*Safe Information Group N.V. is 79.37% indirectly held by Borasco Holding S.à r.l., a company established and existing under the laws of Luxembourg.
Corporate structure
Our corporate structure is organised to optimise efficiency and, where possible, manage regulatory complexity in various jurisdictions around the world to best serve our clients anywhere in the world.
Group management team
The Creditsafe group management team is responsible for achieving Creditsafe’s strategy, objectives, policy and results.
Chief Executive Officer
Cato Syversen
Cato Syversen is CEO of the Creditsafe Group and has driven the way in which the company has transformed the business information industry over the last decade and more. Norwegian-born Cato is a graduate of Oslo University and began his career in banking before moving into credit and business information. He moved to the UK in 2000 and oversaw the rapid growth of Creditsafe’s business there before taking on his group-wide responsibilities in 2006. In the last 15 years, he has managed Creditsafe’s transformation into a global player with new businesses launched across Europe, Asia, and North America.
Cato Syversen is CEO of the Creditsafe Group, covering 25 offices across 13 countries. With Creditsafe’s rise into one of the fastest growing companies in the market, Cato now leads a team of over 1,300 staff members.
In the last 15 years, Creditsafe has garnered many accolades under Cato’s leadership: including double-digit revenue growth every year, over 500,000 subscribed users and a recurring feature in The Sunday Times list of '100 Best Companies to Work For.' A dynamic sales leader and inspirational presenter, Cato is regularly invited to speak at conferences and interviewed by publications such as the BBC.
Chief Operating Officer
Mathew Debbage
Matthew Debbage is Creditsafe Group’s Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for leading Creditsafe’s global business operations, executing its business strategy and infrastructure, and ensuring operational excellence across all entities.
Besides being the COO, Matthew is also the CEO of Creditsafe’s America and Asia division. He is the brains behind Creditsafe’s expansion into North America and is currently responsible for overseeing all of the business’ operations in the USA, Canada and Japan alongside his existing duties of supervising the German, Dutch and Belgian operations at Creditsafe.
Matthew is a strong advocate of growth, strengthening Creditsafe’s international relationships and widening the business’ global network. He specialises in market entry strategies and has played an instrumental role in researching, planning and launching the stand-alone operations for Creditsafe Group around the world. Apart from ensuring operational excellence, Matthew and his group team share the long-term vision of levelling the playing field of business information for businesses across the world by making access to business intelligence and information easier through Creditsafe.
Prior to joining Creditsafe in 2006, Matthew served in several leadership position in business information and tech organisations such as ICC Information Limited and Thomson Directories. In these companies, he was largely involved in the areas of operational growth, strategic partnerships and developing additional revenue streams for these businesses.
Matthew is a graduate of the University of Wales in Cardiff, UK.
Chief Technology Officer
John Seery
John Seery is Creditsafe Group’s Chief Technology Officer. He leads all aspects of Creditsafe’s technology organisation including security. John is responsible for Creditsafe’s technology strategy and leveraging the business’ newest innovations and technology platforms to create value for our clients globally. Our technology platforms hold information on more than 365 million companies and delivers more than 270 million company credit reports to more than 500,000 users around the world every year. These platforms include multiple analytical systems as well as high throughput and low latency delivery to customers.
John joined Creditsafe in 2020 and has since been involved in many company-wide projects, including the delivery of the technology architecture at Creditsafe. Before this, he spent 9 years in Dun & Bradstreet as the Vice President of Engineering. Previously, having worked with IBM for 7 years in global payments and database engineering, John has a combined industry experience of 26 years. Earlier in his career, he held software engineering and leadership positions in multiple telecommunications companies.
John earned his Bachelor of Science in Applied Computing from Waterford Institute of Technology and his Master of Science in Computer Science from The National University of Ireland in Maynooth.
Chief Data Officer
David Walters
David Walters is the Chief Data Officer of Creditsafe Group. He establishes the strategic direction for building the business’ data management program and optimises how the business uses data, both internally and externally.
David joined Creditsafe in 2007, and he has helmed his current role since 2019. Before this, David was the Data Director for the Creditsafe Group, during which he spearheaded key projects that involved driving company-wide digital transformation. This major business move changed the way in which Creditsafe processes data by moving onto cloud technologies rather than on-premises data centres.
David frequently features in thought leadership pieces in international and regional publications on subjects including alternative data, digital transformation and Know Your Customer (KYC) due-diligence advice for businesses entering new partnerships with other organisations.
A strong advocate of ethical data sharing, data-driven innovations and data standards, David has been the lead technologist for data and analytics automation at Creditsafe.
David holds a degree in Data Science from Bristol University in the UK.
Chief Sales & Marketing Officer
Scott McConnell
Scott McConnell is Creditsafe Group’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. He is responsible for establishing the vision and strategy for Creditsafe Group’s Sales, Marketing, and Sales Operations functions that further supports 13 local entities. He plays a critical role in building momentum across the business and delivering the best results for clients on a global scale.
Scott has been a part of several business-wide projects at Creditsafe, including building the 5-year Creditsafe Enterprise Strategy, for which he works closely in collaboration with other C-Suite and leadership team members of the business.
Before joining Creditsafe in 2020, Scott served as the Sales Director for Equinix and held multiple sales and marketing leadership roles there throughout his 9-year tenure. Scott also possesses a combined experience of 25 years in global sales and marketing functions which includes his tenure at Interxion, where he was responsible for new business sales, consultancy & projects, and account management for the Irish market.
Scott is a big advocate of integrating disruptive technologies, cloud and digital transformation within the sales and marketing functions of businesses. He also holds multiple professional accreditations, including JAWS selling programme by London Management Consultants and Sales Management Catalyst Programmes at ASLAN.
Scott graduated from University College, Dublin with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography, and he also holds a Distinction in his Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies from Communications & Management Institute in Dublin.
Chief Financial Officer
Carys Hughes
Carys Hughes is Creditsafe Group’s Chief Financial Officer with the responsibility for the group’s corporate finance and compliance including internal and external reporting.
Prior to joining Creditsafe in 2012, Carys worked at PwC for seven years, where she worked in audit across a wide range of industry verticals. During this time she took a year secondment and worked as the Finance Manager for Save the Children in Rwanda.
Following a number of different roles within the Group Finance function of Creditsafe, Carys became CFO in 2017. Throughout her more than a decade-long career at Creditsafe, Carys has served in a number of company-wide financial projects, such as setting up several new entities in new Creditsafe territories across the globe. Together with her team in Cardiff and across all the entities, Carys makes sure that the systems and processes are in place to report and monitor financial KPIs. From these reports, senior management can make informed decisions that help Creditsafe grow.
In 2022, Carys played an instrumental role in securing Creditsafe’s first company-wide acquisition project of Graydon to deliver the combined expertise, unmatched credibility and industry authority of both businesses to clients and customers.
An ACA-qualified chartered accountant from PwC, Carys is a member of ICAEW and holds a 1st degree in Mathematics & Statistics from Cardiff University.
Chief Strategy Officer
Gertjan Kaart
Gertjan Kaart is a member of Creditsafe's board of directors and the Managing Director of CreditSafe Netherlands since January 2017. He is responsible for driving strategy and leading the Creditsafe’s regions of Netherlands- Belgium- Germany (NL-BE-DE).
Gertjan possesses a wealth of experience in the credit information industry. Whilst still studying at university, Gertjan also started his career at Graydon in 1988 as an ‘informateur’ making off-line reports. He progressed through different roles including Marketing Manager, Director of Operations and Managing Director at Graydon until 2012. In this period he was also Managing Director of Bignet. Between 2012 and 2017 Gertjan was an independent consultant.
In addition to serving on the board of directors at Creditsafe, Gertjan is also the president of FEBIS (Federation of Business Information Services), an industry body that represents the common interests of the 130 leading business information providers globally.
In 2022, Gertjan spearheaded a company-wide acquisition strategy where Graydon was acquired by Creditsafe to accelerate a sustainable growth for both businesses and support our customers locally (in Netherlands and Belgium) and globally.
Chief Product Officer
Kathryn Smith
Kathryn Smith is the Chief Product Officer at Creditsafe Group and a big advocate of putting the customer at the centre of everything we do. She is responsible for leading the product strategy at Creditsafe and how different functions like sales, marketing, tech and data collaborate to effectively deliver the product roadmap.
Kathryn joined Creditsafe in October 2021. Since then, she has played an instrumental role in executing the corporate strategy and leading company-wide projects including the delivery of new solutions like KYC Compliance and data analytics to our suite of business intelligence solutions. These solutions our customers to successfully mitigate financial and regulatory risk, identify lucrative opportunities and thrive, no matter the economic landscape.
Kathryn has over 20 years of experience leading and managing product management, strategy and R&D global teams and a proven track record in product portfolio transformation, continuous improvement and defining strategies for new markets and product innovation. Kathryn spent the first 12 years of her career in the USA at leading financial services & software firms like Charles Schwab, Hyperion and UBS. At UBS she was Director of Products for corporate wealth management and is the named person on patents for financial reporting and analytics solutions. Upon her return to Ireland Kathryn joined the management team at AdaptiveMobile where she helped grow an early-stage technology company into a successful global player.
Prior to joining Creditsafe spent 6 years at Axway a leading API platform & MFT software vendor where she was Head of R&D for API Management Products and then Vice President of Portfolio & Product Management.
Kathryn holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in from University College Dublin. She is credited for product patents and holds multiple patents and professional accreditations including Project Management Certifications in Risk and Cost Management from Boston University and Certifications from the Ireland Chapter of Project Management Institute.
Chief Analytics Officer
Camilla Frimmel
Camilla is Creditsafe Group’s Chief Analytics Officer and is responsible for all aspects of the company's analytics operations, transforming data into business insights, driving all cutting-edge business intelligence models and consultative and bespoke analytics for our customers at Creditsafe.
Camilla joined Creditsafe in 2016. During her 6-year tenure at Creditsafe, she has worked on several major group-level projects that included building a senior decision scientists team with high-level analysts, an environment with structures, standards and processes for analytics and model development at Creditsafe. Camilla, and her group team based in Sweden, are involved in several customer-facing functions including risk management and business optimisation consulting. Her team is also responsible for the development and launch of new and upgraded credit scorecards in seven Creditsafe countries including the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Denmark.
Camilla has personally provided leadership in delivering consultative analytics support to Creditsafe customers in bespoke risk management and optimisation.
Before joining Creditsafe, Camilla was the Head of Group Business Analytics and Optimisation at Intrum Justitia AB in Sweden. Earlier in her career, she held several senior positions with top credit information agencies in Sweden and Norway such as Lindorff Decision AS and UC AB.
Camilla holds a Master of Science degree in Statistics from Stockholm University.
Chief HR Officer
Gareth Way
Gareth Way is Creditsafe’s Chief Human Resources Officer, responsible for helping the 1,300 people of Creditsafe succeed, both personally and professionally. Gareth’s group team of HR experts are constantly re-imagining leadership and talent practices to create the most balanced work environment, fuelling Creditsafe’s differentiation in the market as an organisation where ‘people feel excited to come to work on a Monday morning.’
Gareth is a strong advocate of fostering a work culture that thrives on diversity, equality, and fun. Under Gareth’s leadership, Creditsafe has been widely recognised externally as an employer of choice for one of the best company work cultures, including a feature in The Sunday Times’ ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ list.
Gareth joined Creditsafe in 2002 and became the Chief Human Resources Officer in 2017. During his 20-year tenure at Creditsafe, he has progressed through several roles, starting from Human Resources & Training Manager to Human Resources Director. Gareth has played an instrumental role in operationally and strategically supporting the business throughout its global growth and growing workforce.
Between 2016 and 2019, Gareth was the Vice President of the South Wales Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and had previously volunteered there as the Branch Officer. Gareth holds a Master of Science degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Wales.