder & UK MD

It was with deepest regret when Dialogue announced that Paul Griffiths had passed away on 8th July 2007.

Paul was the co-founder and UK Managing Director of Dialogue and was such an integral part of the company until his death, that we wanted to remember him as the company continues to build on his legacy.  Paul was a wonderful, family man and friend, who was a role model in the mobile industry and a well respected company leader.

Griff, as he was known to his friends, started Dialogue Communications back in 1994 with his co-founder Hugh Spear. Some of Griff's successes with Dialogue included creating PageMail, a PC based SMS software application that was widely distributed across Europe and developing Expressway 2000, the world’s first WAP email server, which was later licensed to Nokia for global distribution. 

Griff was renowned for his creativity and forward thinking in the technology space and he had an uncanny ability to predict where the market was heading and his ideas were often way ahead of their time. The company has successfully conquered the evolving mobile market, including the rise of SMS, the rapid growth of mobile entertainment and mobile payments. Dialogue is a highly respected business in the mobile industry and Griff was a driving force within the company and a highly respected industry voice.

Hugh Spear and the talented and motivated management team will continue to develop and expand the business and build upon the great legacy that Griff has left. Griff was proud of his team and every member of it embodies Griff’s own ‘without boundaries’ thinking, product knowledge and account winning fervour.

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