Welcome to June 2026’s edition of Movers & Shakers.

This month saw a flurry of Scottish expansions, appointments, and partnerships before the summer

June saw a range of major cloud and AI partnerships as well as appointments for some major stalwarts of the Scottish tech world.

All that and more coming up.

Partnerships

HSBC Targets 200 AI Use Cases in Google Cloud Partnership

HSBC and Google Cloud have announced a multi-year strategic partnership to build and deploy AI capabilities across the bank’s global operations, with an initial focus on wealth management, financial crime risk management and AI tools for frontline staff.

The partnership, announced at Google Cloud Summit London, is expected to support more than 200 new AI use cases at HSBC over the next two years. The bank said the collaboration will help accelerate AI adoption across its products and services globally, while prioritising high-value initiatives where HSBC estimates the benefit could exceed $100 million through direct revenue gains or wider efficiency improvements.

The agreement will see HSBC work with Google Cloud and Google DeepMind engineering teams on new AI-powered tools and programmes. The bank will also gain access to Google’s latest agentic AI capabilities, including Gemini models and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform.

Read more here.

Lloyds Contracts Microsoft for Agentic AI Deployment Plans

Lloyds Banking Group and Microsoft have announced a new multi-year agreement that will see the tech giant supporting the finance firm with its next stage of AI deployment.

The agreement follows the roll-out of 40,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences across the Group, with 97% of colleagues with a licence classed as active users.

The rollout will support Lloyds with its continued deployment of agentic AI systems across its network and offerings, while providing assurances in governance, security, and identity mangement.

Read more here.

The James Hutton Institute and Abertay University collaborate on game

The James Hutton Institute and Abertay University have partnered to create a new online game exploring how potatoes have shaped Scotland’s food and farming, alongside the importance of biodiversity and sustainable agriculture.

Working closely with researchers from the Hutton, the student team from Abertay’s Professional Masters in Games Development (Mrof), designed and built Potato Expedition: 1946 earlier this year as part of the Applied Games and Research Design module.

The game places players in the role of a plant collector travelling to South America to gather wild potato species. Their mission is to safely return 20 unique specimens to help establish the Commonwealth Potato Collection (CPC), a vital resource for breeding crops that can withstand disease and climate change.

MVPz Named Official Trading Card Partner of Major League Cricket

Scottish-founded sports engagement platform MVPz has entered a multi-year partnership with Cognizant Major League Cricket, becoming the league’s Official Sports Trading Card Partner.

The agreement will see MVPz launch officially licensed digital and physical trading cards featuring MLC players, available through its platform and the league’s website.

Each physical card will use NFC technology to connect fans with player profiles, live statistics, performance data and other interactive content, combining traditional collectibles with digital fan engagement.

Appointments

Head for Data Appoints Robin Huggins as Chief Revenue Officer

Falkirk-based Head for Data has appointed Robin Huggins as Chief Revenue Officer as the company looks to accelerate its growth and expand its work across data, automation and AI transformation.

Huggins brings more than 25 years of commercial leadership experience across Scotland’s technology and data sectors. He joins from DIGIT.FYI, where he also served as Chief Revenue Officer, having previously spent more than 14 years helping to grow data and AI recruitment firm MBN Solutions.

Twice named among the UK’s most influential data professionals in the DataIQ 100, Huggins has also contributed to initiatives including The Data Lab MSc Placement Programme, Scotland’s AI Strategy working group and a range of university employability and industry mentoring programmes.

In his new role, he will lead Head for Data’s revenue strategy, with responsibility for developing its sales operation, strengthening customer relationships, building strategic partnerships and expanding the company’s market presence. Since joining in May, he has introduced a new CRM platform and begun developing a more structured sales and marketing function to support the company’s longer-term growth.

Commenting on the appointment, Huggins said: “One of the things that attracted me to Head for Data was its people-first approach. The conversations around AI are often dominated by technology, but successful adoption starts with people, business outcomes and organisational readiness. Technology comes afterwards. Businesses are looking for trusted partners who can help them cut through the noise and understand where data, automation and AI can genuinely create value.

“Head for Data is uniquely positioned to support organisations on that journey, and I’m excited about what we can achieve together.”

CyberScotland Partnership Appoints New Chair

The CyberScotland Partnership has announced the appointment of Theresa Swayne, Head of Digital Economy at Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), as its new Chair. Theresa succeeds Karen Meechan, former CEO of ScotlandIS, bringing a wealth of leadership experience in digital transformation, economic development and cyber resilience.

Theresa is widely recognised for her strategic leadership at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, where she has played a pivotal role in driving the growth of Scotland’s digital economy. In her current role, she has championed innovation, supported businesses to adopt emerging technologies and fostered collaboration across public and private sectors to strengthen regional and national digital capabilities.

As Chair of the CyberScotland Partnership, Theresa will lead a national collaboration of key organisations dedicated to making Scotland a safer, more resilient place to live and work online. The Partnership brings together expertise from government, academia, law enforcement, the third sector and industry to deliver Scotland’s cyber resilience ambitions.

Read more here.

2i Appoints New Director of Public Sector and Director of Financial Services

2i, the independent software testing and QA consultancy, has made two key appointments.

The firm welcomed Karen Meechan as its new Director of Public Sector, and Charlie Lambert as its new Director Financial Services.

Meechan brings 20 years of experience in the heart of Scotland’s digital ecosystem; she will bring her expertise and passion for using technology to improve services and deliver outcomes to the team.

Lambert brings 30 years of experience in financial services, from transformation programmes to technology operations and strategy.

Brightridge Technology Appoints and Expands

Brightridge Technology has had a range of updates this  month, from strong appointments to a Scottish expansion.

The firm appointed Andy McKay as Commercial Director, a newly created role to support the company’s next phase of growth. He joins the senior leadership team with responsibility for commercial strategy, revenue growth and strengthening sales operations, as the business scales its managed IT and cyber security services offering.

It has also strengthened its cyber security offering with the appointment of Nicola McKay, its first in-house Cyber Essentials Assessor, and accreditation as a Cyber Essentials and IASME Cyber Assurance Certification Body. The move enables the company to deliver certification, remediation and ongoing compliance support as part of a fully integrated service.

Brightridge Technology has established a dedicated presence in Aberdeen, extending its cyber-first managed IT services into the North East. The expansion responds to growing demand for integrated, in-house cyber security and IT delivery, particularly in regulated sectors, with the local operation led by Commercial Director Andy McKay.

PriceHubble appoints Graham Binnie as Head of Sales & Solutions

PriceHubble has appointed Graham Binnie as its new Head of Sales & Solutions, reinforcing its commitment to supporting the UK property and financial services sectors with market-leading property intelligence and analytics.

Binnie joins the business with more than 20 years’ experience in financial services, having held leadership roles at NatWest, RBS International, Kensington Mortgages and TransUnion. Throughout his career, he has led commercial and customer-focused teams, helping organisations drive growth and deliver innovative solutions across banking, lending and data services.

In his new role, Binnie will lead PriceHubble’s Sales & Solutions function, working closely with customers and partners to help them harness data and AI-driven insights to improve decision-making and deliver better outcomes.

Expansions

Multiverse Launches Edinburgh AI Tech Hub

Multiverse, the upskilling platform for AI and tech adoption, announced the opening of a new technology hub in Edinburgh.

Following its recent $70m funding round, the hub marks an expansion of Multiverse’s engineering footprint, placing an additional centre of technical excellence outside of London.

Former Amazon leader Colin Mackenzie has been appointed as the company’s first VP AI Engineering to lead it, and will focus on developing agentic products.

Mackenzie brings more than a decade of engineering leadership experience to the role, most recently spending six years at Amazon.

Read more here.

Awards

Scottish AI Firm Wins KPMG 2026 Tech Innovator Award

Zelim, a Scottish AI business, has been crowned KPMG’s 2026 Tech Innovator in the UK.

The annual competition spotlights and celebrates the world’s most innovative technology startups and provides a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their businesses and collectively champion the future of tech.

The Edinburgh-based startup, which builds AI-enabled maritime safety and security systems to save lives when people fall overboard at sea, beat off competition from hundreds of businesses across the UK to win the award.

Read more here.

Comms With AI Wins At AI Comms Awards

A bootstrapped Edinburgh startup has won two awards at the inaugural AI Comms Awards in London last night (18 June 2026). Comms With AI, an AI platform for communications teams built single-handedly by founder Michael MacLennan, won Gold for Best Innovation in AI Tools for Communications, and MacLennan was named AI Communications Leader of the Year (Agency).

Launched publicly in February 2026 and built solo by MacLennan using Claude Code — without an engineering team or outside investment — Comms With AI gives communications teams a complete operating system for AI-powered work: 62 ready-to-deploy templates, seven workflow toolkits, 44 reviewed AI tools, and a five-phase methodology covering how teams strategise, create, govern, monitor and transform their communications. The free library is now used by communications professionals across the UK, US, Australia and Germany.

The platform shows what a single practitioner can now build with current AI tooling. Rather than hiring developers, MacLennan built and shipped the product himself, iterating in the open and pairing tested AI prompts with human review checklists so that speed does not come at the cost of judgement.