CircleLoop, the cloud-based phone system for business, has announced that former Tech Nation lead Richard Gregory has joined its team as it looks to further drive growth in the heart of the digital and tech community. The appointment comes as CircleLoop revealed it has tripled headcount over the last 12 months with imminent plans for the creation of a large number of new roles in Manchester and across the UK over the coming months.

With over 20 years in the tech and digital industry Richard was previously managing director of digital agency Latitude, director of Tech Nation and a Manchester Digital council member. Hailing from Ramsbottom, the Lancashire town in which CircleLoop was conceived and initially developed, he currently advises a number of scale-ups including Ruler Analytics, Ash.tv and Fluid Digital.

Commenting on his appointment, Richard said “I have known Damian Hanson and David Hague in the technology startup scene for several years and I truly believe that in CircleLoop they continue to build a product which will become internationally adopted as a replacement to the norm in the telecoms market.  I was attracted to supporting their drive and vision for the business and I think that CircleLoop will go from strength to strength in the coming years as businesses adopt cloud and digital products across their entire business!”

CircleLoop’s intuitive desktop & mobile apps enable businesses to finally say goodbye to the complicated phone systems of old. Delivered in the same way as other cloud-based software such as CRM, email and accounting platforms CircleLoop provides instant, self-service control of all phone numbers, users and features in a delightfully simple, no-contract model. Its growing list of powerful integrations also hugely improve team productivity and reduce unnecessary costs.

CircleLoop Co-founder, Damian Hanson added: “We’ve enjoyed significant user growth across the UK in the past year, especially in the north-west, with Richard’s support we look forward to building further relationships locally and nationally as we continue to scale our business. To have someone of Richard’s pedigree on our team is fantastic.”