We’re based at FOUNDRY in Eastbourne, on the south coast of the UK. Our team works in a hybrid way, so we can support businesses wherever you’re based.
Everyone you work with is directly employed by Switchplane. We don’t outsource our work, so you experience a consistent team who understands your business.
Learn more about us below.
Joint Managing Director
Joel Fielder co-founded Switchplane in 2003 alongside his brother Tom and has led the business ever since with a strong commercial focus and a pragmatic, delivery-led approach. Joel holds a 2:1 in Music and Sound Recording from the prestigious Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey, a background that developed his systems thinking and attention to detail early in his career. He brings hands-on experience across software engineering, project management, finance, and marketing communications, enabling him to balance technical understanding with commercial decision-making. As joint Managing Director, Joel works closely with clients and internal teams to ensure technology investments translate into real business outcomes. He currently sits on the board of Team East Sussex, representing the tech and digital sector across the wider region. Joel was Highly Commended as Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2012 Eastbourne Business Awards and has been an active BNI member since 2007, including serving as President.
Joint Managing Director
Tom Fielder is joint Managing Director at Switchplane, which he co-founded in 2003. With over 25 years' experience in software development and technology leadership, he has spent his career helping organisations increase productivity and turn technology investment into measurable ROI. Over the past two decades, Tom has led the design and delivery of bespoke software and AI solutions for businesses across multiple industries. His work focuses on reducing manual effort, removing operational friction, and ensuring that systems deliver clear, measurable returns. He specialises in taking complex, often fragmented business processes and turning them into streamlined, scalable systems that support growth and free up leadership time. Known for his practical, consultancy-led approach, Tom works closely with senior teams to ensure technology investments translate into real business outcomes, not just technical change. Tom regularly speaks on AI and business process efficiency, focusing on how organisations can apply emerging technologies to increase productivity, improve decision-making, and drive sustainable growth.
COO
Donna Fielder is Chief Operating Officer at Switchplane. She joined the business in 2017, bringing over a decade of senior marketing and operations experience with her. Donna holds a first-class degree in Social Psychology from the University of Kent and previously served as Marketing Manager for a business psychology consultancy before becoming Director of a marketing organisation specialising in helping businesses win industry awards. At Switchplane, Donna oversees HR, compliance, legal, and internal company operations, ensuring the business operates on solid foundations as it grows. She is particularly passionate about digital transformation in manufacturing and construction, two industries facing significant skills gaps and fast-moving technological change. She is a strong advocate for supporting industry leaders in these sectors to adopt digital tools that will help them survive and thrive in the years ahead. Donna also plays an active role in Eastbourne DigiFest, a conference and growing events programme built to inspire Eastbourne's growth in the world of digital and tech, building on the foundations of Chalk Eastbourne, a business-led community that has brought together the region's digital and technology sector in recent years.
Head of Engineering
Lewis Hobden is Head of Engineering at Switchplane, having joined the business in 2016 and built nearly a decade of experience across development, architecture, and strategy. Lewis studied Computing, Software Development, Maths, and Physics at Sussex Downs College, and has developed a keen focus on DevOps alongside strengths in back-end development and project management. He works across the full delivery lifecycle, from shaping technical architecture through to hands-on development and ongoing support. Much of Lewis's work centres on businesses that are operating well but being held back by processes that no longer scale, whether that's manual steps, disconnected systems, or software that was never quite the right fit. He builds the systems that actually fit: internal tools, client portals, and workflow systems designed around how a business genuinely operates. Increasingly, that includes AI, applied where it adds real value rather than just sounding good. Lewis has done significant work in construction, manufacturing, and insurance, though the underlying challenges he solves tend to be consistent regardless of sector.
Operations Manager
Sarah Cronk is Operations Manager at Switchplane, sitting on the leadership team and contributing to business strategy alongside day-to-day operational delivery. With a background spanning languages, translation, marketing, and project management, and experience working both in the UK and France, Sarah brings a broad perspective to her role. She holds a degree in Languages and Contemporary European Studies from the University of Southampton, an MA in French Translation, and is a Chartered Marketer with over a decade of experience across content, email, and digital channels. At Switchplane, Sarah works across operations, project coordination, and delivery support, acting as a central point of coordination between leadership, delivery, and marketing, ensuring clarity and momentum across the business as it grows. Outside of her core role, Sarah organises Eastbourne DigiFest, an annual conference and growing events programme built to inspire Eastbourne's growth in the world of digital and tech. Building on the foundations of Chalk Eastbourne, a business-led community she helped found, Eastbourne DigiFest brings together businesses, professionals, and speakers from across the South East. The 2025 event achieved a 94.6% attendee satisfaction rating.
Senior Developer
Adam Dowding is a Senior Developer at Switchplane and a member of the leadership team. He began his career running his own web design business before moving into the software industry proper, where he gained experience at a hospitality SaaS company, developing a commercial understanding of how software products need to perform under real operational pressure. Adam joined Switchplane in 2023 and has progressed quickly, combining deep technical capability with a growing focus on product strategy, consultancy, and team leadership. He holds an A Level in Software Development and has built expertise across the full delivery lifecycle, from architecture and back-end engineering through to front-end implementation and UX, a combination that is relatively rare, and one that means his solutions work as well for the people using them as they do under the hood. That breadth is reflected in the range of systems he has delivered: compliance tracking, HR, project management, expenses, vehicle management, and specialist industry software. The common thread is complexity: processes that matter to a business but have never had software that properly fits them. At Switchplane, much of his focus is on the construction sector, where long-term client relationships have given him genuine industry depth. He applies that knowledge to help businesses reduce operational risk, protect margin, and grow, using software and AI not as ends in themselves, but as tools that make a measurable difference to how a business runs.
