Q3 2019
18 EU BUSINESS NEWS / Q3 2019 , Grand Opening for United Virtualities United Virtualities opens flagship EMEA office in Barcelona. United Virtualities Corp, the boutique tech consultancy that’s popularly known as “UV”, is “bursting with excitement” to announce that they have cut the grand opening tape to their fourth international office, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. However, the “exciting” news for United Virtualities isn’t just the opening of an office, lots of people just rent office space, every day - but rather this office represents three key strategic initiatives within UV starting to bloom. The first is that Gustavo Martinez has joined United Virtualities as Senior Managing Partner, EMEA. He will lead the Barcelona office, as well as the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) growth initiatives. Previously, Martinez was Global Chairman and CEO, Worldwide, of J. Walter Thompson, the oldest and one of the largest ad agencies in the world. Highlights from Martinez’ track record also include being COO, Latin America of Ogilvy & Mather, Regional Director of McCann Worldgroup, Europe and APAC, a professor at ISEM (Madrid) and ESADE (Barcelona), and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Universitat de Barcelona. “Ever since I first met Gustavo, I knew that he was the right partner to lead UV in Europe and the Middle East,” Lucas Lopatin, United Virtualities’ co-founder, said. “And I think the feeling was mutual from that first moment for him, as well. Gustavo’s combination of his can-do spirit and drive to get things done, with his sophisticated understanding of the industry, his professionalism and his good heart, it’s just a combination that we look for in everyone on Team UV, and he overwhelmingly exemplifies.” Martinez’ appointment is also important for the second piece of news the office represents: United Virtualities’ doubling down on its commitment to the EMEA market. EMEA currently represents 5% of United Virtualities’ client base, and United Virtualities is planning on doubling that to 10% within 12 months. The third piece of “exciting” news is the world-class tech talent that will be joining United Virtualities in Barcelona. At the heart of United Virtualities is people; as Erik Laurenceau, United Virtualities’ CEO, recently commented, “It’s misleading to think about UV as an entity that just exists on a piece of paper. We’re a collection of human beings, first, second and third. This is why all of our success, and I mean, ‘all!’, depends on our team. And this goes in both directions: we expect everyone on our team to be first-rate at what they do and first-rate human beings; and on the other side, UV must treat everyone like the growth-oriented, truly individual human beings they are. No one is a ‘just a number’ at UV, and this is an iron philosophy at UV we maintain, no matter how big we grow. Our culture is one of the reasons why we are able to attract and retain talent.” The Barcelona office, at Diagonal 399 in Eixample near the famous Paseo de Gracias, and to be known as “UV-BCN,” will be one of United Virtualities’ four solution centres, along with Buenos Aires, Manhattan, and Guadalajara. All four offices embody United Virtualities’ “people first” attitude. United Virtualities is currently hiring for technology, production, and strategy roles for all four offices. United Virtualities is a boutique tech consultancy that specialises in “accelerating businesses,” as they summarise themselves. They work with clients, mostly mid- to large global companies, to not only develop the technology they need but provide the consultancy services to help them figure out, plan and manage what they need. United Virtualities has Data, Commerce and Digital practices, with particular strengths in Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Experience Manager and lean stacks, such as React and Node.js. “We are the ones up at night worrying about our clients’ tech and business challenges, so our clients don’t need to be,” Laurenceau recently said.
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