ThoughtWorks, the global consultancy and software products business, has announced the establishment of a new collective leadership structure, with the appointment of four co-Presidents of the global organization.
The appointments, which follow the recent announcement that current CEO, Trevor Mather, will be leaving ThoughtWorks in June to take up the role of CEO for the Trader Media Group, see Guo Xiao as President and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Murphy as President and Chief Strategy Officer, and Sudhir Tiwari and Craig Gorsline as Presidents and Chief Operating Officers. All four are long-tenured ThoughtWorks leaders and existing members of ThoughtWorks' global leadership team.
The new leadership comes into effect at a time of significant growth and opportunity for ThoughtWorks. Celebrating its 20th year in 2013, ThoughtWorks has seen continuing growth, both of influence and geographic reach, with approximately 2500 employees serving commercial, government and social-sector clients across 11 countries and 27 cities around the world.
New ThoughtWorks presences established during the last 18 months have included new offices in Africa (Johannesburg, Kampala), and expansions in South America (Recife and Sao Paulo) and Asia-Pacific (Chengdu, Shanghai and Singapore), with plans for further growth and global expansion throughout 2013.
Trevor Mather, ThoughtWorks' outgoing CEO, said: "I'm delighted to be handing over the leadership of ThoughtWorks to Xiao, Craig, Sudhir, Chris and their respective teams within ThoughtWorks. Succession planning and leadership development are two areas in which ThoughtWorks and I have invested considerable focus and resources over the last several years. The fact that this transition is a seamless logical step for each of the people in question is strong testament to this."
Roy Singham, ThoughtWorks founder and Chairman, had the following to say on the appointments: "I'm excited to announce ThoughtWorks' new collective leadership model. It is highly supportive of the needs and geographic spread of our global operations, and sets us up well for our plans for the future. Just as we are proud of the innovative and disruptive thinking that we bring to our clients, we are proud of our collective leadership as an example of the same innovative thinking applied within our own business."