Meet The Team
Natasha, Sandy, Miranda, Helen and Jon: a bunch of ordinary people doing an extraordinary thing … trying to do good and to give you the chance to see what an amazing life you’re having. Our primary objectives are to allow our Odbodys to record their lives and to see what a difference they’ve made to others. Here’s a little bit about the founding members of Odbody and their previous roles …
Natasha Acres
Tash (as she’s affectionately known) is originally from Ipswich, Suffolk, UK and is a graphic designer by trade. She’s worked from various areas of the UK and has been involved in many design projects both locally, nationally and globally.
Tash has a partner, Sandy and a dog, Frazer (a completely mad Border Collie), who likes attention, swimming, running and eating (Frazer, not Sandy).
Tash’s loves are boogie boarding at her local Devon beach, surfing (badly, although learning), gadgets, photography and organic food.
Tash is chief designer for Odbody (the coloured-in bits), and feels passionately about giving our users the opportunity to see what a difference they’ve made.
Sandy Dillon
Sandy is from Dublin – one of 10 children and with a ma and pa with an extreme tolerance of small, crying things!
Previously working with Tash, Sandy is a project director extraordinaire … if a job needs doing, she’ll find a way – excellent qualities for developing Odbody.
As Tash’s partner, Sandy also loves the beaches of North Devon, boogie boarding and Frazer … on top of that she has a penchant for ‘Guinness and black’ (preferably with the shamrock), coddle and shopping for clothes!
Sandy, along with Helen, brings practicality to the Odbody team – the objectivity that a couple of ‘creatives’ need to ground ideas and to realise the benefits and usability of Odbody’s functionality.
Miranda Acres
Miranda ‘bought into’ the Odbody idea in its initial stages, convinced that there was a place for people to recognise those that had inspired them, as well as those that they’d inspired.
Miranda's career has spanned the design, web and marketing arenas, her most recent role being Project Director and copywriter with a UK-based agency.
Miranda likes camping, beer, wine, music and reading (altogether make for a perfect holiday!). Having travelled widely, Miranda is originally from Suffolk, UK and has two beautiful, fun, independent and ever-so-slightly crazy teenage daughters and a partner with an amazing... VW Camper!
Miranda brings creativity, ideas, grammar and spelling to Obdody (I did that on purpose!).
Helen Thornton
Helen brings absolute level-headedness to Odbody. She’s a great negotiator and is extremely objective about the ideas that the team propose, having previously worked in high profile roles within the insurance industry.
Originally from Ipswich, she’s known Tash and Miranda since school (oh, those were the days of 8 hours continuous sleep!). She’s a big fan of good food, great wine, crime novels and Ipswich Town FC (at least some people stay loyal to their roots even through the hard times).
Scarily, Helen is also a big fan of WWE (a bonus for Odbody?).
Amongst other things, Helen acts as the official Odbody tester - ensuring that the site is clear and easy to use is Helen’s job! Insurance hasn’t demanded that Helen be technologically advanced and so she’s opted not to be… if a function is ‘Helenproof’, we know that it’ll work!
Jon Hadley
Having won awards for his programming previously with the likes of Tesco and Aardman Animations, Jon was recruited to be the ‘web-monkey’ behind the Odbody operation.
Jon, a long time resident of the 'Silicon Gorge' (that's Bristol in the West of the UK for the rest of us), was immediately taken with the Odbody idea – having recently had a new baby, the idea of being able to record his own life and that of his son’s appealed on a completely personal level too.
When not changing nappies/servers, Jon can usually be found taking photographs, deciding whether to support Bath or Bristol rugby club, or plotting trips across Patagonian glaciers.
