LDC Top 50 2023
Andre Azevedo
CEO
Ancoris
Since taking the reins of London-based cloud services provider Ancoris in 2021, Andre Azevedo has nearly doubled revenues to £30 million, tripled headcount to 110 and built a new management team.
“I love the thrill of building things and making positive changes,” says Azevedo, whose career spans Dell, Oracle, SAP and Cloudreach. Azevedo has also brought in policies around parental leave and flexible working, and introduced a 24-week training programme designed to kickstart careers in cloud computing.
What really motivates me is giving people the opportunity to start and accelerate their careers in a fast-growth tech company.”
Q&A
Where does your work ethic come from?
I grew up in a tiny town in Portugal. My mum worked in the public sector and my dad ran an accounting firm and a metal imports business, so I was in childcare from the age of three months. They worked really hard and never complained. After doing an MBA at Escuela Europea de Negocios (EEN) in Spain, I started my career with Dell. From sales to finance, I’ve had a foot in every camp, which has given me a really broad understanding of how businesses operate.
What’s your proudest business achievement?
We’ve invested heavily in the company culture and improved our policies around holiday, flexible working and parental leave policies. If you want to encourage diversity and inclusion, you have to get the fundamentals right. In our latest employee survey, 95 per cent of respondents said they would recommend Ancoris as a great place to work. I’m super proud of that.
How are you supporting the tech talent pipeline?
Ancoris partners with Generation UK, an independent not-for-profit which helps people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get into tech. Last year, we started Ancoris Launchpad, a 24-week programme to help people kick off their career in cloud computing and engineering with Google Cloud. Candidates don’t need any qualifications, just a demonstrable passion for technology.
