V2 AI bolsters Asia Pacific team amid agentic AI boom
V2 AI has appointed Hannah Williams as Managing Director, named Peter Burns as Partner and Michael Ewald as Director, as the Asia Pacific consultancy expands its leadership team amid growing corporate demand for AI deployment.
V2 AI reported close to 100% revenue growth in 2025 and expects to enter a scale-up phase in 2026. Consultant headcount is expected to more than double as the firm takes on more AI projects across large organisations.
Williams joins from Amazon, where she spent nearly eight years across Amazon and AWS in senior roles covering Asia Pacific and Japan. Most recently, she was Head of Asia Pacific and Japan at Amazon LEO, previously known as Amazon Project Kuiper.
At AWS, Williams held roles including ANZ Energy and Industrial Segment Lead, Head of ANZ Strategic Initiatives for Enterprise, Head of Large Enterprise, and Head of Commercial Sales. Earlier, she led WorkFusion's expansion into Australia and New Zealand and served as Vice President and General Manager for ANZ at SAP SuccessFactors.
Burns joins from Google Cloud, where he worked as a Key Account Executive. He brings experience across data, analytics and AI programmes in financial services, payments and large technology environments.
His earlier roles included positions at FICO, Fiserv, Woolworths and Standard Bank. V2 AI highlighted his work supporting a bank during the pandemic on technology used for urgent government relief for small businesses.
Ewald joins from PwC Australia, where he was a Managing Director. He led consulting teams working on cloud and enterprise transformation initiatives, including observability and compliance-led approaches.
He previously held senior roles at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, including Executive Manager of Analytics and Insights Operations, leading teams responsible for the group data warehouse and analytics platforms.
Scale-up plans
The appointments come as consulting firms, cloud providers and systems integrators compete for work linked to AI adoption in large enterprises. Many organisations have moved beyond initial pilots and are investing in governance, data management and operational processes to sustain AI across business units.
V2 AI operates across Asia Pacific with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur. Founded in 2023, it positions itself as a data and AI consultancy serving large brands.
Williams will focus on client growth and partnerships, while Founder and Chief Executive Craig Howe will continue advising clients on AI strategy and overseeing the company's longer-term direction.
V2 AI also pointed to recent leadership additions, including Nick Williams as Partner and Ebony Williams as Director of Alliances last month.
In a statement, Williams said the market is shifting as companies move from trials to broader deployment.
"I'm thrilled to be joining V2 AI at a time when organisations are shifting from AI pilots to enterprise-wide adoption," said Williams, Managing Director, V2 AI.
Industry focus
Burns said AI-driven decisioning and intelligence is becoming a competitive factor across sectors, while noting differences in use cases and constraints between industries.
"Decisioning and intelligence leveraging AI at the core, is reshaping how organisations across all industries compete. That said, each sector faces unique challenges and benefits differently across use cases," said Burns.
Ewald pointed to the operational demands of running AI in production, including engineering discipline and monitoring practices.
"Strong engineering foundations, quality delivery, observability and change management are critical to successful AI at scale," said Ewald.
Howe said the appointments reflect investment in leadership across strategy and delivery, alongside increased demand in a specific area of the market.
"Simultaneously, this growth expands our capacity to take on new projects and meet the surging demand for agentic AI," said Howe.