Since 2002 Isode has been developing and supporting COTS client and server software for secure messaging and directory systems. Our software is at the heart of great solutions, built by our partners, for Government, Military and Aviation Authority customers in over 150 countries.


Isode was originally established in 1992 as the 'ISODE Consortium'. By 1999, when it became MessagingDirect, the company sold products to customers in 29 countries. MessagingDirect was sold to ACI Worldwide in 2001, and Isode was re-established as an independent UK company in 2002 to re-focus on supporting existing products and new product development. You can find more information about the product development history of Isode since 2002 on the Isode History page.

We have a strong engineering focus (of our 41 staff, 33 write and/or test code) and commitment to the continued development and support of our products. The quality of the support we give to our customers is reflected in a support contract renewal rate of 94% (by value). Our products include:

  • Messaging (SMTP as well as X.400 and X.400 variations for EDI, Aviation and Military sectors)
  • Text Chat (using the XMPP protocol)
  • Directory (LDAP and X.500)
  • Directory Synchronisation

All of our products are based on Open Standards and we have a strong history in leading the specification and development of Open Standards in our technology areas. Isode staff are active in leading roles in the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and XSF (XMPP Standards Foundation).

Isode's Management Team are:

Steve Kille

Chief Executive Officer


Steve KilleSteve Kille is the CEO of Isode, which he founded in 1992 and re-launched in 2002. Steve is an Internet pioneer and visionary, who has been closely involved with many key Internet technologies since 1980, and has brought several of them to market with Isode. Steve has thirty years of experience with messaging, directory, security, XMPP and HF Radio, and has been responsible for a range of widely deployed products and standards. He has written over forty RFCs (Internet Standards), and is one of the authors of LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol).

From 1981 to 1992, he was a Senior Research Fellow at University College London and led US and European funded research projects on messaging, directory, networking and distributed systems. He has worked with the Internet and Internet standardization since 1981 and is active on IETF, XSF and NATO standardization. He has published a book and numerous papers and articles.

Steve has BA and MA honours degrees in Physics from Oxford University, and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and Stanford University, where he was a Fulbright scholar. He was born in London, where he now lives.

Bhanu Saunder

Chief Financial Officer


Bhanu SaunderBhanu joined Isode as CFO in March 2014 where she is responsible for all aspects of Isode's financial affairs including management and financial reporting, treasury and tax affairs.

Prior to joining Isode, Bhanu spent almost two decades working in a variety of senior positions running all finance functions of SMEs that also included company transformations. She started her UK industry working career as an Accountant of the then Isode Limited in 1995. Since then, she has worked in a range of industries spanning mobile telephony, food distribution, construction and public private partnership.

Bhanu is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and an Associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. She is married with 2 children and enjoys reading, cycling, yoga and doing Rangoli art in her spare time.

Damy Mahl

VP Engineering - Directory


Damy MahlDamy Mahl is the VP Engineering responsible for Isode's Directory Products. He has been working in the field of directories since 1989 and in that period time has been involved in several directory development and deployment projects in the academic, governmental and private sectors.

Damy began his career at Brunel University where he was a member of a research group developing some of the earliest X.500 directory user agents for the academic community. This moved on to work in the management and deployment of large scale directory systems as well the further development of X.500 and LDAP directory technology in search, address book and management clients. Damy joined Isode in 2003 having had a working relationship with the company since 1995.

Damy has a BSc in Computer Science from University College London. He lives in West London and in his free time enjoys a diverse set of activities including football, Scrabble, scuba diving and yoga.

Denise Foudy

General Counsel


Denise FoudyDenise Foudy is a member of the Bar who practised for a couple of years in commercial chambers and then moved into industry working as an in-house Barrister. Denise has spent many years in the IT sector, working for Logica for six years before joining Isode as General Counsel. Denise has played a leading role in Isode corporate transactions over the years and was one of the founders of the re-launched Company in 2002.

Denise is a graduate of the University of Bath, University of Westminster and Inns of Court Law School.

Ian Reissmann

VP Engineering - Messaging


Ian ReissmannIan Reissmann has been working as a Team Leader and Designer/Implementer of networking products for over twenty years. In that time he has worked extensively on the design and implementation of products which are compatible with OSI and Internet standards, primarily OSI X.400, Internet messaging and security.

Ian's career started at ICL in 1985, including a large X.400 project for the UK Ministry of Defence. He joined Isode in 1995 to lead the Messaging development team. This included the design and implementation of many advanced X.400 and Internet features of the M-Switch product. After the formation of MessagingDirect (and the subsequent acquisition by ACI) he led the e-Courier project. This involved a large engineering team, based in Canada and London, and a complex product with many components in addition to the Isode ones. In 2003 he left ACI to rejoin Isode as a VP Engineering.

Ian has a degree in Computer Studies from Hallam University (the Sheffield City Polytechnic). He is married and lives in Henley. In his spare time he is a local Councillor and Bridge Grandmaster.

Kevin Smith

VP Engineering - IM & Presence


Kevin SmithKev joined Isode in 2009 and is responsible for the XMPP product set. Prior to this, he worked on detection systems for credit card fraud.

Kev began working with XMPP in 2001, since then he has managed or contributed to a number of XMPP projects such as the Psi and Swift instant messaging clients, administrating XMPP services, and been a member of the XMPP Standards Foundation and the XMPP Council, which he has also chaired. He has authored a number of XMPP specifications, and co-authored the book "XMPP: The Definitive Guide" for O'Reilly.

Kev has a BSc and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Exeter. After leaving Exeter he returned to Wales, where he now lives with his wife.

Mark Timberlake

Head of Customer Service


Mark TimberlakeMark has worked in the IT Sector since graduating from Warwick University with a degree in Computer Systems Engineering. Mark's career started at Thorn EMI Electronics designing electronic guidance systems for missiles. Since then he has worked for a diverse set of companies including two and a half years in California. Mark has worked for Isode for over 20 years and now manages Isode's customer service team.

Mark is a sport lover, particularly rugby, football and tennis. In his younger days he played for Sutton and Epsom RFC. Nowadays he can often be found training for various triathlons.