hedgehog lab, a global digital product consultancy, has appointed Malcolm Seagrave as its first UK managing director and Joe Thompson as its new chief technology officer.
The appointments form part of the company’s plan to strengthen its management team and deliver on its “Vision 2028” strategy, which aims to enhance key pillars of the business including achieving a B-Corp certification, increasing the company’s geographical footprint with four new hubs in the UK, growing revenue 5x and creating 400 new jobs over the next four years, most of them in the North of England.
The Vision 2028 strategy dovetails with last year’s £6.3m investment from BGF, the UK’s most active equity investor, and follows the appointment of Ben Bilboul, named one of the 20 most influential people in marketing and advertising by The Sunday Times, as non-executive chairman at hedgehog lab. Bilboul previously headed up Accenture Song, where he was responsible for Karmarama, Droga5, Rothco, Spark44 and Creative Drive.
hedgehog lab’s new UK MD Seagrave is a renowned digital executive with extensive experience in achieving rapid growth for leading tech scale-ups. The newly created MD role will report into the CEO, and will take over the running of the day-to-day business in the UK whilst the CEO role will be elevated to focus on strategy and initiatives like culture, international, and organic growth. Malcolm was previously chief growth officer at digital transformation consultancy CreateFuture (formerly xDesign), which grew to be the fastest growing tech company in the North last year under his leadership.
Prior to that, he was chief for UK & international growth at global tech consultancy, AND.Digital, where he helped unlock 10x growth for the business and is also a board member of Action for Children’s Boycott Your Bed initiative, which encourages people and corporate teams to give up their bed for one night and help raise funds for vulnerable children in poverty. Since its launch, Boycott your Bed has raised over £13m. Other previous roles include director – solutions and innovation at Vodafone and IT director for Morrisons Supermarket.
Thompson, hedgehog lab’s new CTO, is a highly regarded software engineering expert who, like Malcolm, specialises in working with fast-growth tech scale-ups. Through his rich and varied career, Joe has served in tech leadership roles through two successful exits and five successful funding rounds.
Joe joins hedgehog lab from healthcare-focused digital solutions company, Deep Medical, where he was chief technology & product officer. Prior to that, Joe led the product and technology team for Xoomworks Technology, a procurement consultancy and technology firm, part of global consulting giant Accenture.
“Malcolm and Joe are incredibly well-respected digital executives who significantly enhance the calibre and expertise of our management team,” said Sarat Pediredla, co-founder and CEO of hedgehog lab. “Crucially, they have helped tech scale-ups to unlock impressive growth through building and nurturing highly talented teams and delivering exceptional digital products and services for clients. I have no doubt they will make a huge contribution to ramping up hedgehog lab’s growth and allowing the business to reach its full potential.”
Seagrave said: “I’m proud to be joining hedgehog lab as its first UK managing director at such an important time for the business. The company has spent over a decade building and perfecting a business model that is desperately needed in today’s market. They have a balanced approach that allows them to develop and deliver great digital projects, in a way that larger and less nimble digital consultancies struggle to do. The company is ideally placed to thrive in the industry’s next chapter of digital transformation and I look forward to helping it deliver on its big ambitions.”
Thompson added: “Digital product designers are the architects of the 21st century and that comes with a lot of responsibility. The products we develop have the potential to have a hugely positive impact on the organisations we work with and on the wider world. hedgehog lab really understands this and is well respected for its purpose-driven approach to digital product design. I’m thrilled to be joining the company and to be playing a role in the next stage of its journey.”
