Mergers and Acquisitions at SMBtech

V2 AI Strengthens Executive Ranks Amid Rapid Expansion As Demand For Enterprise AI Accelerates

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APAC AI and data consultancy V2 AI has made four senior executive appointments as demand from enterprise customers for its AI strategy, engineering and delivery services has grown fivefold in recent months.

The hires span consulting, AI strategy, AI engineering and data transformation, and form part of the Sydney-founded firm’s broader growth strategy.

V2 AI was recently appointed as an implementation partner in Anthropic’s Claude Partner Network and works with strategic partners including AWS, Databricks, Google Cloud and OpenAI.

Four Senior Appointments

Clare Cranston joins as General Manager Consulting, bringing more than 20 years of experience leading consulting, customer success and delivery teams across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Prior to V2 AI, Cranston held senior leadership roles at Cognizant, including Head of Delivery and Strategy and Industry Lead for Public Sector and Health. She has also held executive positions at Contino, Logicalis, Optus, Interactive and IBM.

At V2 AI, Cranston will lead the consulting practice, focusing on scaling delivery, strengthening the company’s squad-based delivery model and driving a consistent pre-sales and customer engagement approach.

“Clients increasingly need partners who can move from AI strategy to enterprise-scale delivery, and I’m excited to help grow that capability at V2 AI,” Cranston commented.

Millicent McCutcheon joins as Partner, bringing enterprise AI transformation experience gained across Amazon Web Services and Dropbox. Following more than six years at AWS, McCutcheon advised executive leaders across Australia’s largest financial institutions and insurers on cloud and AI transformation. She will strengthen V2 AI’s enterprise consulting capability across regulated industries.

“V2 AI combines deep technical capability with practical execution, helping organisations adopt AI responsibly and at scale,” McCutcheon noted.

Data And Engineering Leadership

Gulnnar Grover joins as Director, Data and AI, bringing more than a decade of experience leading business, data and AI transformation across consulting, product, engineering and enterprise delivery.

Grover has worked across strategy, architecture, delivery and technology teams to build measurable business outcomes from data and AI programs. At V2 AI, Grover will help clients build the data, governance and delivery foundations needed to scale AI across the enterprise.

“Successful AI starts with trusted data, strong governance and a relentless focus on business outcomes,” Grover remarked.

Dwayne Helena joins as Director of AI Engineering with more than 25 years of experience leading engineering transformation across banking, financial services and consulting.

“I joined V2 AI because it sits at the intersection of two areas I’m most passionate about: engineering transformation and enterprise AI adoption,” Helena explained.

“The future of software engineering will be AI-enabled, and enterprises need modern engineering practices to realise its full potential.”

Growth Phase

V2 AI Founder and Chief Executive Officer Craig Howe described the appointments as strengthening the firm’s ability to support clients across every stage of their AI journey.

“As we enter our next phase of growth, we’re investing in leaders who bring deep consulting, engineering, data, cloud and commercial expertise,” Howe stated. “Clare, Millicent, Gulnnar and Dwayne significantly strengthen our ability to help clients build AI capability that is secure, scalable and delivers measurable business value.”

Founded in 2023, V2 AI operates across Asia-Pacific with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur. The company works with enterprises to build AI capabilities while upskilling internal talent, with the aim of reducing future dependency on external partners.

Last Updated on July 1, 2026 by Nick Ross

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