Travel-AI company KOMPAS, continues to strengthen it’s Advisory Board with the addition of Derek Southall, CEO of Hyperscale Group Limited

On May 1st, Derek Southall, joins the advisory board for KOMPAS, as the team continue to rapidly scale their hyper-personalised city exploration mobile application across the UK and Germany. Derek is also the head of Innovation and Digital at Gowling WLG, a top 50 global law firm having previously been a partner and head of strategic development for many years and before that a private equity lawyer. This adds to the company’s current team of advisors, consisting of former senior executives at AT&T, Cisco, Barclays and Deutsche Bank. With the team representing the UK at two worldwide startup competitions, and placing 6th and 2nd, it’s no surprise that they continue to pull industry experts and business heavyweights into their circle of trust. The CEO of KOMPAS has also advised the UK government on entrepreneurship and young enterprise.

KOMPAS seeks to change the way that people travel by harnessing an unrivalled level of personalisation, powered by intelligent algorithms. The company’s solution in travel itineraries, allows them to create tailored recommendations, relevant reviews of places and a hassle free way for people moving around cities. Showcasing local, hidden and independent gems, KOMPAS will show you what really makes a city unique. To date, the company has been featured in prestigious magazines and publications such as Success Magazine, the TATA Consultancy Report and DR. Their CEO was also invited to give a TEDx talk on Artificial Intelligence. Lately, the team have built a strong advisory board around them, consisting of Neil Rafferty, former AT&T, Cisco and EasyNet senior executive, David Solomides, former Deutsche Bank senior executive, Mike Binns, former Barclays senior executive and successful entrepreneur Stephen Shortt. KOMPAS have now added a digital, innovation and professional services expert, Derek Southall, to assist with matters surrounding the company in these areas. After closing an undisclosed round of funding in January 2017, the company is rapidly scaling, and recently released their application to Android users, alongside their current iOS offering.

The Financial Times ranked Derek as one of the top three most innovative lawyers in the UK in their first study into the UK market and he was recognised in 2017's prestigious Acritas Stars database as a one of few Star Lawyers delivering outstanding service. The IT team which Derek has been responsible for has also been named as the Most Innovative Legal Technology Team in Europe by the FT and Legal Business as Legal Technology Team of the Year. He has now moved on to launch www.hyperscalegroup.com.

Derek’s addition will continue to strengthen the company as they prepare to close another round of funding later this year. Co-founders Doug, Kurt, Olivia and Tom were all recently named among the ’20 young entrepreneurs to watch in 2017’ by startups.co.uk, and KOMPAS was named as one of the ‘Top 9 Travel Applications of 2017’ by Startacus. As the company continue to develop both the product and their team, it’s probably only a matter of time until we expect people across the UK and Germany to recognise the company as a household brand, and must-have mobile application.

All Enquiries: Tom Charman, marketing@kompasapp.com