Partner Article

Opencast expands leadership team as recruitment continues

A NEWCASTLE technology company has started the new decade by expanding its senior team and taking on ten extra recruits.

Opencast Software, which specialises in building and running systems for global financial services, the government and key public bodies, has appointed internally and externally to its leadership team. The new members are:

• Tom Lawson, Head of Corporate Development
• Sam Manson, Head of Client Relationships
• Dave Sarginson, Head of Software Development
• Adam Coles, Head of Software Engineering
• Sheena Widdowfield, Head of Learning and Culture
• Andrew Howard, Client Relationship Director

They will work alongside founders Mike O’Brien and Charlie Hoult in shaping the organisation for its next phase of growth.

Tom Lawson followed his degree in Internet Systems and E-business from Durham University with six years of programme management at BT Global Services, then nine years in digital transformation and consulting with Capgemini. He joined the Opencast team last month.

Sam Manson completed a BA degree in European Studies at the University of Bradford, and at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. After working in Germany as a marketing executive, she returned to the UK to work with advertising agency McCann Erickson and then Orangebus before joining Opencast last year.

Dave Sarginson followed his computing degree at Northumbria with eight years at Accenture and three years with fintech specialist JHC and has been with Opencast for four years.

Adam Coles is a physics/computing graduate and certified scrum master who joined Opencast five years ago after a long career in the systems team at Northumbria Police.

Sheena Widdowfield developed her skills as a business analyst at Barclaycard and has recently led on setting up the Agile BA network for the region. She has been with Opencast for over two years, working with NHS and Barclays.

Andrew Howard joined Opencast when the company was formed eight years ago after spending 11 years at SSS/Capgemini. In his 20-year technical career, Andrew has advised government and banking clients on everything from running support teams to their technical architecture

They will work alongside founders Mike O’Brien and Charlie Hoult in shaping the organisation for its next phase of growth, and will join the leadership team alongside MD Carl Shovlin, Chief Technology Officer Fiona Hobbs, and Financial Controller Denise Power.

Ten new recruits have also recently joined the company, making the company over 80 strong. Key clients include Government departments, Barclays, Sage Software, Morgan Stanley and the NHS. Recent contract wins include work for JP Morgan, HMRC Edinburgh, DWP, Citizens’ Advice and DEFRA.

“We specialise in developing end-to-end enterprise solutions for UK and global businesses, and on the digitization of government services,” said Mike O’Brien.

“Growth over the last two years has been hugely satisfying and the strengthening of our senior leadership team – and the recruitment of ten more talented IT professionals to the wider Opencast team – means we are set for the next level.

“We’re ready to expand our services throughout 2020 and beyond – providing more live services, delivering more user research and helping more clients in the areas of tech consultancy; architecture and service design; test automation; dev ops and data analytics.”

Carl Shovlin added: “We made our name in the provision of first-class development and support services and we’re now also gaining a reputation in providing fully end-to-end enterprise solutions – from the initial discovery/design phase, through to the review and build phase and then providing first-class support.”

Opencast is particularly known for its expertise in the field of Agile methodology in software development, with scrum masters and Agile experts working in joint teams with clients.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hoults Yard .