auticon, a company that employs adults on the autism spectrum as technology consultants, announced today that it has appointed David Aspinall as Chief Executive Officer of its Unites States territory. This key hire comes at a time when the global social benefit company is ramping up North American expansion, with new locations in Los Angeles, Toronto, Columbus, and Salt Lake City.
David Aspinall comes to auticon with experience as an executive in a Fortune 10 brand at AT&T, where he spent nearly 12 years, including time leading the telecommunication giant’s Canadian operations. David also served as Regional President, South for Sprint in Texas. Here he led a highly successful turnaround and growth of Sprint’s Enterprise business across 10 southern states. More recently, David worked as an operating executive with various Private Equity firms specializing in scaling businesses and revenue growth. With this focus on sales leadership and market expansion, David’s experience will be applied to auticon’s US market growth and recruitment of adults on the autism spectrum in the technology space.
David has an MBA from Texas Christian University M.J. Neeley School of Business and has a BA with Honors from The University of Sheffield.
Addressing the Global Tech-talent Gap
A severe gap in skilled technology labor is already slowing digital transformation at 54% of companies, according to management consulting firm, Korn Ferry in their report, “Future of Work.” Research suggests that in 2020, “the technology, media, and telecommunications industries may be short more than 1.1 million skilled workers globally.”
Autistic adults experience extraordinarily high employment deficits, with research indicating 85% of autistic adults are unemployed or under-employed within the mainstream labor market. This is often despite having college degrees and relevant experience in areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. auticon taps into this potential by employing autistic adults as technology consultants where they are supported with job coaches and project managers producing a win-win-win situation for clients, consultants, as well as society.
auticon offers exceptional quality work within the information technology industry. The company’s client services include business analytics, artificial intelligence, software development, cybersecurity, as well as quality assurance and testing. auticon provides two operating models in the United States for clients: the “remote model” where work is completed at auticon’s office locations; and the “on-site model” where the consultant works at the client office location.
auticon Group CEO Kurt Schöffer said, “David has an approach to growing businesses and scaling them for private equity that is highly relevant to our goals in the US. He shares our vision that social problems, such as low employment for workers on the autism spectrum, can be solved through applying the principles of business.”
David Aspinall commented, “auticon has a tremendous opportunity to provide quality IT resourcing that delivers social benefit for a growing client list in the US. The combination of remote and onsite capabilities allows for quality delivery of services in a manner that matches customer need. The principles of “conscious capitalism” allow us to be entrepreneurial and align around providing opportunity for adults on the autism spectrum.”
In February, auticon announced that it had received a capital investment of $2.95 million (USD) with a significant portion coming from new investors based out of the US and France as well as significant commitments from existing shareholders.
