Jim Beagle CEO, BridgeHead Software

BridgeHead Software Ltd. announced the appointment of Jim Beagle as its CEO.

BridgeHead also announced a recruitment drive and organisational changes within the company as it responds to demand for its Healthcare Data Management (HDM) platform.

One of the significant changes is the reorganisation of BridgeHead Software’s executive team. In order to take advantage of opportunities in the US and UK and to drive worldwide company growth, Jim Beagle steps into the role of president and CEO.

BridgeHead’s current CEO and founder, Tony Cotterill, will take up a position as Executive Chairman on the Board of Directors, as well as a new role as Executive Vice President and Chief Products Officer.
 
Beagle was a natural choice for the role having been a non-executive director on the Board of BridgeHead Software for nearly three years, and having worked at UIS back in the 80s and 90s with Cotterill and many of BridgeHead’s current team (as well as being the birthplace of what has now become BridgeHead’s Healthcare Data Management platform). Beagle has a track record of driving business growth and brings more than 25 years of experience in director-level positions across technology, distribution and consulting to his new position. Most recently, Beagle was executive vice president of worldwide sales and services at CarbonFlow Corporation. Prior to that he served as CEO of Extraprise International, divisional VP of Object Design, was European Director at UIS (now part of Sprint) and held a number of sales and marketing roles at ICL (now part of Fujitsu).
 
Commenting on his new appointment, Beagle explained: "I’m excited about taking a much more active role in BridgeHead’s undoubted future success. Our focus over the next fiscal year is to accelerate our plans to further meet, and exceed, the demands of the healthcare market in relation to data management. To bring these plans to fruition, we will be investing heavily in our resources – both people and infrastructure – to ensure we continue to serve our customers to the best of our ability, now and the future."
 
While Cotterill’s role as Executive Chairman on the Board of Directors will allow him to maintain a focus on the company’s future development, his role as Chief Products Officer will enable him to apply his experience of data, storage and healthcare to the end-to-end conception and delivery of BridgeHead’s offerings.

Cotterill adds: "This is an important time in BridgeHead Software’s history. We’re extremely proud of the achievements we have made as an organisation to get to this point. But, having worked with Jim over the years, and having discussed this with the Board and the executive team at length, we wholeheartedly agreed that he had the knowledge, credentials and track record to evolve the company to the next phase of its growth. I couldn’t be more delighted with our decision and welcome Jim into the BridgeHead family."
 
In addition to reorganising the executive team, BridgeHead Software continues to recruit dozens of positions across the organisation, from engineering and product management through to sales and marketing, in both its UK and US offices.
 
These organisational changes were made following a strategy review conducted this summer in Newburyport, MA, in which the BridgeHead Software executive team agreed that the company’s vision, to focus 100% on data and storage management in healthcare, was the right decision to take 3 years ago. Evidence now shows that the healthcare market in the USA, UK and mainland Europe has become aware of the BridgeHead brand; and this interest is translating into demand for BridgeHead Software’s solutions from both existing and new customers.
 
As a result of BridgeHead’s building momentum in Europe and North America, the executive team felt that the company was well positioned to use some of its cash reserves to accelerate its long-term expansion plans, both commercially and technically. Consequently, BridgeHead is going to ramp up its investments in new personnel and make a series of organisational changes, such as the new CEO appointment, that will combine to provide a springboard on which the company’s strategic vision can be achieved.