CirrusHQ names AWS’ Craig Ridsdill as new head of sales

CirrusHQ has announced the appointment of Craig Ridsdill to the newly-created role of head of sales, as the AWS cloud specialist looks to increase its impact in the healthcare and education sectors.

Ridsdill joins the business from AWS, where he has spent the last six years heading up the cloud services platform’s higher education and NHS healthcare teams. Prior to that, he served as head of further and higher education at Samsung.

Reporting to chief revenue officer Stephen Croke, Ridsdill will play a key role in extending CirrusHQ’s relationship with healthcare and education organizations looking to leverage the benefits of the cloud.

In an announcement, James Lucas, CEO of CirrusHQ said Ridsdill’s previous AWS experience will enable the firm’s customers to better navigate their cloud migrations.

“The whole of the tech sector has experienced a level of unease in recent years; however, we have seen a turning point in 2024 as more organizations have recognized the value of migrating their workloads from on-premises to the cloud,” he explained.

“Given our deep technical focus and relationship with AWS – and bringing together Craig’s significant experience with the organization – this will give our customers a unique opportunity in 2025 to best understand how the cloud can benefit them.”

Headquartered in Livingston, Scotland, CirrusHQ is an AWS advanced consulting and solutions provider that specializes in helping businesses grow in the AWS Cloud and maximize performance, security, and compliance.

Ridsdill’s appointment follows a strong year for the company, in which it has found success in cloud migration projects across the UK – including Teesside University, City of Glasgow College, and White Rose Education.

The firm also signed a multi-year global strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with AWS alongside securing more than 100 certifications with the cloud giant.

Commenting on his new role, Ridsdill said the cloud can “bring about real change” and drive increased collaboration within the high-pressure education and healthcare sectors.

“We have seen more organizations re-recognize in recent years just how much the cloud could help them become more agile and have a technology infrastructure that scales to their needs,” he explained.

“It feels as if we are entering a new era of the cloud and joining CirrusHQ feels like the perfect time to bring a new generation to the table to share how much innovation we have seen in the technology.”