Shipley-based Consult Red, an employee-owned tech R&D innovator, has appointed experienced technology consulting leader Raghu Venkatesam as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). A leader in software and hardware innovation of Media and IoT platforms for enterprise customers, Consult Red’s success is rooted in deep engineering and R&D.
Raghu will assume day-to-day leadership of the company and join the Board of Directors. With a proven track record of customer centricity and scaling technology-led services business in Asia, Europe and the USA, Raghu joins Consult Red from IBM Consulting. He held several roles as a Senior Partner over 12 years, including transforming their Cloud Application Innovation business in the UK & Ireland and leading global client engagements across financial services, public sector, media & telco, energy & utilities, automotive and retail.
Raghu’s broad sector experience will help Consult Red to leverage its track record in cutting-edge, connected devices and systems to meet soaring demand for smart, internet-of-things (IoT) products.
Raghu Venkatesam, new CEO, said: “I am excited to join the Consult Red team as we accelerate our clients’ innovation and delivery of differentiated Media and IoT solutions in their markets. Our deep experience in R&D, embedded hardware design, software development and systems integration, along with our competencies in Edge Computing, AI and Security, enable our clients to scale their IoT offerings quickly and securely.
I look forward to further capitalising on our heritage in the media industry. At the same time, we continue setting strong foundations in other industries such as Industrial & Manufacturing, Healthcare, Consumer Electronics and Energy & Utilities. Our Employee Ownership model is one of the key ingredients in our ‘secret sauce’ which differentiates us in the industry.”
Karen Bach, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said: “I am delighted Raghu is joining the team. Consult Red has successfully built an enviable track record helping clients deliver digital transformation, manage risk and get to market faster. Andy has led the team to our strong position today, and I thank him personally for everything he has achieved.
We are very excited about building on this great success, and Raghu’s impressive international tech knowledge and understanding will help us support more customers. He will lead our deeply experienced software engineers to continue delivering world-leading and innovative IoT solutions for companies. It is the start of an exciting new chapter.”
Raghu replaces Andrew Stewart who is retiring from the company. Andrew will remain on the Board of Consult Red and continue supporting the business.
Andrew Stewart, retiring Consult Red CEO, said: “I’m so proud of what had been achieved during my time at the helm. Our global growth is beyond what we hoped for, but our transition to an employee-owned organisation is the greatest achievement. A key to our success has been that we have engineers and innovation at the heart of our culture and service offer. Employee ownership means that those values and the foundations we’ve put in place will be preserved as the company continues its journey”.
