Ayala and Actis investee firm Integreon sees management churn

Lokendra Tomar of Integron joins Elevate Services

Lokendra Tomar, the COO and head of corporate strategy at Integreon, a legal process outsourcing firm, has joined Elevate Services, founded by the erstwhile founder of Integreon, Liam Brown.

Tomar is among the several of the top management people who have left Integreon, which has Philippines-based Ayala Corporation and private equity firm, Actis, as its investor, to join Elevate in the recent past. Elevate competes with Integreon in the LPO space. Tomar had left Integreon earlier this year.

Some of the top management that have joined Elevate from Integreon include, Richard Little, CFO, Anurag Grover, India country head, Ron Dappen, marketing director, Mark Redmayne, VP business development, Samir Mhatre, India HR and learning and development head, and Tariq Hassan, chief procurement officer.

Sources in the industry said that the management churn at Integreon is happening due to difference between management and the investors. It started with the Brown being asked to leave the company in 2011.

“Lokendra’s capabilities and values are an excellent match for Elevate. He built Integreon’s legal and business services in the US, UK, India, Philippines, South Africa and China, with an excellent reputation amongst customers and employees, as we grew the company together by more than 50 per cent per annum from $20 million in 2006 to $150 million annual sales by 2011,” said Liam Brown, Founder and Chairman, Elevate Services.

Tomar has twenty years of experience managing global operations and business strategy. Prior to Integreon, he led strategy, corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions at MphasiS. Tomar was also instrumental in building and managing Research and Analytics capabilities for Adventity, now part of Sutherland Global Services.

Elevate Services that was set up a year back, has already acquired two companies to get a substantial foothold in the LPO segment. In September last year it acquired the analytics division of RFx Legal, a US-based firm specialising in legal sourcing, procurement and staffing services. In December it acquired Med Legal Consulting Source, a US firm specialising in medical claims and litigation.

The sudden churn in management is also reflective of how the LPO market is shifting. The LPO sector has grown to almost $750 million market size, employing almost 9,000 people in 2012, and is projected to continue to grow at over 30 per cent for the next five years, according to The LPO Program and ValueNotes.

But in the past several of the key LPO players have seen change in ownership and management. For instance Pangea3 was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2010, and founder Sanjay Kamlani moved on. Ajay Agarwal left UnitedLex, after Helion Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, along with Sequoia Capital acquired his stake.