Management Team
Soutron’s constant innovation, using new technologies and our exposure to the breadth of industries that we serve, provides unique insights that we can share with clients.
We bring a unique perspective to analyse needs and strategy development. This might result in harnessing new technology or simply re-organising existing practices with or without new software or systems. Soutron consultants are all seasoned veterans in the world of information management. Some of us have been there from the beginning of library automation. Some are of a younger generation who have been brought up on web and mobile technologies. Some are librarians who have been at the sharp end of managing services and running libraries. All in all, we have over 100 man-years of combined knowledge of libraries and information management within our UK consulting services division.
If a global perspective is needed our teams in the USA and Canada can be brought in to assist and develop ideas relevant to other cultures and continents. We have additional expertise in the form of known specialists in procurement of content, licencing and publishing to draw on from outside of Soutron.
We welcome engagements and challenges from all types and sizes of libraries and archives, especially where there is a need for a tailored system or custom features that require assistance in design and development.
Graham Partridge is a CILIP Member.
Tony Saadat, President and CEO
“Our goal at Soutron Global is to partner with our clients to manage the library transformation by introducing the best technology in the most cost-effective manner.”
Tony Saadat has been at the forefront of incorporating modern technology to manage library transformation for over two decades. Tony has overseen the evolution of recognized leaders in the field of library automation and technology.
Prior to founding Soutron Global, Tony served as CEO and Board Member of EOS International, a global software company. He previously held a senior executive position at SydneyPLUS International since its inception. Tony has more than 25 years of corporate experience with vendors developing products and services for the worldwide library community.
Tony is known throughout the library industry as a software executive who listens to his clients and invests in the creation of new products. He is passionate about the future of libraries and is an active participant in library automation industry forums. He is committed to providing all librarians with the tools and support they need to succeed in an increasingly demanding environment.
At each of the companies he has worked at, he devised strategies to maximize the capabilities of available technologies and improved collection and knowledge management software. He introduced SaaS service delivery models and was responsible for building a state of the art Data Center. He has served an impressive list of clients across corporate, legal, medical, government, academic and special libraries of all sizes across the globe.
Tony’s solid relationships within the library industry, combined with his commitment to pushing the boundaries of service quality, has played a key role in the growth of all the firms he has worked with.
Over the course of his library industry career, Tony has earned many awards for outstanding achievement and commitment to customer service, most recently listed in the Heritage Book of Who’s Who as a finalist in the Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ competition, and having earned the coveted U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Small Business Person of the Year.
Tony graduated with honors from University of Aston in Birmingham, England, and went on to earn a Master’s degree at the University of British Columbia, Canada and began his career designing and developing software.
Graham Partridge - VP Research & Development
Graham has worked in legal, academic, public and special libraries. His passion is to apply database technologies to make life easier for those working behind the scenes in libraries and serving users. He travels amongst clients extensively. He loves working on systems directly alongside librarians.
His extensive database knowledge and library process experience is most valuable when considering how best to improve back office processes and access to content as he has the ability to translate needs into technical system architectures that developers then create under his supervision.
Graham is also a member of CILIP.
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Kate Noerr, Board Advisor
Kate is a globally recognized thought leader in the fields of information networks, content and knowledge management, federated search and enterprise-wide data and knowledge integration.
Kate was the founder and CEO of IME Group. Based in London, IME became a global library automation leader with over 5,000 customer installations in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia & Australia. After the sale of IME to Dawson’s Group in 1996, Kate spent some time as a consultant before co-founding MuseGlobal, Inc., in 2001.
Kate serves as MuseGlobal’s Chairman, and as such, is responsible for long-term company strategy. An accomplished speaker and educator, Kate has taught at the University of Maryland, University of California Los Angeles, and Linkoping University in Sweden.
Graham Beastall - Founder (Retired)
Graham founded Soutron in 1989, now retired. He enjoys working with people to explore change and how to make things happen. His background is in Accountancy, Public Administration and Organisational Theory with a deep technical understanding of databases and web technologies.
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