Hedgehog Lab, the Newcastle digital product consultancy, has appointed Malcolm Seagrave as its new CEO to lead its plans to expand across the North of England and Scotland.
The leadership change comes after a strong year for Hedgehog Lab, with turnover rising 30% and growth accelerating in the second half of 2025. The consultancy plans to create hundreds of new jobs in the North of England and Scotland.
“After an initial 18 months as managing director for hedgehog lab’s UK operations, Malcolm succeeds co-founder and previous CEO Sarat Pediredla,” said the firm.
“Sarat announced he was stepping down at the end of 2025, as part of a phased succession plan that would allow him to explore other projects.
“Malcolm has a strong track record of scaling digital businesses, having led BJSS from 140 to 1,400 people before its sale to CGI and helping AND Digital grow from 170 to 1,500 by heading up its Northern function. He also previously held innovation roles at Vodafone and Morrisons.”
In 2023, Hedgehog Lab secured significant investment from BGF, the growth capital investor, to drive UK and international expansion.
It now has operations in Newcastle, Leeds, and Edinburgh – recently acquiring innovation consultancy Label Sessions in the Scottish capital – as well as engineering support teams in Romania and Bulgaria, and with Manchester and Glasgow in its sights.
Seagrave said: “I’m hugely excited to be taking on the CEO role at hedgehog lab. I’ve scaled digital consultancies before, but this is genuinely unique – the company has built an impeccable culture, a great team, and the integrated offering is a real differentiator. We have all the foundations in place to take this business to another level and now it’s about executing our strategy as a tech company that puts people first.
“AI is a huge strength for us – it’s built into everything we work on, but pure-play AI technologies represent around 40% of our business, and that is growing. Embedding it in sales, product, and design research is allowing us to make rapid prototypes and dialling up our ability to innovate. We invested heavily in the technology a few years ago, and that decision is beginning to pay off.
“I’m a big advocate for the North of England and Scotland, helping to grow their economies. Job creation has been a big part of my career and something I really enjoy – the businesses I have scaled have gone on to create hundreds of jobs. I want to do that again with hedgehog lab in the years ahead, giving back to the regions we’re part of through our community initiatives at the same time.”