New group announces appointment of Tax Director Douglas Reid
ABGI and Innova Systems, two of the leading names in UK innovation, have announced they are joining forces to rebrand as Visiativ. The move brings together leading Research and Development (R&D) tax relief adviser ABGI-UK (formerly Jumpstart), and its sister company, design and manufacturing process specialists Innova Systems, under the same banner.
As part of a restructuring, Visiativ has launched a 3D Print division and a new Intellectual Property (IP) service.
The new 3D Print division is being led by Ed Hawkins. He will advise clients on business processes and engineering challenges working in partnership with Markforged, a company that designs, develops, and manufactures hardware, software and materials enabling manufacturers to print parts at the point-of-need.
The IP service is focused on supporting clients in identifying, protecting, and commercialising their Intellectual Property assets and headed by Dr Edward O’Gorman, an expert in patent data analytical tools with more than 20 years’ experience in the field. Before joining Visiativ, he was Senior Patent Engineer at Ford UK and, prior to that, spent several years as a Patent Manager within the pharmaceuticals industry.
Visiativ will operate from ABGI’s current headquarters in Edinburgh and from Innova’s headquarters in Cambridge where the group’s newly appointed CEO Scott Henderson is based. The new group, which also operates regional offices in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Bromsgrove, Liverpool, Newcastle, and Belfast, will employ a total of 100staff across the UK.
Visiativ has also announced the appointment of Douglas Reid who has joined the Innovation Consulting Division in the newly created role of Tax Director.Since graduating in 2000, Douglas spent his career mainly within Big 4 firms advising clients R&D tax and government innovation reliefs. In his role at Visiativ, he will lead the team advising clients on innovation expenditure optimisation.
Visiativ UK CEO, Scott Henderson commented: “This rebrand marks an exciting step forward for our business. By bringing our expertise under a single banner and addressing customer needs by launching two new innovation-focused services we now offer a comprehensive range of innovation solutions, services and products.
“In the UK we have two decades’ experience as an innovation funder, digitisation partner, and multi-award-winning 3DEXPERIENCE and SOLIDWORKS reseller. We are a trusted advisor to thousands of businesses both in the UK and globally, including many household names. We are looking forward to building on that as Visiativ in the years to come.”
