When one of Europe’s top executives has his previous business sold for $830 million and accepts a role to lead a microcap tech company, he’s clearly seen something behind the scenes to suggest it won’t be a microcap for much longer. That’s exactly the case with former Synlab executive Sytze Voulon who has been appointed Chairman of artificial intelligence company Crowd Media (ASX: CM8). 

In his most recent executive role, Voulon who is based in The Netherlands was CEO of Synlab Analytics & Services, a division of Synlab – Europe’s number one medical diagnostic service provider.

Under his leadership, Synlab Analytics & Services had annual revenue around €200m (AUD $302 million) before the division was acquired by SGS in 2021 for €550 million (AUD $830 million), for which he played a key role in the due diligence process.

Prior to successfully leading the $830m exit sale, Voulon oversaw 2,300 employees across 11 countries. By securing that sale, it provided a pathway towards Synlab’s own IPO in 2021 where they now have a market cap of AUD $5.3 billion. 

While the size of Crowd Media, with approximately 50 employees, is a far cry from the jettisoning he undertook for Synlab, Voulon has acted in a strategic advisory role looking under the hood of Crowd Media before accepting the role of Chairman. He takes the reins from incumbent Steven Schapera who has spearheaded a financial turnaround over the past three years. 

“I am pleased to accept the role to become Chairman of Crowd Media having worked closely with Idan (Schmorak, CEO) and the Board over the past six months,” 

“Seeing progress made on the Talking Head AI platform, I am excited by this upcoming phase for Crowd which will look to accelerate from development to monetization.I would like to thank Steven for his contributions to Crowd which has the Company in a position to build momentum on the commercial front in the year ahead.” 

The timing of Voulon’s appointment is most interesting given 2022 has long been planned as the year Crowd Media commercialised the conversational AI tech that has been in development since 2018. 

While he will not have a hands-on role at Crowd, one of Voulon’s greatest contributions may come in his networking where he is highly respected across corporate Europe, opening new doors for Crowd Media to apply their conversational AI tech. 

Since the start of 2022, Crowd has already signed revenue-generating agreements with PangeaMed for a telehealth solution, SourceFlare for an online advertising solution, and Impssbl for a collection of interactive NFTs. 

For the quarter ended 31 March 2022, Crowd Media reported $1.7m in customer receipts to be cash flow positive for the second consecutive quarter after incurring costs over the past two years developing the Talking Head platform which is now being commercialised across various industries.