Board & Executive
The ODA Board consists of individuals from member companies.
Duncan Cunningham – Chairman
Duncan Cunningham was elected Chairman of the Online Dating Association in August 2013.
Duncan has been a director of The Dating Lab since 2007, who specialise in providing white label dating solutions to media partners. Before that he worked for its parent company, Telecom Express in a variety of operational and commercial roles. He has been involved in the provision of dating services to the UK media for over 25 years.
Dan Winchester – Director
Dan Winchester was appointed Director of the Online Dating Association in August 2013.
Dan is the founder of FreeDating.co.uk, a free UK dating site established in 2005. He is involved in all aspects of the day-to-day running of an online dating site. Dan is especially interested in both the free dating business model and in eradicating dating scammers from online dating sites. Prior to FreeDating.co.uk, Dan founded HousePrices.co.uk which he sold to Zoopla in 2010. When he is not working, Dan can often be found running or cycling in the South Oxfordshire countryside.
Morgan Cauvin – Director
Morgan Cauvin was appointed as a Director of the Online Dating Asociation in April 2018.
As Corporate Affairs Director, Morgan heads up corporate communication and government relations of Match Group in Europe and Asia.
Prior to Match Group, Morgan, who started his career as solicitor at the Paris Bar, held various positions in sensitive and exposed industry such as alcohol amongst others.
Erica Turner – Director
Erica Turner is the Finance and Operations Director at Christian Connection and has been involved in many aspects of the business since 2001 including customer service, development, marketing and finance. She has led the successful growth and expansion of the Christian Connection brand from a strong UK presence into many new regions including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and the USA. Erica has also run a successful web development company and is a co-founder of Shared Workforce - a user generated content moderation tool. Erica is originally from Nova Scotia, Canada.
Fred Beckley – Director
Fred is the General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Business Affairs of The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET), where he is responsible for safety, moderation and legal affairs. Prior to that he spent ten years at TruePosition, Inc., a Liberty Media-backed geolocation start-up, where he headed the legal, corporate development, regulatory and technical standards teams. Before that he held a number of positions at Verizon Corporation, including Senior Counsel, Business Development at Verizon Wireless and General Counsel of Grupo Iusacell in Mexico. Fred began his career doing mergers and acquisitions at two large law firms in Philadelphia. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, Yale Law School, and Yale Divinity School.
Gitte Bendzulla - Director
Gitte Bendzulla joined Spark Networks as General Counsel of Spark Networks in November 2018. She serves as Managing Director since June 2019 and is responsible for the Legal Department, the HR and Talent Engagement Team, Customer Care and drives the Company’s process around OKR’s. Before joining Spark Networks, Gitte held several senior legal positions on a European and global scale with Juniper Networks, APM Terminals, Eaton Industries and the SITA Suez group. Gitte started her career at the German-based law firm Graf von Westphalen in 2004. She is admitted to the German bar and holds a master’s degree from the University of Bayreuth (Germany), as well as a bachelor’s degree obtained in Berlin (Germany).
Executive
George Kidd - Chief Executive
George Kidd was the first Chief Executive of the Online Dating Association in 2013. He moved on from the ODA in September 2015 to take an executive role promoting responsibility in the gambling sector. In addition to these roles George spent eight years as Chief Executive of The Phone-paid Services Authority. He was also a board member of the Fundraising Regulator and was a Director at the Cabinet Office. He chairs the Direct Marketing Commission.
Ann Austin - Secretary
Ann Austin was appointed Secretary of the Online Dating Association in August 2013.
Ann has over 20 years’ experience working in regulatory and not-for-profit organisations and spent a number of years with the premium rate self-regulatory body PhonepayPlus as Finance Officer and Company Secretary. Currently, she provides secretarial services to the regulatory committee at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, as well as offering flexible administrative support to small businesses.
