Syniti has appointed Craig Ayers as Chief People Officer. He will presumably replace Suzanne Barth in the role, though her LinkedIn page does not reveal she has left the company yet. Ayers will take on the responsibility of leading Syniti’s global HR function. That includes talent management, recruiting and employee engagement efforts for its employees, which are approximately 1,700 according to Owler.
He will also oversee the Syniti Emplopyee Resource Groups, which help to nourish its diverse culture organising events and helping to make connections across the organisation.
The Resource Groups include:
- BEN (Black Employee Network) & Friends ERG’s
- Women In Tech ERG’s
- Intergenerational ERG’s
- I.T. Fam ERG
- HOLA! ERG’s
- LGBTQIA+ ERG’s
Melanie Payne, CFO & Chief Business Officer of Syniti, said, “Craig brings the creativity and operational experience that makes him a perfect fit to lead our culture and talent agenda. We have an engaged and high-performing workforce, which he will continue to build out as Syniti expands its team around the world. We feel fortunate to add him to the team.”
Who is Craig Ayers
Ayers is an experienced executive and has held several CSuite roles as CFO and COO. This is his first role as Chief People Officer. He joins from Journey, where he was a Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer and a board member at the global design and innovation studio. He was responsible for acquiring and integrating those acquisitions.
Before Journey, he was CFO/COO at frog design for over ten years, a multinational design firm and part of Capgemini, after the global consultancy acquired the company in 2021. Ayers joined frog from Accenture, where his roles included country lead in Mauritius and Director of Mergers and Acquisitions.
Ayers, said, “It’s the Journey and stories that we make together that inspire me, and I’ve been blown away by the talent that I’ve seen at Syniti already. The company is highly differentiated in a fast-growing market, solving real business data problems for clients in unique ways like its Data First strategy. I’m excited to be a part of this team and help continue to drive success with our people, customers and partners.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
In some ways, this is an odd choice for a Chief People Officer, as Ayers has no history of working within an HR function. However, with his experience in assimilating different organisations during M&A activity and as COO, he will have broad experience that goes beyond HR. What will be interesting to see is whether Syniti leverages that experience of acquisitions as it looks to continue expanding.
Its last acquisition was in 2021, and its last funding was in 2017. Is it preparing to raise more funds to fuel some acquisitions?
