Ben Heald

Ben was one of the founders of Sift in 1996 and is the company’s largest shareholder. He launched AccountingWEB in May 1997, now one of the UK’s largest online professional publishing businesses. He also took responsibility for the subsequent launch of AccountingWEB US, BusinessZone, TrainingZone and TravelMole. He acted as the first editor, then Community Director of AccountingWEB, then Director of Communities for Sift. He also took the lead in raising Sift's two rounds of external finance in 1999 and 2000. In 1999 he formed PracticeWEB, Sift’s Software as a Service (SaaS) business for the UK accountancy practice and IFA firm markets. He was appointed CEO of Sift in September 2002.

Having studied psychology at Bristol University, Ben trained as an accountant with KPMG, spending six years in their London office, before 3 years running his own accounting and consulting practice. He sits on the committee of the ICEAW’s IT Faculty. His sixteen years at Sift has given him a wide range of experience building and launching products within the technical sector and running online businesses. He is a regular speaker at industry events on online business. Ben believes that his job at Sift isn’t about delegating tasks and monitoring results, it’s to imbue the company with a sense of responsibility for the business. Having recently taken up the piano again after many years, he passed his Grade 8 exam in March 2010 (and played Rachmaninov's C# minor prelude from memory at his 50th birthday bash in November 2011).