About PayCaptain

Simon Bocca is Founder and CEO of PayCaptain. He has over 20 years’ experience in the payroll industry and prior to launching PayCaptain, he was Chief Operating Officer for a payroll service provider that grew from five to 1,200 employees. The company expanded from the UK to include operations in the USA and UAE during his tenure.

Simon is passionate about improving the financial well-being of employees and delivering a solution that makes payroll easy for PayCaptain’s customers. He believes it’s imperative that people are paid on time with no errors because payroll is such a business and life-critical function.

Simon is responsible for driving change and ensuring his team deliver first class service to PayCaptain’s customers. An innovator in the industry, Simon is constantly looking at new technological advances that can improve both the customer and employee payroll experience.

“The really exciting thing for me, when I launched PayCaptain, was putting employees front and centre. To me that meant providing a simple multi-lingual app for with super-helpful features for every employee to better manage and control their hard-earned money and avoid problems associated with debt.”

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Stacey Heathcote is Director of Payroll for PayCaptain. She has 23 years’ experience in payroll and has a Diploma in Payroll Management and MSc in Payroll and Business Management. Prior to joining PayCaptain, Stacey was Director of Payroll Operations for an international payroll service provider. She headed up a team of 70 payroll professionals and had responsibility for over 400 customer, processing around 350,000 payslips every month.

Stacey loves working in a customer-facing payroll department. She really enjoys working with different customers and building strong relationships with them. She gains great satisfaction when her team becomes an extension of the customer teams and the collaborative relationships that are built.

Stacey is responsible for delivering amazing service to PayCaptain’s customers. This includes making sure the team is fully trained, qualified and happy and that all payroll processes and procedures are documented, up to date and being followed.

“I genuinely care about each of our customers and I'm very passionate about delivering an outstanding, professional and knowledgeable payroll service.”

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Michael Taylor is PayCaptain’s Director of Technology and has been with PayCaptain since April 2021. Prior to that, he was Salesforce Administration Lead for the John Lewis Partnership for 30 years.

Michael is passionate about making processes as automated as possible. This means the team can then focus on the more complex tasks that add real value to PayCaptain’s customer-base. This also gives customers the answers they need at their fingertips as well as exciting features in the mobile app to help employees with their financial well-being.

Michael is responsible for everything product-related. His role involves building new features and working with the team to implement new ideas and developing customer requests to deliver the best service to PayCaptain’s customers.

“I love working with the amazing and inspiring people in the PayCaptain team and we really bring out the best in each other. We work so well as a team. If someone needs a hand, we all help out to make sure the job gets done so we deliver an exceptional level of service for our customers.”

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Mike Fisher is PayCaptain’s Head of Sales & Partnerships with more than five years of expertise in the payroll sector and an impressive background spanning over 12 years in Sales & Account Management. Prior to joining the PayCaptain team, he held a key position at an HRIS solution provider.

In his role, Mike is responsible for collaborating closely with clients as they navigate their business transformation journey, exploring various payroll solutions and ultimately implementing PayCaptain across their organisation. He serves as a dedicated resource, offering answers to queries, valuable insights, and trusted advice, ensuring transparency at every stage of the process.

Furthermore, Mike manages PayCaptain's partnerships with third-party solutions that seamlessly integrate with our platform. The primary focus here is to deliver a 'Best-in-Class' experience to all of our clients. With the power of modern API integrations and Mike’s support, both PayCaptain and our partners collaborate closely to ensure a smooth flow of data, resulting in heightened accuracy and significant time and cost savings for our customers.

In addition to these responsibilities, Mike collaborates closely with his colleagues across the organisation, contributing to the enhancement of PayCaptain's brand, marketing efforts, newsletters, and product development.

"Payroll plays a pivotal role in a business's operations. I find great fulfilment in being a part of this commercially critical element, with the opportunity to enhance the experience for all those involved."

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Sarah Rayment is Head of Operations at PayCaptain. She has over 16 years’ experience in the payroll industry and previously worked as an Enablement Manager at an international payroll service provider.

Sarah loves working for a payroll company that's so invested in improving the financial well-being of employees, as well as making the Payroll process much easier for the Payroll and Finance Teams. She enjoys seeing the features of the mobile app being used and seeing the results of how this benefits employees and customers.

Sarah has responsibility for the implementation and delivery of projects for new and existing customers and is one of the main points of contact throughout implementation. Sarah also manages internal projects and processes.

“Being in operations, I'm lucky to work closely with all departments within PayCaptain as well as our customers and partners. I love being involved in projects from the moment a contract's signed and I take pride in ensuring everything is configured perfectly, so we deliver a great solution for the benefit of our customers and their employees.”

Sheryl Steele is PayCaptain’s Director of Operations and Business Performance. She has 28 years’ experience in the payroll industry. In her previous role, she was VP Payroll Operations US/EMEA for an international payroll services provider and brings a plethora of operational expertise with her.

Sheryl loves nothing more than getting payroll right for employees. Payroll, she says, is one of the most important aspects of working for any employee, so it’s imperative it’s right first time, every time.

Sheryl's responsibilities enable PayCaptain to consistently perform at its best. Measuring and tracking performance, setting goals and supporting the business deliver strong KPIs, Sheryl is also responsible for supporting the launch of new services, initiatives and departments in PayCaptain. She also defines and runs internal projects to drive and deliver performance improvements and champions the needs and requirements of the operational teams serving our customers.

“I love PayCaptain. It’s fantastic to be part of a team that’s so dedicated and passionate about a delivering payroll solution that’s so focused on both the employee and customer experience.”

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Anna Buckle is PayCaptain’s Director of Operations and Impact and has 20 years’ experience in the payroll and financial wellbeing industry. Prior to joining PayCaptain, she was Director of Customer Success for a payroll service provider with 1200 customers operating across the UK, USA and UAE.

A certified Plain Numbers Practitioner who advocates for users first, Anna is dedicated to ensuring that PayCaptain remains on track with their mission to provide a payroll solution that helps users increase their financial capability and resilience, whilst improving their overall well-being.Anna believes that payroll has enormous potential as a form of engaging employees and providing them with access to tools and resources to support them building financial resilience.

Anna is responsible for ensuring that each PayCaptain user can benefit as much as possible by using the PayCaptain app. Her main area of focus is exploring ways PayCaptain can develop the functionality to enable everyone to make great decisions about how to make the most of their hard-earned money.

“I’m totally committed to understanding the challenges and situations that employees using PayCaptain face day-to-day. This then gets fed back in to the team so we can develop functionality to address those challenges. I love knowing what I’m working on will genuinely make a difference to people’s lives.”

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Val Ellis ACIPP is Head of Payroll at PayCaptain and she has 24 years’ experience in payroll. She is ITIL v3 Foundation certified and a member of the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (‘CIPP’). Prior to joining PayCaptain, Val was Payroll Manager for an international payroll service provider for nearly eight years.

Val finds that payroll is a constantly changing environment with no two days ever being the same. She says she loves this part of her role as it keeps her brain active, she’s always learning new things and enjoys putting them in to practice in her day-to-day activities.

Val’s responsibility is to ensure delivery of a compliant and accurate payroll. With extensive experience in payroll for all sectors of business, Val has expert knowledge on both employment law and payroll legislation. This means she can ensure that employees are paid correctly, but also that the employer is complaint with all relevant legislation.

“For me, when it comes to payday and there are no queries raised, it’s a perfect indicator that we’ve completed our job well and that everyone has been paid correctly!”

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Johnny Rafferty is PayCaptain's Product Owner & MI Manager. Prior to joining the company, he spent over 11 years working for the John Lewis Partnership, where he was Planning Manager in the Customer Contact estate. In this role, he used data to build long-term contact volume forecasts and build staffing and recruitment plans to create budget plans.

Johnny is inspired by the depth of knowledge and passion displayed by the payroll team and loves how much everyone genuinely cares about PayCaptain’s customers. He plays a key role in PayCaptain’s ambition to offer customers a world-class product and service.

Johnny is responsible for ensuring that the data produced is accurate and compliant. He works alongside Michael, using the latest technology to automate as much data as possible. He recognises the importance of the system being set up to produce data and results which are correct and accurate. His efforts ensure that PayCaptain’s customers always receive their hard-earned pay exactly as they should – correct on time, every time.

“Payroll is such an important part of people’s lives. Working for PayCaptain, I have an exciting opportunity to work with an outstanding system and team of people. My role allows me to learn and be creative, while using the latest technology to build a product that our customers love.”

Head of Implementation, Rebecca McNeil, has a Foundation Degree in Payroll Management and she’s a member of the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (‘CIPP’). She has over 16 years of payroll experience. Prior to joining PayCaptain, she was Senior Payroll Manager for an international payroll service provider where she managed new business implementations and services teams.

Becky loves building relationships and is heavily invested in the onboarding process when new customers transition across to the PayCaptain payroll solution. She works closely with the internal operations team to configure PayCaptain to meet the customer’s needs and support the implementation with employee communications and training.

With extensive experience of implementing payroll solutions, combined with her payroll and auto-enrolment expertise, Becky helps businesses improve payroll performance by reducing mistakes.  

“Payroll is forever changing and gives me great satisfaction to know that employees are paid correctly and on time, every time. These days, payroll isn’t just about accuracy. Payroll providers and employers need to ensure that payroll is as efficient as possible to avoid risks. I love seeing how our payroll solution turns a manual, time-consuming task into a quick and easy check for employers.”

Stuart Hall has over 45 years expertise in payroll and HR. A non-executive director of PayCaptain, he’s a director on the CIPP board and enjoys speaking at payroll industry events, as well as writing for sector publications.

Founding Employer Services Ltd in 1999, Stuart launched the firsttrue cloud-based payroll bureau with full electronic reporting and ePayslips.The business was responsible for producing 7.5m+ payslips and £120m in salarypayments a year and they won numerous awards.

In 2011, we launched the first cloud payroll software, PaySuite.Three years later Paysuite was acquired by Intuit, who went on to service thousands of clients using QuickBooks.

In his spare time Stuart raises money for Great Ormond Street Hospital, runs an internet radio station, plays the trombone in one of the country’s top brass bands and runs the occasional half marathon!

Alasdair Leggat is a Salesforce Engineer and joined PayCaptain in 2022. Originally training as a theoretical physicist and gaining his PhD, after a change of direction he decided to pursue a career in software development. Developing Salesforce since 2017, Alasdair previously worked at Deliveroo and Oodle Car Finance.

Responsible for building and maintaining the PayCaptain solution, Alasdair focuses on simplifying and automating repetitive tasks to improve the customer experience. Working closely with Michael Taylor, Head of Engineering, Alasdair sets up and maintain processes, with best practices in mind, so PayCaptain can be efficient and easily support growth and expansion.

Alasdair enjoys the challenge of expanding into new areas of the platform as well as making processes as automated as possible. This, he says, helps the customer and the internal team with increased efficiency, error reduction and faster task completion, reducing some of the the tedious tasks associated with payroll.

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Adam is an accomplished Sales Manager with four years’ experience in the payroll industry. Prior to joining PayCaptain, Adam was Sales Manager at KeyPay for two years.  

Adam’s responsibilities include consulting with businesses to find the best solutions for their payroll and financial wellbeing needs. By taking the time to listen to customers, ask the right questions, and identify their pain points, he can recommend the most appropriate products and services.

Whilst he loves solving complex problems for users and hitting key milestones, his favourite part of working at PayCaptain is the freedom to collaborate with the dynamic team of payroll and business professionals. It's not just about the work itself, he says, but about the collective achievement and knowing he's contributed to making a real difference along the way.

Adam loves payroll because of the close-knit community of dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to ensure everyone gets paid accurately and on time. The commitment and attention to detail within the payroll industry creates a sense of camaraderie among those who understand the importance of getting it right every time.

His focus is on problem-solving – making sure PayCaptain is the right fit for a business. Adam works closely with clients to understand their current processes, challenges and aspirations. He then tailors the payroll offering to meet those needs, ensuring long-term success for both the customer and PayCaptain.

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Marketing Manager Chelsea Fisher joined PayCaptain with extensive marketing experience for the financial sector. Prior to joining the team, she was Digital Account Marketing Manager for IDHL Group where she worked with some ambitious brands to achieve targeted goals within their digital strategy. Setting individual and top-level KPI’s, Chelsea delivered data-driven focused growth for her clients.

On joining PayCaptain, Chelsea’s primary objective was redeveloping the website to one that could be highly competitive in the digital space. Building on that momentum, she’s now delivering her strategy to grow PayCaptain's reach, using new channels and developing the marketing team with some of her award-winning contacts.  

Leveraging her digital strategy to reach a larger audience, Chelsea is spreading the word to show how PayCaptain’s innovative services can create efficiencies for potential new clients.

Loving seeing how payroll positively impacts employees' lives when it's done well, Chelsea says she has a mountain of opportunity to grow PayCaptain’s marketing presence. Working alongside a highly committed, close-knit and friendly team, Chelsea thrives on the challenge of growing the business’s visibility. Combining her fulfilling career with raising her young son, she loves working for an employer that promotes remote working and flexible hours.  

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Emily Sivey is PayCaptain’s Community Success Manager. She has nine years’ experience in the tech industry, including six years working in the financial wellbeing space. Since joining the payroll industry Emily has combined her expertise in people-focused roles with PayCaptain’s innovative approach to getting paid.

Before joining PayCaptain, Emily was People & Talent Lead at Bippit, a financial coaching platform for B2B employee wellbeing and benefits. During her two years there, she looked after all people policies and processes, recruitment and supported the growth of the business.

At PayCaptain, Emily looks after the community - both internally with team members and externally with customers. She manages employer brand, recruitment and people processes. Emily loves how payroll at PayCaptain is pushing the boundaries of what employers can deliver to their teams. She works to ensure people understand the power of payroll at the actual point of getting paid and believes that financial wellbeing and resilience should be a basic right, not a privilege.

'I want people to feel good about their money, not stressed by it. My goal is to help employees and customers see beyond the payday and recognise the value and impact we’re creating in people’s lives.'

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Sarah is a copywriter and has worked with PayCaptain since 2021. Working with the marketing and operations teams, she creates web copy and content, press releases, biographies and blogs.

With a background in IT, Sarah worked with Simon in 2006-2008 to implement a payroll, labour scheduling and HR solution for a national restaurant company with 16,000 employees. When she changed career to focus on copywriting, she was contacted by Simon to provide copywriting services to PayCaptain.

Loving how the solution is evolving and breaking ground in the payroll world while racking up lots of awards, Sarah’s favourite part of working with PayCaptain is her interaction with the team. Seeing their commitment to enhancing the financial wellbeing of employees through payroll, Sarah feels privileged to work with a company that's both innovating in its field and making a real difference in people's lives.

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Helen Waghorn is a Payroll Specialist with over 10 years' experience in the payroll industry. Prior to joining PayCaptain, Helen was a Payroll Administrator for five years for one of the UK’s largest professional services firms.

Helen’s responsibilities include processing payrolls and communicating with both customers and employees, supporting them and answering queries. She ensures payrolls are completed to schedule, HMRC reporting and information provision is submitted on time and also processes pension contributions and third-party payments for her customers.

Loving the challenge of complex payrolls, Helen enjoys seeing the end result and employees benefitting from accurate payroll, so they can meet their financial commitments. She enjoys the flexibility of working remotely for PayCaptain, being able to pick up and getting work done while having a good work/life balance.  

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Paddy Harding is a Payroll Specialist with over six years’ experience in the industry. Prior to joining PayCaptain, Paddy was Payroll Team Leader for an umbrella payroll company providing services to contractors and recruitment agencies.  

Paddy’s responsibilities include processing payroll, ensuring employees’ hard-earned wages are paid correctly and HMRC submissions are accurate and on-time. He says his role is also to ensure that everyone is happy by dealing with cases and answering any queries they may have.

Coming from an umbrella payroll background, Paddy says that being able to see a completely new side to payroll not only benefits him, but also allows him to bring his experience to help improve processes and bring his style of payroll processing to PayCaptain.

Currently studying for his Level 3 Payroll Administrator qualification, Paddy enjoys problem-solving. He says each day is a school day and he loves to learn new things and expand his knowledge. He gets great satisfaction from finding the answer to a problem, which makes him feel like he’s helped someone and also accomplished something for the day.

Jackie Barrett is a Payroll Specialist at PayCaptain. She holds an AAT payroll qualification and has been working in the industry since 2010, after starting her career in accounts. With over a decade of payroll experience, Jackie has developed a strong reputation for accuracy, compliance and delivering excellent service.

Before joining PayCaptain, Jackie spent 15 years with two international payroll providers, managing a wide range of clients and payroll processes. During this time she built and developed her knowledge of payroll operations and customer service.

At PayCaptain, Jackie looks after customers and their employees, ensuring payroll is accurate and paid on time. Her role covers payroll, pensions, root cause analysis, problem solving and providing support wherever it’s needed.

'Payroll is the heart of every organisation. It's about making sure people are paid correctly, on time and with full compliance. I bring accuracy, organisation and efficiency to every customer I manage, always helping them feel fully supported.'

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Diana Buckingham is a Payroll Specialist with more than six years’ experience in the industry, including five years as a Payroll Executive at Access Group. Diana is a CIPP-qualified Payroll Technician and continues her professional development supported by PayCaptain.

Diana is responsible for managing and processing payrolls with accuracy and care. She ensures everything is compliant and delivered on time, giving clients and their employees a smooth, reliable experience. Her focus on detail and service means payroll becomes something clients don’t have to worry about.

Diana loves the structure, precision and problem-solving that payroll demands. She enjoys the evolving nature of payroll tech and the opportunity it gives her to learn, grow and find better ways of working. Knowing her work directly impacts people’s lives - ensuring they’re paid correctly and on time - is something she finds really rewarding.

With her calm approach, strong operational background and clear communication style, Diana builds trust with every client she works with. She’s driven to make payroll simpler and more efficient.

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Rebecca Lea is an Implementation Specialist at PayCaptain. She holds a CIPP Level 4 qualification and has several years’ experience in payroll and tech.

Before joining PayCaptain, Rebecca worked as an Implementation Administrator for three years. In her role, she supported new clients through the early stages of their payroll journey and gained valuable experience in managing projects and building customer relationships.

At PayCaptain, Rebecca's responsible for onboarding new clients and managing their implementation projects. She works closely with businesses, welcoming them to their new payroll project. She makes sure the transition is smooth, ensuring that every customer feels supported from the very start and their needs are met.

'I really care about the customers that I work with. It's not just a job for me. I work hard to ensure they're happy and ease their concerns on any payroll challenges they may have.'

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Laura Harvey is a Payroll Implementation Specialist at PayCaptain. She first began working in payroll in 2014 and, after time spent travelling and raising a family, she  returned to the profession in 2022.

Before joining PayCaptain, Laura was an Implementation Consultant for two and a half years. In that role, she developed her expertise in payroll systems and customer onboarding, building strong knowledge of both process and technology.

At PayCaptain, Laura manages implementation projects from end to end. This includes documenting payroll requirements, configuring the system, working with tech teams on integrations, preparing data for parallel runs and supporting customers through their first live payroll.

'In implementation I get the best of both worlds - the chance to configure and run payroll processes while also working closely with tech and product teams. I care about our customers and want them, and their employees, to love PayCaptain as much as I do!'

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Jakkir Ahmed is PayCaptain’s Payroll Training Manager. He's AAT qualified and has 10 years’ experience in payroll. Before joining PayCaptain, he spent over two years at KPMG as Assistant Manager for Client Payroll. There, he gained extensive experience managing payroll operations for a wide range of clients.

At PayCaptain, Jakkir's responsible for delivering training to new starters, developing comprehensive training materials. He also provides ongoing support and development opportunities for existing team members. His role is central to ensuring the team is skilled, confident and consistently delivering high-quality payroll services.

'My favourite part of the job is working with new team members - supporting them and sharing knowledge. I enjoy helping them build their confidence and skills and being part of their learning journey. It contributes to a really strong, collaborative team environment.'

Jakkir brings a strong foundation in payroll, attention to detail and a proactive approach to identifying and solving issues. He focuses on accuracy, efficiency and clear communication. This ensures both colleagues and clients experience a smooth, organised and reliable payroll service.

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