Tech veterans Lawrence Corbett, Thomas Lee, Nelson Allen and Saurabh Ohri join stellar leadership lineup amid rapid growth last year and an ambitious international agenda ahead

SINGAPORE, Feb. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Circles Global (‘Circles’ – http://www.circlesglobal.com/), the fastest-growing tech company in the global telco industry today, announced the appointment of four senior newly created roles – Lawrence Corbett as Chief Operating Officer for the group; Thomas Lee as Chief Revenue Officer for its B2B / SaaS offering to telcos; Nelson Allen as Vice President of Growth for its own B2C / consumer business; and Saurabh Ohri as Vice President for the  B2B / SaaS offering to telcos.

These appointments mark yet another milestone in Circles’ rapid expansion journey, and come as the company celebrated accelerated revenue growth in 2021. Having pioneered a successful blueprint for disrupting the telco space through its proprietary cloud native, full stack telco operating system (Circles-X OS: CXOS), the company has since replicated its model by launching its own consumer operations and digital telco Circles.Life in Taiwan and Australia. Circles has also helped other telcos in the region launch digital brands in Indonesia and Japan through its SaaS offering.

This year, Circles has set its sights on expanding into additional global markets including Asia and Europe, while deepening its success in its existing markets. By bolstering its senior leadership team, it has set itself up for the next stage of growth.

Charting the next stage of growth with visionary leaders

Lawrence Corbett will take the helm as Chief Operating Officer for the group. Corbett will lead strategic operations across both B2C and B2B operations, overseeing resource coordination and implementing optimal operational processes to support the company’s exciting global expansion plans.

Corbett is a four-time COO and international telco executive with more than 25 years of experience. He also brings deep telco operations expertise from his stints at Virgin Mobile (Australia and UK) and Bullitt Group.

Working alongside Corbett is the new Vice President of Growth for Circles’ consumer operations, Nelson Allen. Allen will lead Growth for digital telcos under Circles.Life, as well as the Regional Marketing function including brand development, customer acquisition and strategic partnerships.

Allen has worked extensively across Asian markets and was most recently Chief Growth Officer at fintech platform GoBear, where he drove qualified traffic through integrated marketing across Brand, PR, Content, Social Media, SEO, SEM and Display Advertising. Before that, he spent over 20 years in various international roles at Expedia Group, Microsoft and Samsung Electronics.

Strengthening the B2B leadership amid rapid growth of the telco SaaS offering

Circles plans to take its proprietary CXOS telco operating system to additional markets in Asia and Europe, where it can help telcos launch digital brands amid a wave of digital transformation. The successful rollout of povo2.0 with KDDI Corp in Japan last year, all by cloud and 100% remotely (a world first), in addition to the launch of Live.On for XL Axiata in 2020, demonstrate the strength of CXOS and the company’s telco SaaS offering.

To support its growth ambitions, Circles has appointed Thomas Lee as Chief Revenue Officer for the telco SaaS offering, and Saurabh Ohri as Vice President, Sales for its telco SaaS covering Asia-Pacific markets.

As Chief Revenue Officer, Lee will lead global sales and marketing for Circles’ telco SaaS offering. His priorities are to set the organisation for a hyper-growth journey, establish a clear vision for the market, disrupt the industry and help telcos to accelerate their digital transformation. Also, one of his key goals will be to create a high-performance sales culture and a great place to work, with diversity and inclusion.

Having spent over 20 years at Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he held various sales and leadership roles, in multiple regions and countries. Lee brings a deep expertise in B2B enterprise tech and is well-versed in the areas of Cloud, IoT, AI, DevOps, Hybrid IT, Security and more. He also recently received the Imergey Luminaries Awards 2021, which recognises business leaders who have a passion for people, talent development and diversity.

As Vice President, Sales for the telco SaaS offering, Ohri will operate as the owner for defining and executing the sales strategy for Asia-Pacific markets, driving topline growth and adding new logos. He will also work to cultivate new business opportunities and expand the B2B sales pipeline, while sharpening customer value propositions for specific markets.

Ohri brings close to 18 years of experience in telco and enterprise tech. He was most recently the Head of Global Sales – Mobility & Automotive IoT for Tata Communications. Ohri also had stints at other recognisable tech-telco companies, including Thales/Gemalto, Oracle, Motorola and GlobalLogic.

Lee, Ohri and Abhishek Gupta, Co-Founder of Circles, will be representing the company at Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona from 28 February to 3 March.

Rallying the top global talents in tech and business

Corbett, Allen, Lee and Ohri are the latest high-profile leaders to join Circles’ best-in-class senior management team. Other recent hires include Fortune 500 HR leader Stephanie Nash, previously from Microsoft, BHP and Allergan; Silicon Valley veteran Dhanush Hetti, ex-CTO at Venmo/PayPal; and Mak Chee Kiong, ex-CFO at Singtel Group Digital Life, among others.

"We’re excited to welcome four new top-class additions to our senior leadership team at Circles as we build the best leadership team around and continue our rapid expansion," said Rameez Ansar, Co-Founder of Circles. "The combined tech expertise and business acumen of Lawrence, Thomas, Nelson and Saurabh will help carry our success blueprint across the globe, leading us closer to becoming the transformative force in the global telco industry."

"As telcos around the world tackle pertinent challenges such as declining ARPU, bloating cost structures and negative customer experiences, we see Circles-X and our telco SaaS offering as a significant opportunity for telcos to leverage the digitalisation trend. Our new Chief Revenue Officer and Vice President, Sales will lead and execute on our strategy to accelerate the new wave of digital sub-brands by telcos," said Abhishek Gupta, Co-Founder of Circles.

With its global team now comprising over 500 staff across Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and India, Circles is doubling down on efforts to expand its Singapore core of tech and innovation talent. While staff numbers in its Singapore home base have grown two-fold since 2019, the company is looking to boost headcount there by at least another 25 percent, including key hires for tech and "tech-lite" roles such as software engineers, product managers and digital marketers across new and existing business lines. Circles Global recently concluded a landmark $5M ESOP buyback for employees and won the gold award for Best Onboarding Experience at the Employee Experience Awards 2021 Singapore.

About Circles Global

Circles Global is the fastest growing technology firm in the telco industry with operations across eight countries globally. Circles is leading the transformation of the telco industry with a technology first, SaaS based approach.

Circles’ proprietary Circles-X Operating System (CXOS) is the world’s first cloud native, full stack telco operating system. This telco SaaS offering currently supports multi million subscribers across our own and partner markets, enabling significant improvement in economics and customer experience.

CXOS powers Circles’ own consumer operations (under Circles.Life) across Singapore, Australia and Taiwan, where it directly operates digital telcos and is the region’s fastest growing telco offering multiple digital services.

Global telcos in markets such as Japan and Indonesia have leveraged CXOS to provide a best in class experience and an ecosystem of digital services to its customers.

In all markets, CXOS has demonstrated game changing outcomes such as sizable improvements in NPS, ARPU, operating cost and agility for telcos.

Circles is backed by global investors such as Sequoia, Warburg Pincus and Founders Fund – renowned institutions with a track record of backing industry-shaking innovators. To learn more, visit www.circlesglobal.com

Quote Sheet

"As someone who has witnessed and contributed to the evolution of the industry over the last 25 years, the transformative work that Circles has undertaken to shape the future of telco is truly inspiring. I’m incredibly excited to help shape the trajectory of the company as I believe the work we’re doing will truly have a game-changing effect on the telco industry."

–          Lawrence Corbett, Chief Operating Officer

"It’s a real privilege to join one of the most exciting and innovative companies in the world today. I’ve always been impressed by what Circles has achieved, having built a high-performing business from the ground up while maintaining a keen focus on its people, customers and innovation. I’m thrilled to be working with a vibrant and talented team to define the future of telco together."

–          Nelson Allen, Vice President of Growth

"I’m excited to be embarking on this new journey with Circles, a truly revolutionary company that offers one of the most innovative and compelling SaaS solutions in the industry today. Telcos across the world that have the opportunity to harness this solution will be able to witness significant breakthroughs in their product offerings and deliver best-in-class customer experiences."

–          Thomas Lee, Chief Revenue Officer

"Customer-centric, focused and vision-oriented. These are all attributes that I associate with Circles and this is why I’m excited to lead B2B SaaS sales for telcos and enterprises in Asia-Pacific. This is a strategic business segment that Circles will be rapidly expanding into in 2022 and beyond, and I can’t wait to share our industry-leading solution with the rest of the world."

–          Saurabh Ohri, Vice President, Sales for B2B SaaS