Carallon becomes employee-owned firm
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Carallon was founded in 2004 by seven colleagues who enjoyed working together creating new control products for the entertainment industry. All seven of those original founders still work for Carallon today, including Nick Archdale, Chris Hunt and Richard Mead who remain its board of directors.
Over 16 years, it has gone from strength to strength, growing substantially from seven to over 70 employees, and spawning spin-off companies Pharos Architectural Controls, Brompton Technology, and new start-up SixEye. Pharos and Brompton have both been regular winners of high-profile awards for their innovative products, with Brompton Technology recently winning the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2020: International Trade.
As of May 2020, Carallon is now owned by an Employee Ownership Trust, which acts for the benefit of all current and future employees, and through elected employee trustees gives all staff a say in major strategic decisions.
Managing director Richard Mead explains, “On day one, Carallon was set up as a business owned and run by its original seven employees. Although we’ve got bigger, we wanted to make sure that ethos was preserved and that there was a clear structure in place for the long-term future of Carallon. Employee ownership fosters a spirit of teamwork and less hierarchical management structures, so it fits with our style very well.”
“While the other directors and I are remaining at Carallon’s helm for the foreseeable future, we wanted to be pro-active about putting a structure in place that wasn’t reliant on us,” Mead continues. “Crucially we wanted to empower our team, a great number of whom have been with us for many years and have been instrumental to Carallon’s success. The EOT allows all Carallon employees to feel invested in the company’s growth and to share in its successes going forward.”
The board responsible for managing the trust is chaired by Mike Wood, a well-known figure within the entertainment technology industry, who runs his own consulting service and has advised Carallon on intellectual property matters for many years. He is joined by board trustees Chris Hunt, Leo Khale (director of engineering), Sarah Darby (Group HR manager), and Philip Smith (engineering manager).
Mead concludes, “In a way it is getting back to the original vision for Carallon of a company owned and run by its employees, with a robust structure that ensures employees feel in control of their own destiny.”
