— About
Meet the Hiyield team.
We’re a digital product studio in London and Cornwall that creates user-centered products, websites, and experiences that engage, delight, and deliver value to both our clients and their customers.
About /
Team
Matt Ville
Co-Founder & CTO
Matt started in tech 19 years ago rising from a Junior Developer, to Lead Developer and then CTO. He’s worked at various tech startups, bringing digital products to life, helping raise investment, and loving the startup journey. With insights into starting and running businesses, he founded Hiyield, creating an agency around his experience, forming where we are today.
Laura Hudspith
Head of Operations and Delivery
Laura is our project manager mastermind, making sure all projects run smoothly. She is the glue that brings together our clients, designers and technical teams. With a background in digital marketing management, she has lots of experience working on digital project briefs and understanding user requirements. Laura loves travelling, camping, and adventuring around Cornwall with her family.
Bogdan Chirteș
UX Designer
Bogdan is a seasoned designer with 10+ years of experience. UI & UX design, logo and graphic design or 3D Modeling, he’s all-around digital creative, helping businesses reach new heights. When he’s not at the Hiyield HQ, he’s busy trading stocks or crypto, watching Netflix or finding the most beautiful parts of the UK.
Ben Short
Co-Founder & Senior Developer
A keen gamer from a young age, Ben introduced himself into coding. He took the educational route to college and then onto university, getting a BSC Computing Degree. Matt met Ben at Cornwall geeks and took him under his wing to work on a digital product startup. Ever since Ben and Matt have worked together, building up a comprehensive portfolio of work. Ben lives in Cornwall with his wife and dog Thor.
Tom Ayling
UX Designer
At 14, Tom had an interest in design making mods for video games, kickstarting his passion for the design world. Later in life, he graduated from the University of Plymouth with a BA Honours in Graphic Communication and Typography, specialising in UX/UI and motion design. Tom loves to create research-led designs that solve communication problems and bring users the greatest value and joy. When he’s not busy designing, Tom enjoys a walk in the countryside with his partner and eating anything that contains carbs and cheese.
Rachel Young
Full Stack Developer
Rach combines creativity with a first-class tech skillset. From a young age, she enjoyed spending her time drawing, painting and being outside. Later in life, Rach was inspired to start a new career in tech, achieving a First Class BSc Degree in Applied Computing Technologies. Rach is a people-person and a valued member of the Hiyield team, broadening her knowledge whilst helping clients on projects. When she’s not at the HQ, Rach works hard at the gym and entertains a hyperactive spaniel.
Callum Holloway
Full Stack Developer
Callum is a self-taught developer. He rapidly learnt how to develop pixel perfect websites specialising in WordPress after having created a website for his girlfriend in 2018. In his spare time, you’ll often see him cruising on a paddleboard, watching football or on a coastal walk with his dogs.
Emil Pruden
Marketing Lead
Emil’s roots lie with being creative, always on hand to take the perfect picture or edit together in an engaging video. He’s a generator of new ideas, bringing our brand to life and creating partnerships with exciting startups and businesses. He moved down to Cornwall after university for a great work-life balance. When he’s not at the office, he’s running, taking photos, making films, or on an outdoor adventure.
Becky Woodland
UX Designer
Becky has always had an eye for design, loving to draw as a child, continuing her passion later in life, achieving a first-class honours degree at Plymouth University in Internet Design. She is our brilliant in-house UX & UI Designer learning the tricks of the trade, contributing her creative edge to projects. She loves Grid System layouts, Swiss Style Graphics, and when she’s not immersed in design, you’ll see her out with her husband walking her two dogs.
Jamie Curnow
Senior Full Stack Developer
From hacking computers as a teenager, Jamie has been learning on the job and in his spare time for the past seven years. He’s an expert in JavaScript, with an interest in modern coding standards, Vue.js, Node.js and serverless architecture. Cornish born and raised, you’ll see Jamie surfing, working on his allotment, foraging for wild mushrooms, or coding side projects.
Neil Young
Discovery & UX Lead
Neil’s worked in the digital industry for five years and has developed a unique set of skills, combining both the Commercial and UX & Design worlds. With a passion for UX and understanding human behaviour, Neil uses his empathetic nature to deliver client projects that are user and people-centric. When there’s time to unwind it’s either on the guitar, beavering away on the next project in his garage/workshop or keeping fit at the gym. He’s also a human climbing frame to a lively 3-year-old where he lives with his wife in Dorset.
Justin Lipkin
Full Stack Developer
Justin started to love technology at a young age when introduced to a family computer, becoming engrossed in software. This lead to Justin’s world revolving around tech, from robotics, 3D printing, virtual reality, game development and website development. When he’s not learning tech, he’s down the gym or getting in his steps outside in the Cornish Coast.
Dan Johnson
Junior Full Stack Developer
Dan, stepped into the world of development to create games with Microsoft XNA. While studying psychology and neuroscience at Plymouth University, his passion accelerated; building a program for a lab event-related potential (ERP) experiment. He continued to level up becoming a front end React developer. Today, he’s a core part of Hiyield.
David Chick
Head of Client Growth
David has a broad skill set across business development, working in a range of sectors including digital. He helped grow a digital agency from scratch back in 2011 as managing director, then exiting in 2019 to pursue further opportunities. He identifies problems and provides solutions, and is the first point of contact with new clients to help them bring their digital ideas to life throughout London, Cornwall and the UK. An advocate of ‘blended careers’ David is also a professional actor and spends his spare time attempting to keep fit with dance classes & walking his dog.
Lewis Young
Project Manager
Having held many jobs in the tech industry; from installing phone systems around central London to managing Hotel tech installations across the UK, Lewis felt that project management was a natural stepping stone for his career to tie all of the skills he acquired over his working life. Lewis has lived in Cornwall for the last 4 years. When he’s not engrossed in Tech, his spare time is spent Gaming, Longboard Dancing & freestyle or playing the Ukulele.
Lyle Bennett
Full Stack Developer
Lyle, a Guinness World Record holder and South African native, has recently moved to Cornwall and has engrossed himself within the local tech community. His passion for learning and discovering more, coupled with his over 7 years of experience in web development, makes him a perfect fit for Hiyield. When not creating amazing websites, Lyle enjoys hiking, rock climbing, playing the piano, and reading fantasy novels.
Giz Edwards
Client Growth Executive
An early adopter of YouTube, creating content for 15 years, Giz set up his own Digital Media Agency predominantly for UK tech companies, producing videos, live streams, podcasts and content workshops. After which, he went on to get an MSc in Entrepreneurship, which brings him to be the perfect fit for Hiyield, helping to level up our brand and many more startups and businesses.
Jack Thompson
Full Stack Developer
Jack jumped straight into a web agency after college, quickly levelling up his skills to become a Full Stack Developer and completing his apprenticeship. He’s based in the Peak District and works remotely. If he’s not coding away, you’ll see him out walking his dogs or doing endless DIY projects on his house.
Mark Dawson
Full Stack Developer
Mark grew up in Cornwall but has spent the last 10 years studying and working all over the UK, solving scientific and engineering problems with code. Over this period he has gained experience of a range of industries and consultancy practices. On returning to the South West he has switched his coding focus to software development. In his spare time Mark enjoys surfing and spending time at his allotment.
Xan Seymour
Project Manager
Xan is one of our fantastic project managers. His eye for detail and anticipating the needs of people started with his background in the hospitality industry. Xan studied business and entrepreneurship with human-centred design alongside his History degree. Outside of work you can find him playing football or swimming in the sea; a real Xanphibian.
Ruth Ross-Macdonald
Head of Product
After working as a Brand and Packaging Designer in London, Ruth started to specialise in UX/UI design in the tech industry. After 8 years of working in various software design roles, she transitioned into creating and leading design teams with a focus on product management. When Ruth is not behind a computer she can be found mountain biking, paddle-boarding, camping, and travelling. Anything that pushed the boundaries or has a promise of an adrenaline fix.
Elliot Williams
Full Stack Developer
As Cornish native and self-taught developer, Elliot loves solving problems and learning about tech. Whilst on his travels Elliot wanted to learn a skill that could be used remotely. After dabbling with the basics of web development he quickly fell in love with the trade and went on to become a junior-level developer. Now living back in Cornwall with his partner and 1-year-old daughter, you’ll see Elliot surfing or out running the coastal paths in his spare time.
Jessica Crump
Senior UX Designer
Jessica is our Senior UX Designer, she leads the design team using her deep wealth of experiential knowledge from working in multiple agencies in the past. Throughout her career, she started to specialise in user experience design as she found this the most interesting and purposeful aspect of her role. Outside of work, you can usually find Jessica either cycling or climbing on the side of a mountain.
Will Norris
Full Stack Developer
Will is a full-stack developer who loves building scalable backend tech and enjoys using the latest front-end technologies such as Vue and React. As a diehard football fan, in his spare time, he can be seen either watching or playing football. Will loves taking his dog on long walks too.
team
The Cornwall HQ
Being a product studio in Cornwall is awesome. We get to live in a wonderful place without compromising on our careers. And it’s not just us who have realised Cornwall is the place to be, it is actually one of the fastest-growing tech clusters in the UK.
People often think being a product studio in Cornwall is limiting because of our location. But this couldn’t be further from the truth, it’s actually a benefit!
Cornwall was one of the first places in the UK to get Superfast broadband and our connectivity allow us to work at speed with global clients. There is a real sense of innovation in Cornwall, which allows us to work on some exciting projects with interesting people locally too.
The county is home to great conferences like Agile on the Beach. Networking Groups like Cornwall Geeks. And collaborative organisations like Software Cornwall.
careers
Accelerate your career with a job you love!
Our door is always open
We are continuously looking to hire people with the same passion as us. Whether you are a Full Stack Developer, a Digital Project Manager or a Junior Developer ready to take the world by a storm. Take a look at at what life is like here at Hiyield and the opportunities available.
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