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Blackpearl Group announces US-based COO to drive aggressive growth strategy

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PHOENIX, April 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Blackpearl Group Limited (NZX:BPG) has appointed Christie Kerner as its Chief Operating Officer (COO) to support the company’s strategic go-to-market (GTM) strategy and drive its next phase of growth in the US market. With over 30 years of experience scaling companies of all sizes, leading global teams and driving operational excellence, Kerner will play a pivotal role in strengthening Blackpearl Group’s leadership team as it accelerates expansion.

“The US is our primary market and local expertise is key to our success. To do this, we need to secure world-class talent with the chops, experience and proven ability to align company operations with trajectory,” comments Nick Lissette, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Blackpearl Group.

With extensive experience in both high-growth startups and profitable, long-term businesses, Kerner brings a rare ability to balance ambition with structure. “Her leadership will be instrumental in ensuring Blackpearl Group scales effectively while preserving the ingenuity and agility that set us apart,” adds Lissette.

Leading from the US – scaling with vision

Kerner will be based in the US and will work to closely align the company’s US and NZ teams. Her focus will be on building the infrastructure needed to support long-term success. “We’re sitting on a launchpad right now – our trajectory is set and my role is to refine our strategies, remove barriers and shape the rocketship for sustainable growth,” she says.

“Scaling isn’t just about growth though – it’s about ensuring the right people are in the right seats, that priorities are aligned and that we’re disciplined in execution,” explains Kerner. “I focus on creating an environment where people thrive – because when they do, the businesses will thrive.”

A track record of leadership and impact

With a Master’s in Management and Leadership, Kerner’s career spans senior leadership roles across startups, corporates and academia where she is renowned for her ability to balance aggressive growth with sound fiscal strategy, ensuring businesses scale effectively while maintaining strong foundations.

Kerner has been instrumental in shaping the growth-stage startup ecosystem in the US, helping companies as they scale toward $200M+ in revenue. As a board member of StartupAZ and Founder of the Founders Collective, she has championed high-growth founders navigating this critical phase and has scaled international programs with Startup Grind.

Kerner has also built and exited multiple companies and served as an Entrepreneur in Residence advising founders on growth, leadership and decision-making. Previously, she led the Center for Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business (the largest public university in the US) and was Executive Director of Student Entrepreneurship across ASU.

“This experience aligns seamlessly with Blackpearl Group’s trajectory as it moves beyond $11M in ARR and into its next stage of growth,” adds Lissette.

A billion-dollar vision

“AI and emerging technologies can disrupt markets overnight,” notes Kerner, adding that “Success lies in building resilience and that’s rooted in an ability to innovate on an ongoing basis.”

Blackpearl Group leverages a portfolio approach to product development within a rapidly evolving tech landscape, reflected in the development of Bebop, the company’s AI-powered sales intelligence tool, in a single quarter. Bebop is a game-changer for SMEs, offering powerful sales intelligence at a fraction of the cost of competitors like ZoomInfo, Kaspr and Apollo. The beta launch of Bebop follows the success of Pearl Diver, Blackpearl Group’s flagship prospect identification platform. Pearl Diver is a marketing intelligence platform which offers businesses a way of off-setting their reliance on traditional pay-to-play ad platforms.

“Under Nick’s progressive leadership, we have the potential to be a billion-dollar company. Importantly, we’re not building that success around a single product – we’re creating a portfolio of solutions that balance high-risk innovation with consistent, long-term performance,” she adds.

“Christie shares a belief that’s been fundamental to our success so far: it’s time to stop playing small. This appointment brings together ambition, strategy and the discipline to execute at scale and I’m excited to see its effects,” concludes Lissette.

About Blackpearl Group (NZX: BPG)

Blackpearl Group is a market-leading data technology company that pioneers AI-driven, sales and marketing solutions for the US market. 

Specifically engineered for small-medium-sized businesses (SMEs), Blackpearl Group consistently delivers exceptional value to its customers. Our mantra is simple: ‘Creating Motivating Opportunities.’ 

Blackpearl creates the opportunities that motivate action. We create high-impact products that pivot at speed to serve what businesses really need, kick-starting action – turning data into dollars. 

Founded in 2012, Blackpearl Group is based in Wellington, New Zealand, and Phoenix, Arizona. blackpearl.com 

 

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SOURCE Blackpearl Group Limited

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Simply announces compatibility with AI glasses from Meta

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NEW YORK, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Simply, the creative hobbies leader behind the market leading apps Simply Piano, Simply Guitar, Simply Sing, and Simply Draw, today announced compatibility with AI glasses from Meta.

 

The launch signals Simply’s next leap – from mobile and augmented reality into AI glasses – as part of its long–term vision to build a fully multimodal AI platform that connects physical creativity, digital experiences, and wearable interfaces.

After pioneering music learning through augmented reality with Simply Piano for Apple Vision Pro and Simply Piano for Android XR, Simply is now expanding its creative hobbies ecosystem into AI–powered wearables. The new integration with Simply Draw and AI glasses from Meta lets learners capture their drawing process in real time, generating AI–enhanced timelapses and shareable creative assets that showcase their creation. 

“This is an exciting step toward a new era for creativity,” said Yuval Kaminka, CEO and Co–Founder of Simply. “We believe that the way we experience the arts, learning, playing and creative expression at home will become fully contextual. AI glasses allow us to move closer to a true AI creative companion – a multimodal AI, one that understands what you’re doing and supports you in the moment.”

“AI glasses are becoming a natural extension of how we learn and create,” added Eliran Douenias, Head of Product Innovation at Simply. “Our products already enable immersive and virtual experiences with XR and spatial computing, now we’re adding AI glasses from Meta as the next interface – and it’s just the first of an exciting roadmap ahead.”

“Simply’s early move into the AI glasses space puts us ahead of the curve and positions us to lead in how wearables – specifically AI glasses – become part of everyday creative life,” said Douenias.

With this launch, Simply is expanding its platform for the AI era. The new compatibility with AI glasses from Meta enhances how learners see, capture, and share their creative process, with many more experiences to follow.

About Simply

Simply is the world’s leading AI creativity platform redefining how people learn and express themselves through music, arts, crafts, and more. Its award–winning apps – Simply Piano, Simply Guitar, Simply Sing, and Simply Draw – have empowered millions globally to pick up and develop fulfilling creative hobbies that last.

Contact info: eliran@hellosimply.com

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SOURCE Simply

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Levine Leichtman Capital Partners Hires James Smith as Managing Director

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LONDON, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (“LLCP”) announced today that James Smith has joined the Firm as a Managing Director in the Investment Management group. James will be based in LLCP’s London office.

Josh Kaufman, Head of Europe at LLCP, said, “We are thrilled to welcome James to LLCP. James adds valuable experience to the team within our core Business Services sector vertical. We look forward to the impact he will have as our European business and team continues to grow.”

James joins LLCP from Advent International where he was a senior member of the European Business & Financial Services team and participated in numerous successful transactions over his 12-year tenure. Prior to Advent, James worked at Bain & Company. James’ full biography can be found at https://www.llcp.com/team

About Levine Leichtman Capital Partners

Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, LLC is a middle-market private equity firm with a 42-year track record of investing across various targeted sectors, including Business Services, Franchising & Multi-unit, Education & Training and Engineered Products & Manufacturing. LLCP utilizes a differentiated Structured Private Equity investment strategy, combining debt and equity capital investments in portfolio companies. LLCP believes that by investing in a combination of debt and equity securities, it offers management teams growth capital in a highly tailored, flexible investment structure that can be a more attractive alternative than traditional private equity.

LLCP’s global team of dedicated investment professionals is led by 9 partners who have worked at LLCP for an average of 20 years. Since inception, LLCP and its affiliates have managed approximately $18.5 billion of capital across nearly 20 investment funds and has invested in approximately 120 portfolio companies. LLCP currently manages $12.6 billion of assets and has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, London, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

Media Contact: Isabel Moon, imoon@llcp.com

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Appian Advances AI in Process to Deliver Enterprise Outcomes at Scale

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New capabilities in agentic automation and AI-assisted spec-driven development transform complex work.

ORLANDO, Fla., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Appian [Nasdaq: APPN] today announced enhancements to the Appian Platform, including AI-assisted spec-driven development and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration for agents. By anchoring AI within processes, Appian eliminates the primary hurdles to AI value: fragmented data, and a lack of reliability and control. Process models provide the structure needed to deliver results safely, and at scale.

Advancements in AI agents enable more intelligent, coordinated work

AI agents in Appian are smarter, safer and more effective because they have better structure, context and guardrails. Appian is enhancing interoperability across its AI ecosystem. By adopting powerful standards like Model Context Protocol (MCP), Appian agents will be able to interface securely with external enterprise systems. Third party AI agents will have access to powerful Appian tools like data fabric which uniquely provides unified read-write access to enterprise data.

Appian is also advancing agent learning by providing users the ability to track agent performance, and then apply an agent’s memory across processes to improve decision making. Users will soon be able to expand on this by giving AI guidance on what objectives to optimize against and recommend improvements that can be applied safely.

Customer value

Global Excel Management, a worldwide healthcare risk management provider, uses Appian to transform claims processes with AI.

“As part of our digital transformation we are evolving our claims processes by transitioning from fragmented workflows to an enhanced level of operations using technological advancements enabled with AI features,” said Pascal Tanguay, SVP, Global Technology Services, Global Excel Management. “With Appian, our processes will be unified. From initial intake to adjudication, our advanced technology will reduce redundant tasks and lessen complexity for our team members. This ensures that our claims processes are consistent and completed more efficiently and accurately.”

Context gives agents a common vocabulary for business data

To support advanced agent capabilities, Appian is augmenting its industry-leading data fabric. Appian’s data fabric has been enhanced to provide a unified metadata model that gives agents clearer context about how information is structured and connected across systems.

Furthering its commitment to supporting industry-leading data platforms, Appian is launching a technology partnership with Snowflake. This unites Appian as the AI orchestration layer with Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud, combining data aggregation, model training, and process orchestration to enable immediate business value. Direct MCP-enabled integration between Appian data fabric and Snowflake equips agents with deep enterprise context, and allows them to interact directly with Snowflake Cortex AI to drive intelligent, data-backed decisions.

“Enterprises don’t need more AI experiments, they need AI that delivers real business outcomes on governed data,” said Baris Gultekin, Vice President of AI, Snowflake. “By combining Appian’s process orchestration and data fabric with the Snowflake AI Data Cloud, we’re bringing intelligence directly into the flow of work. Together, we enable secure, enterprise-grade AI where agents can access trusted data through Cortex AI, act with context, and drive measurable impact across the business.”

AI-assisted spec-driven development

AI-assisted development has revolutionized coding, but mission-critical work needs more than fast, cheap code. Appian puts structure around AI-assisted development. Without that structure, AI-generated code can introduce compliance issues and technical debt instead of business value.

Appian is introducing AI-assisted spec-driven development. AI extracts rich specifications from legacy applications to create a clear visual plan. This plan helps visualize the UI, data models and process flows for rapid and iterative operational improvements. AI developer agents, operating under human supervision, complete tasks according to specifications, accelerating delivery and reducing rework.

New developer MCP servers will allow organizations to use their choice of AI development tools, such as Claude Code or Kiro to build and update Appian applications. Appian will support a wide range of AI models, enabling teams to work in the environments they prefer.

Together, these enhancements will deliver the speed and developer productivity of AI-assisted development, with enterprise-grade control.

“Appian Composer, Agents and Appian MCP servers enable trusted agentic process orchestration and application modernization,” said Mike Beckley, Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Appian. “Composer complements Appian’s agentic orchestration and data fabric with new spec-driven development tools that are both conversational and iterative. Beneath the covers, Appian Composer is built on Appian’s new open MCP – a model-driven representation of your complete application estate—requirements, apps, data entities, logic, workflows, security/governance rules, integrations, and multi-object dependencies—now exposed as context for developers and agents to safely evolve and optimize.”

The advancements announced today were unveiled at Appian World 2026 and will be available in coming releases. Learn more at www.appian.com

About Appian

Appian provides process automation technology. We automate complex processes in large enterprises and governments. Our platform is known for its unique reliability and scale. We’ve been automating processes for 25 years and understand enterprise operations like no one else. For more information, visit appian.com. [Nasdaq: APPN]

Follow Appian: LinkedIn, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and X.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/appian-advances-ai-in-process-to-deliver-enterprise-outcomes-at-scale-302756511.html

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