Meet our team

Christopher Salmon founded clearBorder to help businesses optimise trade. He has wide experience across trade and borders, working with businesses of all sizes and sectors as well as being closely involved in government border modernisation programmes. Christopher oversaw the border during the UK’s exit from the EU as Senior Adviser to Michael Gove MP. He has experience across all aspects of border processes, from IT systems to business requirements and port infrastructure. Christopher was raised on a farm in mid-Wales and has over 20 years’ experience across government, business and in politics at local and national level.

Mary is clearBorder’s chairwoman, responsible for providing a sounding board for the CEO and internal team and assuring corporate governance. Mary has extensive expertise in risk, governance and strategy, having worked at senior levels across the public and private sectors. Her government career spanned law enforcement, counter terrorism and national security, latterly as Director General for Crime, Policing and Fire in the Home Office. On leaving government, Mary joined McKinsey & Company, serving government and private sector clients around the world. She now holds a number of non executive director and trustee roles in public and private sector organisations and works as an independent consultant.

Khyati Amin leads clearBorder’s strategic consulting work. She brings extensive experience as a strategy consultant with KPMG and deep knowledge of borders, supply chains and UK Government programmes from her work with clearBorder. She has worked on projects across sectors and led teams covering growth strategy, due diligence. Khyati brings extensive experience of market analysis and business development from work with her faKhyati brings extensive experience of market analysis and business development from work with her family business, one of the largest industrial piping suppliers in India. Khyati speaks native Hindi.

Sarah Rice leads clearBorder’s operational consultancy work. Sarah has 20 years of experience in customs and borders, including 15 covering export controls and advanced manufacturing. She has worked with advanced manufacturing, defence goods, dual-use items, research institutes and experimental technologies. Her expertise covers UK and US export control regimes (ITAR/EAR). Sarah has a degree in law and professional qualifications covering UK, US, and EU border controls.

Rizwan Khan manages clearBorder’s training services and provides on-hand advice to businesses moving goods. Rizwan supports clients with customs requirements, paperwork, SPS processes, audit preparations and recordkeeping. He assists customers with training courses and detailed import and export queries. Rizwan brings extensive experience at the front end of customs and border processes from his work DHL Global Forwarding, Alpi and his time at clearBorder. Riz is an avid Liverpool supporter.

Ugne brings extensive business operations and office management experience. She is expert at navigating complex business processes and ensuring the smooth operation of business processes with UK and international clients. Ugne is a native Lithuanian speaker.

Katy is Operating Partner at Connect Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund, backing outlier founders that build opinionated products. With a background in technology, prior to Connect Katy was Expert in Residence at Seedcamp (seed stage VC fund), co-founder at strategic consultancy, Multiple (acquired by Avenir Global), CMO at Tech Nation (formerly Tech City UK, founded by David Cameron), VP Marketing at Videoplaza (acquired by Ooyala), VC at Eden Ventures, and a product developer at Orange. She sits on the Enterprise Investment Committee for her alma mater, the University of Bristol, as well as holding advisory roles for Revent (impact focused VC fund) and Unkillable (growth consultancy).

Adrian is CEO of the automation company, Personar.ai, which has successfully automated processes in a number of sectors including the Australian Government’s SPS controls. He brings international experience and insight into the potential for AI to improve companies’ cross-border supply chains. Adrian has over 30 years experience running large sales organizations in Europe, the USA and Asia. He was responsible for a $12B channel business at Hewlett Packard and led a multi-billion dollar organization at Oracle, Symantec and Automation Anywhere, one of the world’s leading automation (RPA) companies. Adrian is also a Senior Advisor for Warburg Pincus International LLC.

Charles is Commercial Director at Unsworth, one of the UK’s leading independent freight forwarding businesses. He brings unrivalled insight into the challenges facing international trade borders and the market that serves them. Charles is also National Chair of the British International Freight Association (BIFA) for two years following his appointment in May 2023. Charles has extensive connections across the UK and international freight industry and has supported European and British traders of all sizes in adapting to new trade regulations.

Kevin provides expert insight into government approaches to customs and borders, in particular IT modernisation and revenue operations. Kevin brings over 40 years experience with HM Revenue and Customs, the UK customs agency. He started as a frontline officer in London Port and rose to become Director, Customs Transformation leading the development of the UK’s Customs Declaration Services (CDS) - a system responsible for collecting £34bn of revenue each year. Kevin has worked with the UK Home Office and US Customs Service to modernise international trade procedures and worked as Head of Intelligence at UK Border Force. Kevin retired from the Civil Service in 2020 and holds a number positions supporting customs modernisation.

Joan Torrents has 20+ years’ operational and procurement experience in retail, hospitality, consulting and manufacturing. He has a deep understanding of the impact of border processes on supply chains. Joan led Tesco’s Business Contingency Plan during Brexit negotiations. He has also held senior roles working with Naked Wines, Boston Consulting Group, Bain Capital, Majestic Wines and Enotria.

John provides expert advice on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) issues. He spent 20 years working for DEFRA where he was responsible for leading the preparation of the UK’s new border processes for food, animal and plant products. He is a qualified Official Veterinarian and brings extensive project delivery and veterinary expertise.