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We’re delighted to announce Janet Onyia has joined the Opencast team as our new director of transformation and change. Janet will help power the further expansion of Opencast and oversee all transformational activities within the business, with a specific focus on change management. Janet is a global tech delivery leader with an impressive record of leading large-scale digital transformation projects and programmes. “I’m really excited to be part of the team that will propel us forward to our next phase of growth,” she says. “I firmly believe in doing good while also doing well – of a firm having a purpose, but also being successful and sustainable. This is exactly what I saw with Opencast – the company’s values align perfectly with mine and I’m so happy to contribute to something special.”
Mike O’Brien, co-founder of independent Tyneside tech consultancy Opencast, has been named as the Entrepreneur of the Year in the prestigious annual Entrepreneurs' Forum Awards. EF’s Entrepreneur of the Year award recognises an experienced entrepreneur "who has shown incredible resilience and strength, particularly this past year, to lead their business to outstanding success through innovation, teamwork and leadership skills". Commenting on Mike's award win, the Entrepreneurs’ Forum said: "Mike co-founded Opencast in 2012 and has grown the business into one of the largest tech companies in the North East. Opencast has been named in the GP Bullhound Top 100 list no less than five times in the award's nine years and is on track to become a future FTSE 250 company."
Opencast has become certified as a Most Loved Workplace, following research and analysis of our data from the respected Best Practice Institute. Opencast’s Most Loved Workplace certification follows a comprehensive look at workplace sentiment, and analysis of its engagement data shows that Opencast people are happy and satisfied at work. The BPI research used information provided by Opencast about employee satisfaction and sentiment, including the level of respect, collaboration, support and sense of belonging they feel inside the company.
Opencast has confirmed the names of 10 charities it will support in this its 10th anniversary year following a vote by people working across the business. The donations from Opencast’s latest profits total £55,000 – taking the amount donated so far to charities by the fast-growing business past the £100,000 mark – and are part of the company’s ‘10 good things’ initiative marking the company’s 10th anniversary. The 10 charities were chosen by Opencast employees after a vote across the company, and include a range of non-profits working in the North East, UK wide and also internationally. Beneficiaries, which are all UK-registered charities, include a rape crisis centre, two housing and homelessness projects, a tree planting charity and a UK-wide suicide prevention agency. Opencast’s people voted to support charities working to address four key causes that mattered most to them: poverty and inequality; housing and homelessness; environment and sustainability; and health and medical.
Opencast joins St Oswald’s Hospice 2023 art trail and creates its own Shaun the Sheep. The North East's St Oswald’s Hospice art trail fundraiser is back for summer 2023 – and Opencast will be creating its very own Shaun the Sheep for people to find and locate along the way! The art trail initiative is in support of North East charity St Oswald’s Hospice, which provides specialist care for adults, young people and children with incurable conditions, and support for family and loved ones. At the centre of the 2023 art trail will be Aardman’s much-loved character Shaun the Sheep (pictured). After first appearing in Nick Park’s 1995 Wallace & Gromit ‘A Close Shave’, Shaun went on to star in his own series, which launched on BBC One in 2007. Next summer 50 unique Shaun the Sheep sculptures will be dotted around the Tyne region to attract people to the area – with each Shaun sculpture then being auctioned off to raise money for the hospice.
TYNESIDE technology consultancy Opencast has been named as the 21st fastest-growing technology business in the North of England at GP Bullhound’s 2022 Northern Tech Awards. Opencast has now been named in the GPB Top 100 list no less than five times in the award’s nine years – and this best-ever 21st ranking feels a real coming of age for all at the business. We climbed the list by 25 places on last year, having ranked 46th in 2021. Welcoming the latest win, chief executive Tom Lawson said: “We are super-proud of this latest win for Opencast. We’re not growing for growth’s sake – we’re scaling to be more impactful for our clients and offer our people the chance to develop and work on projects that matter to them. Our growth also means we can make a more significant impact on society, both through our work and the charitable and pro bono contributions it enables. It’s a privilege to lead an organisation of people so determined to make that difference. Congratulations to all on the Opencast team for an incredible year of progress – and to all the other great companies named"
