Avanade has announced the appointment of Katharine Shaw-Paffett as sales and go-to-market lead for its Center for AI and cross solution AI lead for the UK and Ireland.
The seasoned veteran arrives with a decade of digital transformation experience and joins the business from Microsoft Germany, where she oversaw the company’s data and AI partner ecosystem and worked to drive sales and GTM strategies with partners.
Prior to that, she worked in management consulting at Accenture’s core banking division, focused on post-merger integration and rolling out business transformation at retail banks. She also previously served as a consultant for banking and capital markets at professional services giant EY.
Avanade said the digital transformation specialist will now leverage her expertise to unlock strategic value and innovation through AI across the whole of the business and tech stack, working collaboratively to scale AI initiatives for its clients in the UK and Ireland.
She will also lead the sales and go-to-market strategy for Avanade’s Center for AI, which the company said will feed into her role in the UK and Ireland.
Established earlier this year across Europe and the Middle East, Avanade’s Center for AI aims to “strengthen and streamline” its collaboration with clients and partners, acting as a central hub for its AI-focused activities.
The unit leverages experts from across the company to capitalize on market opportunities and act as a trusted advisor to clients as they implement AI as part of their digital transformation journeys.
“With AI reshaping industries and redefining the relationship between people and technology, we continually strive to appoint the highest caliber of talent in the field of data & AI to work with our clients,” commented Annika Grosse, Avanade’s executive for Center for AI in Europe and the Middle East.
“Katharine’s wealth of experience in helping organizations to uncover the transformative capabilities of data & AI makes her a valuable addition to our team in UKI. I look forward to working with her to help businesses in the region shape the future for our people, our clients, and our society.”
Commenting on her appointment, Shaw-Paffett said the platform shift to AI has brought about a need for “multi-disciplinary collaboration” and a need to adapt business models.
“We need to rethink, challenge and transform our processes and business models - not just optimize them if we want to unleash maximum value,” she explained. “This requires creative, original thinking through diverse teams. Now more than ever, we need cohesion across solution areas to ensure synergies and growth.
“As topics like data management and extraction become much more federated, apps get increasingly more intelligent, AI-ready infrastructure, data platform and security enter every conversation, AI is infusing across all areas of the business yielding multiple opportunities as well as dependencies.”
She added: “I joined Avanade because I believe our unique set of values, diverse capabilities and close, long-standing partnership with Microsoft give us what it takes to do something very bold and very strategic in the market. It is a thrilling time to be working in AI, and this technology gives us the tools to amplify our human capabilities and transform our clients’ businesses.”
