People PEOPLE 01732 759725 40 Qodea appoints ‘Google evangelist’ Alan Paton as CEO Europe’s largest dedicated Google Cloud digital transformation partner, Qodea, formed from the merger of CTS (Cloud Technology Solutions) and Appsbroker in 2023, is building on a year of strong growth and the recent acquisition of cyber specialists tmc3 by appointing selfconfessed ‘Google evangelist’ Alan Paton as CEO to lead the specialist in cloud solutions, data analytics, AI/ML and cyber security through its next growth phase. Paton joins Qodea from PWC, where he was an equity partner. Prior to that, he was Managing Director and FS Industry Lead EMEA at Google and Managing Director Financial Services at Accenture. Mike Wilkinson, Managing Director of Marlin Equity Partners London, lead investor in Qodea, said: “We are delighted to welcome Alan to the Qodea family at a time of growth in market demand for deep engineering expertise in digital transformation. He brings breadth of proven delivery capability heading major projects for world class clients and has a deep knowledge of Google technology and culture. We are confident that his leadership will take Qodea forward at pace into the next stage of the growth journey.” … More senior appointments at Agilitas Channel services provider Agilitas IT Solutions is supporting its ambitious growth strategy with the appointments of Angela Whitty as Non-Executive Director and Kirsty Walker as Chief Financial Officer. With over 30 years’ experience in the IT channel, most recently as CEO at Ampito and before that in various senior leadership roles at Cisco, Whitty brings extensive experience in strategic leadership, technology and innovation to Agilitas. CEO Sara Wilkes said: “We are delighted to welcome Angela to our Board. She shares our vision and passion for achieving our goals and her strategic insight and leadership will play a key role in helping us achieve our growth objectives and strengthen our partner relationships.” Kirsty Walker joins Agilitas from Wincanton plc, where she was Senior Commercial Finance Manager. Before that, she held finance roles at DHL Logistics and Exel Logistics. www.agilitas.co.uk … LG Business Solutions appoints UK Head of IT Solutions Sales LG Business Solutions has appointed David Jackson as UK Head of IT Solutions Sales, covering the company’s consumer and B2B monitors, laptops, cloud and medical displays. He joins the senior leadership team, reporting directly to LGE UK President Charles Choi. Jackson’s previous roles include Senior Buyer at both Argos and Currys, EMEA Product Manager at Epson and Head of Product Management and Marketing, Professional Displays at Samsung UK. LG.com/uk/business … Focus Group strengthens Board following 10th acquisition of 2024 Business technology solutions provider Focus Group has strengthened its Board of Directors with three new appointments, following a trio of acquisitions in November including those of managed IT services provider Prism, CCaaS specialist Contact Systems and business mobile specialist TMAC. These additions bring the total number of acquisitions made by Focus Group in 2024 to 10, including seven since it secured significant capital investment from Hg in April, following four years with previous investor Bowmark. New additions to the Focus Group Board include CEO Neil Hall, previously President at Computacenter North America; Chairman Peter Sweetbaum, erstwhile CEO of Content and Cloud; and Non-Executive Director Chris Morris, CEO of Citation, a UK provider of compliance and HR services. … New CFO to spearhead accelerated growth phase at FluidOne FluidOne, a provider of secure Connected Cloud Solutions, has recruited Graham Dickie as its new Chief Financial Officer and Group Board member, alongside CEO Russell Horton and CIO Chris Rogers. With almost 20 years’ experience as a CFO, Dickie will enhance FluidOne’s financial planning and operations as it aims to almost triple turnover to £300m by 2030 through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. Since it was created six years ago through a management buyout led by CEO Russell Horton, the Livingbridge-backed company has quadrupled revenues to £113m and transformed itself from a specialist in communications and connectivity services into a majority (>50%) IT and cybersecurityled managed services provider with recurring revenues of over 70%. Commenting on Dickie’s appointment, Russell Horton said: “I am delighted to welcome Graham to FluidOne and am very much looking forward to collaborating with him in realising our 2030 vision. He brings unparalleled financial experience in buy and build strategies, combined with an immediate cultural fit, making him the ideal person to take us to the next level.” … Simon Paris replacing Mike Ettling as CEO at Unit4 Unit4, a global provider of cloud ERP software to more than 5,100 mid-market organisations, has appointed Simon Paris to succeed Mike Ettling as CEO. In his sixyear tenure, Ettling guided Unit4 through a period of significant growth and transition continued... RocketPhone recruits Oxford professor to advisory board RocketPhone.ai, the London-based voice processing system for the Salesforce ecosystem, is planning to accelerate the development of its AI-native solutions after raising £10.5 million in non-VC funding and appointing Professor Michael Wooldridge, Ashall Professor of the Foundations of AI at Oxford University, to its advisory board. As Chief Science Officer, Professor Wooldridge will play a critical role in the ongoing development of RocketPhone’s AI-native product suite supported by other Advisory board members Niluka Ratnayake, Iliana Paskova, Diane Groell, Yui Ho (Chris) Lui, Kristian Flyvolm and Zeeshan Feroz. RocketPhone helps businesses serve customers faster, identify and secure more sales leads and boost agent satisfaction by analysing conversations in real-time, providing agents with real-time customer data; recording key identifiers for follow up activity; and automating actions from the intelligence garnered. Last year, it launched RocketCell, which records, transcribes, summarises and logs every mobile call in Salesforce, without the need for a separate app, and later this year it will be releasing a tool for video channels like Zoom and Microsoft Teams that analyses facial and body expressions to accurately gauge sentiment. Sam Gillingham, Co-founder of RocketPhone, said: “We’re honoured to welcome Professor Michael to our advisory board. His unmatched expertise in the field of AI will be invaluable as we continue to develop and improve our AI-native offering.” https://www.rocketphone.ai/ Professor Michael Wooldridge Alan Paton Qodea Angela Whitty Agilitas IT Solutions Neil Hall Focus Group Kirsty Walker Agilitas IT Solutions
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