Highlight appoints new CEO as founder becomes Chairman

Highlight has reshaped its senior leadership team as founder Richard Thomas moves to Chairman and Martin Saunders takes over as Chief Executive Officer.

The company has also named Mia Worthington as Head of Product, Peter Savereux as Head of Marketing, Justin Holsgrove as Head of Technical Quality and Assurance, and Craig Smith as Head of Customer Success. The changes place day-to-day management under Saunders, while Thomas retains an oversight role.

Highlight operates in managed service observability. Its platform gathers and analyses network and IT infrastructure data. It presents results through a web portal that focuses on end-to-end service performance rather than individual components.

The firm sells through partners and targets managed service providers and enterprise IT teams. It positions its approach around service assurance, with data designed for operational teams and commercial stakeholders.

Saunders said the business entered 2026 with new partner agreements signed in several regions. He linked the appointments to a broader push for growth and tighter execution across product, marketing, delivery quality and customer outcomes.

"I am delighted to step into the CEO role and build on the company's continued success. 2026 is already shaping to be a momentous year beginning with the signing of multiple new partner contracts from across the globe," said Martin Saunders, Chief Executive Officer, Highlight.

Highlight has worked with vendors including Cisco and has framed that activity around the managed service provider market. The company said it has refined its proposition for MSPs and built understanding of competitive pressures in managed services, where service delivery and customer relationships have become key points of differentiation.

"Over the past few years, we've worked closely with strategic vendors such as Cisco to refine our proposition for the Managed Service Provider community. This has given us a deep understanding of the pressures MSPs face in an increasingly competitive market, where exceptional service delivery and long-term customer relationships are more critical than ever to success," said Saunders.

Expanded leadership

Under the new structure, Worthington's remit covers product direction and ongoing development of the Highlight platform. Savereux takes responsibility for marketing at a time when managed services providers are increasing focus on communicating outcomes and service quality to customers.

Holsgrove's role centres on technical quality and assurance across delivery. That function typically covers consistency in implementations, operational processes and the feedback loop from service performance into product roadmaps.

Customer Success will sit under Smith, which elevates partner adoption and ongoing service performance as a leadership-level priority. Highlight described the function as consultative, reflecting the way MSPs integrate tooling into managed service offers that they then sell and operate for end customers.

"We now have a scalable business supported by dedicated leadership in Product and Marketing, with Mia and Peter stepping up into these positions. Both are outstanding individuals, who will bring clarity and focus to the roles. Justin will ensure consistent quality and continuous improvement across our technical delivery," said Saunders.

"Customer Success at Highlight is inherently consultative, and Craig's position as Head of this function reflects an increased emphasis on helping our partners as they use the Highlight platform to build out their managed service propositions. Ultimately, this is about helping partners be as successful as possible since their success drives ours," said Saunders.

Chairman transition

Thomas founded Highlight in 1999 and has led the company through its transition into a cloud-based software business with a partner-led route to market. In the Chairman's role, he will focus on governance and longer-term strategy while Saunders leads commercial execution.

Thomas linked Highlight's focus on service outcomes with changes in partner programmes from major technology suppliers. He pointed to Cisco's 360 Partner Programme and its emphasis on the managed services lifecycle.

"Service providers globally are recognising a principle that's core to Highlight - that managed services must be more about the service than the technology. For example, this is reflected in Cisco's new 360 Partner Programme which now places a strong emphasis on the full managed services lifecycle. Highlight is uniquely positioned to help partners achieve the growth they need," said Richard Thomas, Chairman, Highlight.

Thomas said the leadership change separates governance from execution and aligns the business around product development, sales and delivery. He described Saunders as bringing a stronger commercial focus alongside an established engineering base.

"With a strong management team now in place, Highlight has reached a stage where it will benefit from a clear separation between governance and strategic execution. Martin brings exactly the right commercial focus, complementing our deep engineering expertise with an increased emphasis on sales, marketing and customer success. All the pieces, the team, the maturity of the business and the market opportunity are now fully aligned," said Thomas.

Highlight said its platform development has continued for more than two decades through an in-house software team. The company said it will continue to work through partners and keep its emphasis on managed service providers looking to expand service assurance and improve customer conversations.

"As a cloud company from the day we started and operating a fully partner-based model, our focus is about helping MSPs evolve and grow their businesses, learn from others in their sector and fully realise the value of their business with Highlight. That is how we turn customers relationships into true partnerships," said Thomas.