Home Appointments & Contracts Gala Technology Appoints Tech Specialist CEO

Gala Technology Appoints Tech Specialist CEO

Gala Technology, the Rotherham based company specialising in developing secure digital payment solutions for the card not present (CNO) mail order/telephone order (MOTO) channels, has appointed Mike Cheshire as CEO.

Mike has extensive experience gained over 25 years in the data security and telecommunications industry. He first became aware of Gala Technology whilst running his own company BBF Data Security Limited, where he recognised the benefits of its SOTpay product.

Jason Mace, Director of Gala Technology, said: “Mike joins us at a very exciting time for our business, with our Secure Order Transfer (SOTpay) payment protection technology ready to go to market and a number of major retailers interested in using the technology. Mike’s experience in data security will be invaluable as we enter an era when many businesses are concerned with compliance to GDPR regulations introduced this May and meeting PCI DSS requirements. He will also play a key role in developing new business opportunities for SOTpay through innovative new platforms.”

SOTpay (Secure Order Transfer) has been developed to prevent fraudulent telephone transactions and ensure businesses can deliver to third party billing addresses with confidence. The technology ensures a retailer or seller remains compliant, whilst making payment services more efficient and cost effective.


Gala Technology CEO Mike Cheshire said: “I spotted straightaway that SOTpay was an excellent product and that my experience in security compliance and GDPR could help to move this technology forward. I will be working closely with the payment service providers (PSPs) and Payment Card Industry (PCI) to ensure that SOTpay becomes widely recognised as the leading mail order/telephone order security system for businesses.”

Mike Cheshire continues: “SOTpay is essential for any business that carries out mail order or telephone order transactions. We will be demonstrating to businesses, large or small, how they can protect themselves and their customers from fraud – and do this affordably. This technology will potentially save businesses across the UK millions of pounds by preventing fraudulent transactions.”

SOTpay was Winner of the ‘Security Innovation Of The Year’ at the National UK IT awards and was originally developed by Gala Technologies in order to protect its parent company Gala Tent from bogus purchases when taking mail order/telephone order (MO/TO) transactions.

The technology is quick and cost effective to deploy and is set to revolutionise the way businesses handle telephone transactions globally. With card fraud at £618m in 2016 in the UK alone, SOTpay helps businesses to meet PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and GDPR requirements that organisations of any size must comply with or face hefty chargebacks, penalties and reputational damage.