Meet The Team: Daren Fox

Here at NCASS, there’s a passionate team working behind the scenes every day to make sure members get the most out of their membership – and we thought it was about time you got to know them!

Next up, meet Daren, our Director of IT, who has been part of the NCASS team for seven years. With a background in software engineering, Daren has worked with a wide range of companies, from ambitious start-ups to some of the biggest businesses in the world, bringing a wealth of technical experience to NCASS.

What does your role as IT & Technology Director involve day to day?

As a Director, my days are extremely varied, and my role covers a lot of different facets of running a business and a team. I can be sorting issues to do with the office, fixing a bug a member has spotted in our software, managing my teams’ priorities, and reviewing budgets all in the space of a few hours. The key is being able to context switch.

What are your main priorities when it comes to technology at NCASS?

Keeping the member as our core focus in all that we build, our work needs to be useful and useable by our members. We don’t always get it right first time, but we listen to feedback and hopefully improve.

How does your role support NCASS members and their businesses?

My team builds the tools and software that members use whether than be the dashboard, the Digital Food Safety App (DFSS), the risk assessment systems. It’s all built by us.

How can better use of technology help small food businesses grow?

Technology is there to help people solve problems, for a small business a large barrier to growth is time. So anything that helps make you more efficient and more effective is a big win. The compliance tools we provide as part of membership hopefully help members with this.

What’s one feature or tool you’re particularly proud of?

Rather than a feature or tool, I’m proud of what we achieve as a small team and the value that we bring to membership.

What’s your go-to comfort food?

American BBQ. 

What would you name your food truck or hospitality business?

I used to have a food truck called “Sweet Zone” it was a pick and mix sweet van.

What’s a fun fact about you?

I served sweets to Colin Jackson (the runner)