AV and entertainment technology company, Anna Valley, announced today that operations director, Peter Jones, has been promoted to the position of MD with immediate effect. The move follows an extensive hand-over period with exiting MD, Steve Jones (no relation) who has led the company for 13 years.
Peter Jones discovered his love for live event technology while studying Engineering at Cambridge University. He holds a BSc in live performance technology and worked for ten years as a sound and video technician before joining Anna Valley in 2010 as a senior project manager. After working his way up through the ranks, Peter was appointed as Anna Valley’s operations director following a management buyout in 2015. Since then he has played an integral role in the company’s expansion, the purchase of Matrix UK Solutions and Anna Valley’s move to new premises earlier this year.
“As operations director, I’ve been as involved in the financial and business aspects of the company as I have in the process and procedure of service delivery,” explained Peter. “While our focus has remained on delighting our audiences through the innovative use of technology, we’re taking a data-driven approach to ensure that our investments reflect our customers’ needs.”
Steve Jones’ shares in the business have been bought out by the remaining board of directors who are equal owners of the group. He will continue to mentor and advise the board on a consultancy basis. The change in leadership follows a year-long transition period during which Peter has taken over the responsibilities of MD; this has coincided with the development of a technical and operations management team of nine senior staff members who will manage Anna Valley’s day-to-day operations under Peter’s supervision.
Speaking about his future plans for the business, Peter commented: “As well as continuing to implement processes to ensure that we’re able to deliver excellence at scale, I’m looking forward to diversifying our technology base so that we can grow our market share in full-service AV. And, after personally seeing the benefits of our ethos of promoting from within, I’ll be working across the business to ensure that we continue to develop and nurture the next generation in our organisation.”