Michael Nabarro

CEO & Co-Founder Spektrix

Last Reviewed: September 29, 2026

Executive Summary

Michael Nabarro is CEO and co-founder of Spektrix, the London-based software company that provides ticketing, marketing, fundraising and CRM tools to theatres, arts centres and other cultural organisations. He started it in 2007 with Matt Scarisbrick, a friend from university amateur drama, after running a university theatre and struggling with its ticketing software. Nearly two decades on, Spektrix serves around 825 clients across six countries, was the first ticketing provider certified as a B Corporation, and remains led by its founder, who is also one of its largest shareholders. Alongside the company, he has served on the boards of theatre charities, including the trust behind Leeds Playhouse.

Career Highlights

• CEO and co-founder of Spektrix, leading strategy, alignment across the business and company culture.
• A director of Spektrix Limited since its incorporation on 19 April 2007, and its company secretary until 2018.
• Signed up the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as Spektrix’s first user; it sold its first tickets on the system in 2008.
• Oversaw Spektrix’s certification as the first B Corporation among ticketing providers, in 2021.
• Brought in investment from Foresight Group in 2018 and Norland Capital in 2022 to fund growth.
• Director of Leeds Theatre Trust (Leeds Playhouse) from 2018 to 2026, and of The Royal Theatrical Support Trust from 2012 to 2024.

Professional Journey

Nabarro studied computer science at university, where he met Matt Scarisbrick, an engineering student. Both spent more of their time on amateur drama than on their degrees, Nabarro as a lighting designer and Scarisbrick in sound. After graduating Nabarro spent three years running the university theatre, and the frustrations of its ticketing software gave them the idea for Spektrix. They bet early on cloud software that venues could use without their own servers. By Spektrix’s own account they assumed, “perhaps naively”, that theatres’ needs would not prove too complicated. The first basic version took two years to build.

Spektrix Limited was incorporated on 19 April 2007, with Nabarro as a director from the first day. He persuaded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London to become the first user, and it sold its first tickets through Spektrix in 2008, the year the company opened its first proper office in Highbury. Spektrix launched in the US and Canada in 2014, the same year it opened a second UK office in Manchester; it later opened a US office in midtown Manhattan, and in 2025 launched in Australia and New Zealand, moving two team members to Melbourne.

In 2018 Scarisbrick stepped aside to return to software engineering, and Nabarro and the board took outside investment for the first time, from Foresight Group. In 2022 Norland Capital invested, alongside further finance from Foresight. Nabarro remains a significant shareholder: Companies House lists him as holding more than a quarter of Spektrix’s shares and voting rights. In 2021 Spektrix became the first ticketing provider certified as a B Corporation.

As CEO he leads strategy, keeps the business aligned on its direction, and pays particular attention to how the company culture evolves as it grows. The company describes him as passionate about the ability of highly usable software to empower and excite its users. Spektrix now serves around 825 clients across the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand; it reports that the platform processed more than 46.2 million tickets, memberships and merchandise purchases, and 1.9 million donations, over the past year. In July 2026 he introduced a refreshed brand, writing that “our values haven’t changed. Our mission hasn’t changed.”

He has also served on the boards of theatre charities: The Royal Theatrical Support Trust from 2012 to 2024, and Leeds Theatre Trust, which runs Leeds Playhouse, from 2018 to 2026.

Education

He studied computer science at university, according to Spektrix’s company history; the institution is not named in the sources reviewed.