SAM Magazine—Twyford, United Kingdom, May 4, 2026—Chief operating officer Lee Cowie will become CEO of accesso Technology Group as part of a planned leadership transition. He succeeds Steve Brown, who founded the company’s namesake accesso business in 2008. 

"I’m leaving the business in very good hands,” said Brown. “Lee's deep experience in this industry, his unique view as a former client, and his understanding of what operators need, make him the right person to lead the business forward."

Cowie joined accesso as COO in 2024, with more than 15 years of senior technology leadership experience in the leisure and hospitality sectors. Prior to that, he was the chief technology officer for Merlin Entertainments, a London-based theme park and attractions company that owns, among other things, the Legoland resorts. He holds an MBA from Henley Business School and a BSc from Imperial College London.

In a release, accesso said Cowie’s strategic priorities would center on the development of the AI-powered analytics and forecasting platform accesso Intelligence, an integrated payments strategy, and broader integration across the accesso product suite.

Reflecting on those priorities and accesso’s 25 years of technology infrastructure development, Cowie said, “My focus from here is on making that infrastructure more intelligent, more connected, and simpler for the operators and visitors who depend on it. The AI era is coming into our industry, and we are ready for it.”