PCR’s Under 30’s Rising Stars of the Industry

The tech channel has some fantastic young talented professionals. To celebrate this, we scouted some of out the best in the industry. Here’s who shone the brightest.

** Winner of this year’s Rising Stars of the Industry award** 

Ben Clark

Global Partnerships Manager

COROS Wearables Incorporated

Age 25

“Aged just 25, Ben Clark has risen to Global Partnerships Manager in one of the fastest growing sports wearable tech companies in the world. Starting as UK Market Manager (HoM), and being promoted to Northern Europe Market as well as holding similar roles in other companies in the industry including Garmin, and mymo, Ben is quickly gaining the skills and development required for a very successful career in tech.

“During his time in marketing with COROS, Ben has brought in over 1000 pieces of global PR and guest content (micro-influencers), as well as multiple technology partnerships and products awards all in the space of less than a year, equating to approximately £5.1M additional revenue.”

** Congratulations Ben!

We look forward to welcoming you and a guest to this year’s PCR Awards night**

Scott Walker

UK Operations and Technical Manager

Hannspree

Age 28

“Scott Walker plays a vital role in the day-to-day running of the HANNspree business, with an ell-encompassing skill set. Notably, his invaluable technical knowledge perfectly lends to the management of HANNspree’s operations, and technical and product management. Scott is a key cog in the HANNspree product development process, from influencing conception to actively participating in market delivery. Thanks to Scott’s dedication to customer satisfaction, coupled with his technical experience, he delivers a 5 star rated technical support inbox management, consistently praised for his professional and knowledgeable handling of customer technical support communications. Scott is a true team player, and an asset who continually thrives within the company.”

Haydn Boyd

Sales Manager UK, Ireland, South Africa & Benelux,

Razer (Europe)

Age: 29

“Since joining Razer, Haydn Boyd has invigorated the channel and retail sectors of the gaming business, with multiple successful B2B and B2C initiatives, resulting in Razer consistently increasing market share across multiple categories, both in the UK as well as the Benelux and South Africa regions. Haydn’s ability to identify potential opportunities coupled with his deep understanding of the technology and gaming markets, has proven to be a major asset for the company. In an increasingly competitive market, Haydn continues to work smoothly with buyers, distributors and retailers to maximise run rates and sales, with outstanding success.”

Hannah Freeman

Retail Sales Account Manager

Intel

Age 27

“Hannah Freeman is a rising star within Intel and the UK tech ecosystem. With a wealth of experience from working with multinationals and formulating end-to-end pricing strategies, she compliments her skillset with energy, enthusiasm, and motivation in a sales environment. Hannah is known for strategic thinking which enables her to create and deploy successful, scalable sales plans. At the tender age of 27 she has a big future ahead of her!!

Oana Pirtan

Consumer Product and Business Manager

Lenovo

Age: 29

“Oana Pirtan joined Lenovo in November 2020 and quickly became a key member of Lenovo’s Consumer 4P/ Category Team. Oana manages Lenovo’s Consumer Desktop and All-in-One Segments and our newer consumer visuals business. She’s embraced the challenge and driven Lenovo’s market share to record levels in visuals – achieving our highest market share in March 2021 and driving significant year-on-year growth.

“Oana also presented live alongside TV Host Suzie Perry at Lenovo’s RX21 virtual event and was a natural, showcasing the new lineup and demonstrating the new Yoga 7 All-in-One to all our retail customers.”

Maddison Hill

HR Coordinator

Agilitas IT Solutions

Age: 27

“Since joining Agilitas, Maddie Hill has made a huge impression in supporting our people strategy, such as recruitment and onboarding. Not only does she achieve this with great efficiency, but does so with a smile. Maddie demonstrates her can-do, positive and proactive approach daily. She plays a crucial part in our company’s recruitment and retention strategies. Maddie has developed good and strong work relationships with management during a short period of time. She works extremely hard, with resilience and pragmatism, whilst strengthening our human resources platform from a system and policy perspective.”

Laura Cross

Logistics Team Leader

Comms Care

Age 26

“Laura Cross has been with Commscare for over 5 years. Laura initially started as a Project Coordinator and after 12 months in that position she transitioned over to the Logistics Team to become our heart of Stock Control. As a key member of the Commscare Team, Laura now develops system processes, implements strategies to maintain customer satisfaction and to make sure the users around the business have the best tools to complete and deliver the best service possible.

“Laura is not afraid to jump into any project assigned to her, presenting to Director level, new ideas for best practice, she is a highly respected part of the Commscare team.”

Lewis Welsh

Account Manager

CMS Distribution

Age 28

“In the 18 months Lewis Welsh has been at CMS Distribution, he has demonstrated an exceptional talent for developing business partnerships within the PC Components & Gaming category. Lewis has exceeded expectations by adding new accounts to our portfolio, which has contributed to a growth in sales and market share. He is customer focused, dedicated and a strong team player which has resulted in new and existing vendor relationships being strengthened.”

Deborah D’Costa

Zaboura, Account Manager

Age – 28

“Just before lockdown was announced, Deborah D’Costa was promoted to a Junior Account Manager position, and went from working face-to-face with her team every day, to managing them at home. This was the first time she had ever managed a team and learning how to do so remotely, she says was definitely a challenge. In overcoming that challenge and working through various struggles, D’Costa felt herself grow both as a person, and as a member of the team. She stepped up to the mark and knowing what needed to be done, when it needed to be done, was able to motivate the team when things were increasingly difficult for everyone.”

Alex Astbury

Sales Manager

BenQ

Age 27

“Starting his career in Technical Support, Alex Astbury decided to take his extensive knowledge of technology into the world of sales. Beginning his journey as a Sales Apprentice in 2014, Alex completed the entire training programme in an incredible six months.

“Alex has since moved into the gaming world, where he has managed relationships with Amazon, Argos and SDG, leading to extremely successful business and eCommerce partnership development, brand awareness expansion and ultimately, sales activation increases.

Now working as BenQ’s B2C Sales Manager, Alex has already made huge positive waves across the business and made an enormous impact within the team.”

Richard Mackey

BenQ

B2C Marketing Executive

Age 29

“Only three years into his marketing career and six months into a role at global electronics manufacturer BenQ, Richard Mackey has already made an impact in the world of technology.

“Joining BenQ in January 2020 as UK marketing executive within its consumer division, Richard was quickly tasked with rapidly deploying a new marketing strategy to correspond with changes to the business caused by the global pandemic.

“As a result of lockdown, BenQ has had to rely on its B2C division more than ever before. Whilst businesses have delayed AV installations and procurement, Richard had to think quickly and effectively about how to ensure his division could maintain success.”

Cameron McGill

Senior Business Client Engineer

Utopia Computers

Age 27

“Cameron McGill came to Utopia as a repair technician and sought out ways to learn wherever he could. In the last year, he has been key to the exponential growth of Utopia’s business, playing an integral role in securing our largest contract to date. Throughout his career at Utopia, he has shown a natural flair for staying calm under pressure and an innate ability to retain information about networking and server installations. This year he was promoted to Senior Business Client Engineer, heading up new technology rollouts and keeping Utopia’s clients safe and secure while making the vast transitions required during the pandemic.”

Jake Armstrong

Logistics Team Leader

Comms Care

Age 28

“Jake Armstrong is very approachable and a genuinely nice person. Since he joined Comms Care, he has developed hugely, taking on increased responsibility becoming a team leader. He cares a lot about the work that he undertakes and the way the department and company are perceived. His passion for Comms Care is second to none and we are very lucky to have him. Jake has helped develop the skills of others that have allowed his peers to succeed in their role. His desire to do what’s best for comms care and to continue with improvements for his department is astounding.”

Robyn Boyd

PR & Social Media Executive

PFU (EMEA) Limited

Age: 29

“Robyn has made a huge impact on the business since joining two and a half years ago, bringing with her valid previous experience from big tech names including Panasonic, Samsung and Vertu.

She has quickly established herself as an invaluable member of the PFU EMEA marketing team, where she manages an external PR agency to plan and build regular, engaging content including a PR and social media calendar. Most recently she project-managed brand campaigns including the ScanSnap 20th anniversary, the Happy Hacking Keyboard launch and achieved great results with PFUE’s first ever influencer campaign in July 2020.”

Federico D’Uva

Senior Marketing Strategist

Rawnet

Age 29

“Freddy has been at Rawnet for 4 years, starting as a solo marketing strategist with the intention to grow our SEO services. Rawnet used to be known for their web design and development skills and wanted to offer more digital support in these areas. In these four short years Freddy has created and grown a whole other area in Rawnet’s strategy team from just himself to a team of 11, the marketing strategy team is now one of our strongest and most profitable service offerings, which has changed the direction we serve our clients and the direction of the business.”

Felix Heitländer

IT-Specialist – system integration, Customer Support Engineer

SEH Technology

Age 27

“Felix first joined SEH Technology as a trainee in 2015. During this time, he has worked in all areas of the company for three years, including sales, marketing processing, hardware and software development, and production, before moving to customer support. Within his role, he has worked to develop holistic service standards and created interfaces between development and end customers. Not only has this improved customer satisfaction and retention for the company, but Felix has also successfully completed over 6,000 customer support tickets. He is also SEH’s single point of contact for business and project partners, building strong and long-lasting relationships with stakeholders.”

Midhula Mahendran

Channel Marketing Specialist

PFU EMEA

Age 26

“Since joining the team in early 2020, Midhula Mahendran has made an immediate impact and brought great value to the PFU EMEA marketing team, supporting Field Sales, Sales Leadership and Marketing. In the short time she has been with PFUE and despite global challenges, she has built exceptional marketing relationships with our most important channel partners and press, improved brand awareness, quality of content and has driven significant improvements in the company’s go-to market offering.

Her colleagues would describe her as enthusiastic and determined, and always looking for proactive ways to drive change and improvement.”

Philippa Halliday

Aged 27

OnBuy

“Philippa was one of the earliest members of the OnBuy team and has played an integral part in the evolution of the company, which has quickly become one of the world’s fastest-growing online marketplaces.

Quick to learn and adapt in an ever-changing environment, Philippa has helped to build the brand by turning her hand to almost every facet of marketing from PR to content with passion, dedication, and infectious enthusiasm-a solid achievement, well deserving of 30 under 30. Philippa continues to play a key role within OnBuy’s marketing function as the team and business continue to grow and plan for the future.”

Read the latest edition of PCR’s monthly magazine below:

Like this content? Sign up for the free PCR Daily Digest email service to get the latest tech news straight to your inbox. You can also follow PCR on Twitter and Facebook.