The Access Group Expands Management Team
As part of their global growth strategy, The Access Group, one of the largest UK-headquartered providers of business management software for small and mid-sized organisations in the UK, Ireland, USA and Asia Pacific, has significantly expanded its management team with four new C-suite appointments.
Last year Access signed a further significant investment deal with shareholders Hg and TA which is driving global expansion across the Group. Investment in top talent and skills at a senior level is a fundamental part of delivering the Group’s ambitious growth strategy.
In a new role as Chief Information Security Officer, Diego Baldini joins Access bringing a wealth of international and multi-cultural experience in cybersecurity technologies, management of policies and compliance initiatives, as well as leadership of security teams and engagement in the massive cybersecurity community.
Diego has over 23 years' of experience and has dedicated his career to cybersecurity, he was the first CISO of Renault Group in Paris, France; prior to that, he was CISO of HERE Technologies in Berlin, Germany. Diego has also held multiple cybersecurity leadership positions at Nokia Corporation in Finland and China.
Pooja Singh joins as Managing Director, Global Operation Centres, APAC. Pooja sits on the Access APAC leadership team and is responsible for the launch and delivery of the GO Centres in APAC, supporting the Group’s global expansion.
Pooja joins Access from Google, where over four years she scaled up and established Google Operations Centres across four locations in Asia-Pacific, growing the team from zero to 5,000.
Before her tenure at Google, Pooja held pivotal leadership roles at organisations such as Cognizant and Tata Consultancy Services, where she played an instrumental role in setting up and managing key accounts and fostering language-intensive capabilities offshore under the BFSI vertical.
Claire Carter joins as Managing Director, ERP. Claire replaces Brendan Flattery who after three years at Access and 38 years of executive roles, has retired. With a pedigree of over 20 years' experience working in the field of tax and accounting, Claire joins Access from Wolters Kluwer where she held the role of CEO of Europe, responsible for several countries with a portfolio of over 250 products and services.
Claire previously held executive roles for companies including Alliance & Leicester, Morgan Stanley and Sage and has a legacy of building high-performing teams and delivering operational excellence and efficiency, focusing on transforming organisations and strategies aligned to emerging markets. Claire is a qualified Executive Coach and has worked with executive teams in several FTSE 100 companies.
Pip White has been appointed as Senior Vice President for Sales. Formerly, the Senior Vice President and GM of Slack EMEA, Pip has over 20 years of experience working in the technology market in Sales and GM leadership roles, including Hewlett Packard, Salesforce and Google.
Her expertise is in high-growth and fast-paced technology environments which require strong alignment across multiple functions and a growth mindset. Turning around culture, strong people leadership, high growth and transformation programmes are where she excels and has delivered consistent and exceptional results.
Pip has led large sales organisations within the UK, Europe, North America, the Middle East & Africa looking after customers across small to medium businesses, the public sector to the largest global enterprises. Pip has been included in the past 4 years of the UKtech50 longlist of the UK’s influential tech leaders.
The Access Group CEO, Chris Bayne welcomed the new team into the Group commenting:
“We are delighted to welcome Diego, Pooja, Claire and Pip - four exceptional industry leaders into Access. They are all experts with deep knowledge and expertise in their field, having demonstrated exceptional leadership, vision and a track record of success.
These strategic appointments support our further growth and expansion, and our exceptional team is perfectly structured to support our people and deliver for our customers and investors.
I also want to thank Brendan for his phenomenal contribution to the Group as MD of our ERP division, his dedication and commitment to excellence has played an invaluable role in the success story of Access.”
