Project management specialist Nortal launches in the UK

European professional services firm Nortal has announced its first foray into the UK market, with the launch of a new office in London. The firm has appointed Thomas Hedley as its first UK lead, to drive the growth of its new wing.

Founded two decades ago in Estonia’s capital city, Tallinn, Nortal has since made a name for itself as a project management specialist – driving more than 100 projects for government, healthcare and corporate clients around the world. With 23 offices across North America, Europe and the Middle East, the firm has also amassed a headcount of more than 1,800 staff.

As the firm looks to maintain this momentum, Nortal has finally launched a presence in the world’s second largest national market for consulting – the UK. It is a market where the firm is already well known, having already participated in numerous engagements there. This included the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London earlier in the year, where Nortal’s experts joined the discussions around Ukraine’s recovery and how to support its potential accession to the EU.

Holding a local presence in the UK on a permanent basis will help build on these foundations, to put more clients in contact with Nortal’s strategic consulting, software engineering, product and customer experience, project management, and design services.

Priit Alamäe, CEO of Nortal, explained, "Over the past five years, we have achieved remarkable double-digit organic growth and showed strong financial results across all home markets. Irrespective of the economic conditions, our core value proposition remains strong. Our focus now is to enhance our global presence and effectively communicate our stories to engage in more meaningful conversations with future customers."

As the firm looks to quickly build out its new team, Thomas Hedley will serve as the firm’s UK managing director, working to expand the company’s global capabilities into the new market. With a strong track record of commercial delivery and strategic leadership, Hedley brings deep industry expertise to strengthen Nortal’s presence – which has already become home to Nortal’s cyber-consulting team.

"Thomas is a strong leader with a breadth of experience in the technology services space and an impressive record of driving year-on-year growth. His leadership qualities and expertise in new business development will lay the groundwork for growth in the UK market," added Alamäe.

Hedley has plenty of experience in leading new arms of businesses. After serving as innovation manager at Unilever, he joined sporting goods start-up Rhizo as a director – before becoming founder in residence at venture capital firm Zinc.

Commenting on his new role with Nortal, Hedley said, “My focus is on bringing the best of what Nortal has built over the last two decades, to the UK - from its cutting-edge product and engineering capabilities delivering solutions for big tech in the US, to its mature strategy consulting that has successfully transformed global blue-chip businesses and even entire nations. Notably, the Nortal team played a pivotal role in the remarkable Estonian digital government story and has made significant contributions to digital health programs worldwide.”