About Olex.AI

Transforming Teaching
with Award-Winning AI

For over a decade, our team has worked alongside teachers on a mission to give them their time back and now we’ve got the results in schools to prove it.

Transforming Teaching with AI

 

Olex.AI was founded on a simple idea: give teachers their time back, without compromising on the quality of feedback students receive. That meant building something rooted in good pedagogy first, and technology second.

That mission won its first recognition in January 2024, with our first Bett Award. Since then we’ve kept building at pace: expanding into secondary and GCSE assessment, launching OlexAnalytics and OlexInsights, adding automated lesson planning and bespoke rubrics, and growing from English into Geography, History, Science and Maths, and from KS1 right through to KS5. Along the way, we’ve picked up ten further award wins across Bett, ERA and BESA.

But the numbers we’re proudest of aren’t the award wins. They’re things like thousands of hours of teacher time given back, students more engaged in their writing, and improved GCSE results once Olex was introduced. They’re also the things that don’t show up in a stat: the pupils staying in at break to finish their writing, and the teachers telling us the job feels enjoyable again.

This is a mission we’re building with schools and trusts, not just for them – and we’re just getting started.

11
Industry awards won
600+
Schools supported
4,800+
Teachers helped
20,000+
Hours of marking saved

Meet the Olex.AI Team

About Pim Piers

Pim is a UK chartered accountant with an MBA from London Business School, and began his career in M&A at Deutsche Bank and ING Barings. He has since held CFO, COO and MD roles across PE-backed growth businesses including uSwitch, Multimap and Microsoft, building a strong track record of high-valuation exits and fundraises. As CEO of Olex.AI, Pim leads the business into its next chapter.

Pim Piers

CEO

About Victoria Mallinson

Victoria is a highly experienced leader with over 20 years of expertise in designing, building, and marketing technology platforms across FinTech, EdTech, and retail. She has held senior roles in Tier 1 Financial Markets Institutions and tech startups. At Olex.AI, Vicky drives significant change in the education technology market both in the UK and globally.

Victoria Mallinson

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

About Andrew Beattie

Andrew is passionate about transforming education through innovative technology. With an MA in Education and over 15 years of experience in the education and EdTech sectors, Andrew has led teams to develop impactful learning solutions. Now at Olex.AI, Andrew spearheads AI-driven initiatives and product development, working to bring cutting-edge learning solutions to life and reshape the future of education.

Andrew James Beattie

Chief Strategy & AI Officer

About Louis d'Arcy

Starting his career at Accenture, Louis has spent over 20 years working and leading in schools and Trusts across the UK, including as a Headteacher and in MAT leadership. He brings a wealth of experience in driving successful change within a school or Trust. At Olex.AI, Louis focuses on building genuinely collaborative relationships with customers, ensuring they get the highest impact and value from the platform.

Louis d'Arcy

Head of Strategic Partnerships

About Fizza Imam

Fizza began her career as a teacher before moving to the EdTech space. She has extensive experience in supporting schools and MATs throughout their journeys.

Fizza Imam

Schools Partnership Manager

About Emily Varns

Emily is a strategic marketer with over 23 years of experience across creative and marketing, spanning B2B and B2C work for both global corporate businesses and purpose-driven start-ups. As Creative Marketing Director at Olex.AI, she leads marketing, communications, brand and creative direction.

Emily Varns

Creative Director

About Kevin Shannon

Kevin is a long-standing Product leader with a strong background in SaaS and AI scale-up businesses. Most recently at Rezatec, he helped scale the business from £1m to approaching £10m in revenue, before being part of the team that sold the company to Constellation Software. Now at Olex.AI, Kevin brings that scaling expertise to product strategy, helping shape the tools that give teachers back their time.

Kevin Shannon

Chief Product Officer (CPO)

About Nicola Marriott

With over 20 years of experience in primary education and 11 years in the EdTech sales industry, Nicola brings a unique blend of classroom expertise and technological innovation to our team, understanding firsthand the challenges and opportunities educators face daily. Nicola has successfully helped schools and institutions integrate cutting-edge technology.

Nicola Marriott

Schools Partnership Manager

About Ismail Hussain

With a background in Computer Science and extensive tutoring experience, Ismail brings together technical expertise and a strong understanding of how people learn. As AI & Rubrics Analyst at Olex.AI, Ismail builds and develops our AI frameworks, working on prompting, evaluation and rubric design. He works at the intersection of technology and education, helping ensure our AI systems are accurate and effective.

Ismail Hussain

AI & Rubrics Analyst

About Hajer Al-Ruqaibi

Hajer brings a tech background and a passion for human-centred customer support. As Customer Support Specialist at Olex.AI, she enjoys getting to the root of a problem, deep-diving into the detail to turn tricky technical issues into smooth, straightforward solutions for the teachers and schools relying on Olex.AI every day.

Hajer Al-Ruqaibi

Customer Support Specialist

About Phil Swords

Phil is a strategic finance leader with a proven track record of scaling fast-moving AI-powered FinTech and SaaS scale-ups beyond Series A through successful fundraises, M&A readiness, and exits. He has held senior finance roles in several other successful exits across the sector. Now at Olex.AI, Phil brings that scaling and exit expertise to the finance function.

Phil Swords

Chief Finance Officer (CFO)

About Simon Bacon

Simon is a Bookkeeper and Finance & Operations professional supporting small businesses and start-ups through periods of growth and change. His experience spans payroll, VAT returns, reconciliations and invoicing, and he is highly experienced in Xero. Now at Olex.AI, Simon brings that hands-on finance discipline to help build solid foundations for growth.

Simon Bacon

Bookkeeper & Finance Analyst

About Admir Ljubijankić

Admir is a web developer and SysOp with 10 years of experience. He has worked on numerous different projects, e-commerce, content management systems, and specialised services for industrial machines. At Olex.AI I drive the backend logic, the AI systems and maintain parts of the IT network for the service, so is pivotal to the team.

Admir Ljubijankić

Software Engineer

About Tilen Gombač

Tilen is a full-stack developer with over 10 years of experience across a variety of projects, including digital printing solutions, e-commerce platforms, and EdTech systems. At Olex.AI, Tilen is responsible for developing the platform and its AI systems, managing deployments, and ensuring the platform operates smoothly and efficiently.

Tilen Gombač

Software Engineer

About Sam Thompson

Sam is passionate about learning having tutored KS2, GCSE and A Level Maths part time while working as a developer. He plays a critical role for Olex, setting up school accounts and testing our many new features.

Sam Thompson

Technical Analyst

Meet the Olex.AI Board

About Eddy Chan

Having enjoyed a career in the Financial Markets Sector spanning over 25 years, Eddy conceived and founded Olex.AI. As a father of three children, Eddy is passionate about education. Through innovation and technology, he aims to reduce teacher workload and raise educational attainment levels for all students.

Eddy Chan

Founder & Director

About Tracy Clarke

Tracy is an independent non executive director on the boards of TP ICAP plc and the All England Netball Association. She was CEO, Europe & Americas and CEO, Private Bank at Standard Chartered Bank. She joined Standard Chartered having held a range of positions across Retail, Commercial, Corporate Banking, Corporate Affairs, HR, and Compliance in the UK and Hong Kong.

Tracy Clarke

Chair

About Patricia Tehan

Patricia has experience of working with boards, both public and private, particularly in relation to succession planning and change management. She founded Lygon Group, the board search firm, in 2008. In addition to her board search work, Patricia is also a Trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh Award, and is passionate about education and improving the lives of young people.

Patricia Tehan

Director

About Dr Kate Chhatwal

Kate is CEO of Challenge Partners and is passionate about education and social justice. Kate is Co-Founder and Vice-Chair of the Leading Women's Alliance, which empowers and enables more women to take up senior positions in education. She holds a PhD in education policy and was awarded an OBE for services to education in the 2020 New Year’s Honours.

Dr Kate Chhatwal OBE

Director

About Jeff Kelisky

Jeff is a senior technology executive with a strong record in scaling and transforming global businesses. As CEO of Seedrs, he led its eightfold growth across Europe and sale to Republic, becoming EVP of Global Retail. He was also CEO at Picsolve and Multimap, acquired by Microsoft where he became GM of Local Search. Earlier he held roles at A.T. Kearney and IBM.

Jeff Kelisky

Director

Award-Winning Innovation in Education

We have won a Bett Award for the last 3 years and were the most award EdTech in 2025. We’re honoured to be recognised for our commitment to educational excellence and innovation.

Bett Awards 2026 Winner – Assessment, Planning & Progress Monitoring – Olex AI
ERA Awards 2026 badge for AI Resource in Education
ERA Awards 2026 badge for Education Startup Company of the Year
Bett Award win for Olex in 2024