Appointed February 2025

Mark has over 35 years of investment banking experience, having held a number of senior leadership positions including Chairman of Corporate Broking at Barclays and Head of Corporate Broking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Mark was also a member of the Takeover Panel. Mark is a  a non-executive director at Cavendish plc, a member of the Sky News Board, and is a senior adviser to Brunswick Group.

Appointed June 2025 

Mickey Kalifa joined the Next 15 Board on 1 June 2025 as Group Chief Financial Officer. 

Skills and experience

Mickey is a Chartered Accountant with experience across the media, technology and gaming sectors. Mickey was CFO of Dept, a private equity backed technology and digital marketing services company, from 2022 until May 2025.  Mickey was previously CFO of M&C Saatchi Plc. between 2019 and 2022, and prior to this, held the role at Sportech Plc. During his career Mickey has served in a number of executive and finance director roles at some of the world’s largest media and technology companies, including Liberty Global, BSkyB PLC, Time Warner, Disney and Young & Rubicam. 

Appointed June 2025

Sam Wren joined the Next 15 Board on 1 June 2025 as Senior Independent Director. 

Skills and experience

Sam brings over 30 years of experience to the Board, having held a number of senior leadership positions at market-leading financial services companies, including as Group CFO/COO of Nex, now part of CME Group, and CFO/COO of ICAP Global Broking, now part of TP ICAP Group. Samantha is also a non-executive director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee of AIM listed Chapel Down Group, a non-executive director and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee at Schroder Japan Trust plc, and a non-executive director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee at Petershill Partners.  Until October 2024, she was Audit & Risk Chair of the City of London Investment Trust where she served nine years on the board and was CEO of a private investment company investing in venture capital and private equity, particularly in financial services but also the corporate world, aiming to develop young businesses into industry leaders.

Appointed June 2022 

Paul joined Next 15 as a Non-Executive Director and is a member of the Audit and Risk, Remuneration and Nomination Committees.

Skills and experience
Paul is an expert in business development, strategy, and operations, with more than 20 years of experience in the media, entertainment, and consulting industries. He is currently President & Chief Transformation Officer at New America, a US-based think tank founded in 1999. Before this, he was Chief Operating Officer at sparks & honey, the Omnicom-owned cultural intelligence consultancy.

Appointed February 2021 

Skills and experience
Having qualified as a solicitor at Eversheds, Mark worked in their Corporate Team before moving to his first in-house role at Premier Farnell plc. Mark first joined Next 15 in 2003 as General Counsel and Company Secretary. In 2009 he set up his own boutique law firm Baker Sanford LLP while continuing to provide an outsourced legal and company secretarial function to Next 15. In 2017 Mark became General Counsel and Company Secretary of Ebiquity plc, an AIM-listed media consultancy business, before re-joining Next 15 in February 2021.