With over 20 years’ industry experience, Leon Hughes joins the rapidly expanding team at Activ Technology, which operates from its headquarters in Newcastle upon Tyne and Dumfries, Scotland.
Leon, who becomes head of technology, joins from Pulsant, where he held an identical position.
Activ Technology, which employs over 30 staff, is a managed service provider for IT and telecommunications and the appointment of Leon comes at a time when former head of technology, John Prescott, moves into a new business development role within the company.
Leon, from Haydon Grange, Newcastle, said: “I began my career in IT over 20 years ago and have worked across a range of sectors including oil and gas, legal and financial services.
“I co-founded a specialist IT business in 2002 and sold it to Onyx Group in 2007. This formed the managed services division at Onyx. Within my role as CTO, I introduced cloud services, making Onyx one of the first cloud providers in the North East. When Onyx was acquired by Pulsant, I was appointed head of technology, again focusing on the development of cloud-based services in particular, desktop virtualisation and disaster recovery.
“The role at Activ Technology really appealed. It allows me to build on skills I have adopted throughout my career with more emphasis on building the business. I am joining a company with strong core values and which places the customer at the heart of everything it does. I want to continue to deliver the best service to our clients and to grow the technology division by leveraging best practices as adopted by large enterprises in ways all of our customers can benefit. We will do this by embracing innovative cloud-based services and automation technologies, as we continue to grow our team and service offering.”
Managing director, Ian Gillespie, said: “Leon is a strong addition to the team. He has a wealth of industry experience, whilst also remaining innovative and forward thinking. This can only benefit our customers and will add great value to our growing team.”