Epassi appoints Antonio Barradas to lead UK business following Matt Russell’s departure

Epassi has appointed Antonio Barradas as Regional Managing Director following the departure of Matt Russell, who had led the company’s UK business since Epassi acquired employee benefits platform – Zest, last year.

Barradas, who has spent the past three years leading Epassi Netherlands, will now oversee the group’s UK, Netherlands and Zest businesses in a newly created regional role designed to accelerate international growth and share products and commercial models across markets.

The appointment comes a year after Russell joined Epassi as part of its acquisition of Zest, where he had served as CEO before being appointed to lead Epassi UK. Last week, Russell announced he was leaving the business.

Barradas said his priority would be to bring together “three strong businesses that have grown up apart”, combining the Netherlands’ multi-benefit platform expertise, the UK’s merchant network and Zest’s HR technology to improve employee engagement and scale the platform internationally.

Nickyl Raithatha, CEO of Epassi Group, said Barradas’ experience growing businesses across multiple European markets made him “the right person” to lead the next phase of expansion.