Aker growth - new trees and new colleagues

October 28, 2022

The Amazon rain forest may or may not benefit from former President Lula's narrow election victory, but we can at least point to some recent tree planting of our own. Having recently decided to support One Tree Planted as we continue to grow (we have linked donations to new members of the team joining us) we are proud of our first total of 115 trees. We have had 78 new joiners in the period August to October alone. These have been across all areas of the business, and we are delighted to have also welcomed Melville Carrie who arrives to head up our capability development as Chief Product Officer. As the architect team also grows, innovation and R&D will continue to be a major focus and investment area for Aker.

The outstanding efforts of all the existing teams have also been reflected in a number of award nominations this year; and although not ultimately winning, we are absolutely delighted that Svetla Verma, our Head of Service Delivery, was put forward by a third party for the UK Tech Awards Tech Business Woman of the Year. A brief extract from the nomination:

Svetla has made her mark in the complex technology arena within which Aker operates. While the industry remains stubbornly male dominated, she continues to be a driving force in Aker’s initiatives to change this, and to inspire the next generation, through attracting, training, and developing a new technology cohort. This extends beyond Aker – she has recently taken on an active role in the Technical Academy that Aker provides to junior talent within client organisations. Svetla also plays an active part in recruitment – her bar is set extremely high as is the norm in Aker, but she works hard to bring the best out of candidates, and takes a close personal interest in the potential of those more junior. The technology capabilities that Svetla has delivered into the Government have recently been referred to as an exemplar (and a technical first) for the Cloud Migration of sensitive and classified data sets. She continues to drives improvements and efficiencies through both capability development and continued automation.

We will continue to plant trees for our new joiners, and continue to take delight in well deserved recognition for our existing teams!