Vidett, a UK leading professional trustee and pension governance firm, has appointed three new members to the team, to support its continued growth plans.

Amanda Ford joins as an assistant manager to support clients with their governance, pensions secretarial and project work. She joins from Aon’s investment team where she was a technical analyst working on different pension schemes of varying sizes, ranging from the small with 28 members to very large, with assets from c£5bn.

Prior to this she worked at AXA, initially in their quotations department, covering all life and defined contribution (DC) pension calculations, before moving on to the DC pensions administration team.

Lisa Sweeney also joins as an assistant manager to support Vidett’s trustee team with governance and ongoing scheme requirements. She joins from Mercer UK where she was a pension consultant providing support to client managers and scheme actuaries, including scheme secretarial services, drafting governance documents and member communications as well as acting as a point of contact for trustees and advisers.

She began her career DWP as an administrative officer, working on Pension Credit claims and assessments; later moving into pensions administration and spending 12 years working as a senior administrator for the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

Jacob Inerfield joins as a project manager in the Governance team, bringing with him significant experience in projects and operations across industries including charity, hospitality, local government and most recently, pensions. He joins from Capita where he was initially an operations manager in local government environmental health, trading standards and licensing, before working in pensions consulting.

A key highlight at Capita saw him project managing the restructure of 130+ small/medium pension administration schemes and working within their digital transformation project team to roll out a new online portal for members.

Commenting on the appointments, Wayne Phelan, Chief Executive at Vidett, said:

“We are delighted to welcome three new highly experienced team members. Lisa and Amanda bring significant pension expertise having worked in high profile pension roles on a wide range of schemes.

“Jacob is a skilled project manager who has implemented change and continuous improvement processes across all business operating functions. His pension consulting experience will be of particular value to our team. We wish all three every success in their new roles.”

Vidett is a privately owned business, independent from any other provider of services to corporate pension and employee benefit schemes. With an unrivalled knowledge bank to support client needs, Vidett currently looks after over 475 clients with total assets in excess of £142bn and over 2.5 million scheme members.

iBASIS, the leading provider of communications solutions for operators and digital players worldwide, today announces that it has secured renewed backing from its existing financial investors, including lead investor Ciclad. This underscores investor confidence in iBASIS’s strategic direction and development perspectives.

Over the past six years, iBASIS has achieved significant external growth, highlighted by seven strategic acquisitions. The recent renewal of its founding contracts marks a pivotal milestone, signaling the start of a new chapter in the company’s position and development within the international communications sector.

In this context, Alexandre Pébereau, Co-Founder, has decided to step down from his operational role as CEO of the Tofane Global Group and iBASIS, but will remain a shareholder of Tofane Global Group and continue to contribute to the strategy of the company as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board unanimously appointed Patrick George, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, as the new Chief Executive Officer of Tofane Global Group and iBASIS. In addition, Roland Haidner, current CFO of iBASIS, has been named General Manager and Group CFO of both companies.

The leadership transition is designed to drive iBASIS through its next phase of growth and innovation within the global communications industry.
Alexandre Pébereau commented, “After founding Tofane Global thanks to investors who believed in us, and leading iBASIS through significant transformation, growth, and success, I believe it is time to pass the leadership to trusted hands as I pursue new opportunities in the industry and beyond. I am proud of our achievements and confident in the Board’s direction and in my successor.”

Patrick George, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Tofane Global and iBASIS, added, “Maintaining the stability and confidence of our investors and customers is crucial to iBASIS’s growth trajectory. We are aligned with the interests of all our stakeholders—especially our outstanding team of experts globally—and will continue expanding our leadership and delivering exceptional services and solutions to all our customers and partners.”

Nicolas Rostand, Former Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Lead Investor, and Managing Director of Ciclad, stated, “We are deeply grateful to Alexandre for his visionary leadership in building iBASIS into a global leader. This transition leverages the existing management team in a spirit of continuity, highlighting the depth of the talent pool assembled at iBASIS over the past six years. We are determined to continue consolidating the market, where numerous opportunities remain. We have full confidence in Patrick George and the management team to lead iBASIS into a bright future.”

AI expert will advise on Zendesk industry-leading AI offerings

Zendesk, the company providing the most complete AI solution for CX on the market, today announced Lila Tretikov has joined its Board of Directors. Her appointment comes as the company delivers the industry’s most powerful AI Agents backed by 100 percent quality assurance and workforce engagement management.

Tretikov currently serves as Partner and Head of AI Strategy at NEA and was formerly Microsoft’s Deputy Chief Technology Officer. Her life’s work is focused on bringing together interdisciplinary and diverse teams to help solve the world’s most challenging problems and empower humanity through technology. Her career is marked by an exceptional ability to identify and navigate transformative technological shifts and market disruptions. With a distinguished record of leadership on five international public boards and more than 10 private boards across six countries, Lila is adept in navigating diverse governance landscapes across the globe. Her previous experience also includes founding and scaling companies, operating a top-5 web and media property, a top-10 US retail bank, the largest global energy private-public partnership and a first-tier venture capital firm.

“Zendesk AI is the only AI solution purpose-built for human connection. With AI sitting at the core of our offering, we can connect and orchestrate every part of the service experience, building trust in this powerful technology without sacrificing quality or security. Lila’s expertise is critical and only going to ensure we make the experience of using our AI products better for our customers,” said Tom Eggemeier, CEO, Zendesk. “Lila is a strategic, customer-centric operator. Her career working on some of the world’s most challenging problems makes her a critical advisor as we tackle the rapid growth of AI in CX and deliver on our mission to power exceptional service for every person on the planet.”

“I am excited to join Zendesk at this time of immense opportunity to help every company raise the bar on customer experience and to bring their culture to every customer interaction. Zendsesk’s focus on helping its customers leverage the best of AI and stay ahead of its developments is inspiring,” said Tretikov. “Zendesk products are backed by the world’s latest CX dataset with 18 billion anonymised interactions, making it uniquely capable of delivering exceptional experiences for its customers. Its responsible approach to AI provides a solution customers can trust. This unique combination of data, focus and deep CX expertise sets businesses up to be successful with AI.”

Tretikov’s career spans over 20 years and includes work with AI, renewable energy and CRM. She serves as an advisor on innovation to the United Nations and as an independent director on the boards of Volvo Cars, Xylem, and Sophia Genetics. She joins the current board members: Stephen Ensley, David Erlong, Hisham Hasan, Hilarie Koplow-McAdams, Ryan Lanpher, Kelly Grier and Tarim Wasim. She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and was named as a Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.