New Appointments

RNS REACH

12th February 2014

blur Group's Exeter HQ attracts top tier talent to support stellar growth

New hires from companies such as Virgin Media demonstrates readiness to scale globally to meet $2tn s-commerce opportunity

blur Group, the company re-inventing commerce at blurgroup.com, today announced striking successes in talent acquisition and consolidation at its South West headquarters, proving the development of a UK 'Silicon Valley' to be truly achievable as momentum gathers rapidly.

Following the dramatic growth in customers, global reach and projects submitted to the exchange over the past three years blur is delighted to announce a number of new hires and internal promotions. A combination of increasing international s-commerce adoption, first-mover advantage and strategic investment has allowed blur to entice hires from the likes of Virgin Media to key roles in the global teams.  

James Porter joins blur Group as Group Financial Controller from previous tenure as Finance Director with Drift Innovation and City Gateway Media, with his 15 years of commercial experience as a chartered accountant making him a clear choice for scaling development of blur Group's finance function.

Alastair Coggins arrives as Product Manager, bringing with him a diverse project-management portfolio that most recently saw him work with Virgin Media. Alastair's key role will see him coordinate tech, UX (user experiences) and businesses-related operations, maximising company efficiency and potential.

Additionally, two new internal promotions to C-Level positions further reinforce the career opportunities available within the multi-award-winning company.

Jon Hogg is promoted from Global Head of Platform to Chief Platform Officer and Dorothy Mead becomes Chief Acquisition Officer, previously Global Head of Marketing.

The new faces are clear testament to the strength of a shared vision, says company founder and CEO Philip Letts: "We are building a great global company by hiring and promoting great people. The spectacular growth in our business has made blur a destination employer. Our staff, new and current, share a vision which is generating a real excitement about working for and with blur.

 "The new hires are located at our Exeter HQ. In a further strategic move, all global functions will operate from the Exeter HQ, to ensure and maintain a framework of tightly-synchronised, cross-department productivity. Members of blur based in London at its EMEA commercial hub will shortly be relocating to new offices in Paddington."

-ENDS-

For further information please contact:

About blur (Group) plc at blurgroup.com

blur Group is a technology company reinventing how businesses do commerce at blurgroup.com. Its Global Services Exchange uses blur's proprietary s-commerce platform to enable over 35,000 businesses in 141 countries to buy, sell and deliver core business services and take advantage of Software as a Transaction (TM) to pay for these projects.

blur Group (BLUR) is a public company headquartered in the UK with offices in the US and Europe. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market. blur was founded in January 2006 and launched in alpha in 2007 with the full, formal launch of the Global Services Exchange in January 2010. At that time, just over three projects per month were submitted. Now, nearly 200 projects start on the exchange each month. Customers include Danone, Broadridge, Coral, Exceed, HCA, Momentive, Red Commerce, the Financial Times, Berlitz, Butlins, GE Healthcare and Tyco. Over the same time, average project value has grown from approximately $1,500 in 2010 to $40.5K in Q1 2014.

Today, nearly 4,000 projects have been submitted with a combined value of above $159 million. These have come from the US, UK, Europe, Africa and Asia with over 35,000 expert service providers on eight exchanges responding to them.