About Us

Lord Vallance of Tummel Chairman

Lord Vallance is an experienced businessman. He is currently a member of the Supervisory Board of Siemens AG and the International Advisory Board of Allianz AG.

In the House of Lords, he was the Chairman of the Select Committee on Economic Affairs. Lord Vallance has previously been President of the CBI, Chairman of BT plc, Vice-Chairman of the RBS Group, a member of the European Advisory Council of Rothschild's, a member of the Board of Directors of the Mobil Corporation and Deputy Chairman of the Financial Reporting Council.

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Ricky Shankar Chief Executive Officer

As an entrepreneur and CEO of Amsphere, Ricky has successfully led the Company through a period of rapid growth by strategically developing its services and solutions to meet the needs of its clients in a changing market place.

Ricky’s early career includes 6 years of sales and management experience at Xerox. He then started 2 green field operations in the USA & Europe for a NASDAQ listed applications outsourcing firm, Syntel. He built its midwest practice from Chicago in 1993 and in 1997 he grew its European business to a substantial operation from London as European CEO.

Ricky joined Rebus Technologies in 2000 as CEO to drive the development of its applications & outsourcing division, which led to the Management Buy Out and formation of Amsphere Limited in April 2002.

Ram Gidoomal CBE

Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee

Ram is an experienced businessman and entrepreneur who was UK Group CEO of the Inlaks Group (7000 employees in 15 countries including India, the USA and Hong Kong) and has been a member of the European Advisory Board of a NASDAQ listed applications outsourcing firm. He is Chairman of Winning Communications Partnership Ltd., Citylife (Industrial and Provident Society) Ltd, London Sustainability Exchange and the Employability Forum.

Ram is a member of the Home Office BIA Complaints Audit Committee. He is a Crown appointee to the Court and Council of Imperial College (Chairs the Research Ethics Committee) and Vice Chair (lay member) of the Council of St. George's Medical School, University of London (Chairman of the Audit Committee) and is a visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Middlesex University. He was founder Chairman of the 'Technology Means Business' Council funded by the DTI, Microsoft, Intel, Compaq and BT.

Ram is also a freeman of the City of London, a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute.

Bob has more than 30 years of experience addressing operational, managerial and strategic issues involving information technology. Bob recently retired as Managing Director of Alix Partners LLP, a global restructuring and turnaround firm, having served there for over 12 years. During his tenure at Alix Partners, Bob has served as interim CIO for a number of FTSE 100 and European businesses.

Originally from Michigan, USA, Bob is currently a coach and transformation advisor to CIO’s, CFO's and business leaders in the UK, Europe, USA and the Middle East.

Prior to joining Amsphere, Paul worked for 10 years for Classic Media (formerly Entertainment Rights) as Group Financial Controller and Interim Finance Director. Classic Media is a global media company that owns children and family intellectual property including Basil Brush, Postman Pat, Where’s Wally, Lone Ranger and Rupert Bear. In 2009 the company was sold to private equity.

Paul’s earlier career included being Corporate Finance Manager for First Leisure PLC, a leading Leisure conglomerate, and Group Financial Controller of Riverside Health and Fitness group, a privately owned chain of tennis and health clubs.
Paul trained at Price Waterhouse, London.

As Amsphere's Director of Projects & Technology, Ramesh has been fundamental in the continued development of Amsphere’s Quality Assurance Consultancy Services.

Ramesh progressed to this strategic role from his previous position as Service Delivery Director, which he took following his involvement in the Management Buy Out and foundation of Amsphere in 2002. He pioneered Amsphere's Knowledge Risk Assessment methodology and currently heads up the Knowledge Risk Management Solutions practice at Amsphere.

Ramesh joined Rebus Technologies in 2000 as Director of Projects. His previous positions cover a wide range of responsibilities including Service Delivery Director for a NASDAQ listed applications management company Syntel. Ramesh also helped a large global financial services provider successfully transition over 100 critical applications to an offshore based delivery model.

Ramesh has over 17 years of experience in delivering IT solutions for organisations across the USA & Europe.

Gesa joined Amsphere as Head of Human Resources to facilitate the Company recruitment and people management activities through a period of rapid growth. She possesses several years experience of managing the HR function in an IT Service environment.

Initially, Gesa started her career as a Sales Export Coordinator in the manufacturing sector in Germany until she decided to move to the UK in 1993. She then joined Trust House Forte in their Health & Food Safety Division. Following this, Gesa spent 11 years with the Datalect Group, an IT Solutions Provider. The company was later acquired by Wincor Nixdorf and Gesa was closely involved in the merger of Human Resources functions.

As part of her development she took a Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety qualification and gained a postgraduate qualification in Personnel Management with the CIPD. Gesa progressed into the role of HR Manager and took responsibility for the Human Resources, Facilities Management and Health & Safety function for over 400 employees over a period of seven years.

Rachel Vallance is a lawyer and was formerly an investment banker. She is currently responsible for Knowledge Management at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in London.

Rachel joined Cleary Gottlieb in March 2008, having previously been an investment banker at N M Rothschild & Sons in London, where she specialised in public and private mergers and acquisitions for both corporate and private equity clients. Prior to this, she was a corporate associate in Linklaters’ London office, where she also completed her training contract.

Rachel received a Certificate in Corporate Finance from the Securities Institute in 2004. She completed the Diploma in Legal Practice at the College of Law, London in 1997 and the Common Professional Examination, Diploma in Law at City University, London in 1996. She graduated with First Class Honours in Politics and Modern History from the University of Manchester in 1995.

Rachel is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.

Ken joined us from the Rebus Insurance Group (an IT software and services company specialising in the Insurance industry) where he was Chief Financial Officer.

During his nineteen years with Rebus, Ken held several senior positions at Board and operational level. He was instrumental in growing the company both organically and by acquisition, increasing turnover to over £55m, together with a significant improvement in profitability. His responsibilities also covered overseas operations which included the establishment of an offshore development facility in India. Ken's expertise is in Mergers & Acquisitions, Restructuring and Operations.

Prior to Rebus, Ken was Finance Manager of the Joint Credit Card Company (Access/Mastercard), having started his career with Ford Motor Company.

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