Rush Digital hires new CEO

Media Release

For Immediate Release

Rush Digital hires new CEO on the back of significant increase in revenue and US market expansion

5 September 2016: Rush Digital, New Zealand’s leading creative technology company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Pavan Vyas as its new Managing Director and CEO, effective 5 September 2016.

Pavan will focus on the role of strategic leadership and growing the company’s offshore client base in order to secure longterm revenue streams for the company, which was launched in 2010 and has offices in Auckland and New York City.

“I am thrilled to join a company which is not scared to innovate and commercialise leadingedge technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, human computer interaction, AR/VR and gaming,” Pavan says.

“In the shortterm
I will be concentrating on making sure our business is scalable for future growth by hiring key people, and engaging with existing and new clients and partners."

Pavan added a key reason for his hire, apart from driving the business on a daytoday basis, was to free up key technical people from corporate responsibilities, ensuring they have the time and space to innovate.

Founder and former CEO Danushka Abeysuriya will assume the fulltime role of Chief Technical Officer. Danushka was recently recognised as New Zealand’s Young Achiever at the 2016 HiTech Awards.

“Inventing technology products and picking future tech trends early is what I do best,” Danushka says. “Pavan joining the team is the product of the strong outlook the company has built over the last 18 months. We’ve increased our revenues tenfold, opened our New York City office, hired key talent into senior roles and established Goat Ventures to conquer insurmountable, highimpact, innovation challenges."

Pavan comes to Rush following two years as Head of Ventures at Sky TV New Zealand. Prior to that he worked with Deloitte in London, Australia and New Zealand, defining and executing on strategy for his global clients. He has a MBA in Corporate Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the University of Oxford.

Pavan will also become a member of the Board of Rush Digital, joining founder Danushka Abeysuriya, Aucklandbased investor/director Ray Thomson and Chair Jonathan Reid.

“The tech geniuses at Rush are amazing at creating experiences that transcend virtual technology into the real world. It is a thrill to have Pavan on board to help direct the business as it readies for accelerated growth in multiple markets,” Jonathan says.

Rush Digital works with a myriad of global brands such as Microsoft, Google, Samsung, BBC, ExxonMobil, Fonterra and Heineken. It partners with agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB Group, Iris Worldwide and Jack Morton. Rush has also created Goat Ventures, an enterprise to bring together and enable a group of problem solving elitists that can conquer insurmountable, highimpact innovation challenges.

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About Rush Digital

We are Rush Digital. We blur the lines between reality and digital. We lift barriers between creativity and technology, and converge advanced development into outcomedriven solutions.

We are New Zealand's leading creative technology company that engages in a variety of technologies to convey creative executions, delivering them across a number of different verticals predominantly the gaming and corporate enterprise markets, and the creative sector.

Innovation is in our DNA. We fire the imagination. We push boundaries. We open up to possibilities with new kinds of experience. Infused with technology, we create brand experiences that create transformational moments for people. http://www.rushdigital.co.nz

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