Australian artificial intelligence data company Appen Ltd., which has its U.S. headquarters in Kirkland, has named Saty Bahadur as its new chief technology officer.
Bahadur, who was announced as CTO on Monday, has held management roles at multiple big-name tech companies prior to joining Appen. The company said he brings more than 25 years of experience to the role.
“Artificial intelligence is rapidly transitioning from addressing niche challenges to solving mainstream industry sector and ecosystem problems. Appen stands at the vanguard of AI enablement," Bahadur said in a news release.
Bahadur, who is based in Seattle, is joining Appen from the freelancer marketplace Upwork, where he was also chief technology officer. Bahadur spent more than a year at Upwork, according to his LinkedIn page. He spent more than four years as a general manager at Amazon, where he was involved in developing artificial intelligence for Alexa. Earlier in his career he worked at Microsoft and Intel.
Appen, founded in 1996, helps clients improve their artificial intelligence by collecting and annotating data, and it evaluates artificial intelligence and machine learning models. The company's clients include Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Appen generated $388.5 million in revenue in 2022, down 13.1% year over year.
"Saty's addition to our team will enable us to further enhance our Appen platform, deliver even better experiences for our crowd, and delight our clients," CEO Armughan Ahmad said in a release.
Ahmad took over as Appen's CEO in January and told the Business Journal at the time the company had nearly 2,000 employees. He added that Appen was looking to grow its presence in the Seattle area.
Bahadur is replacing Wilson Pang. Pang held the role for more than four years, according to his LinkedIn page, and he has since become the chief technology officer at Mercury Insurance, which is based near Los Angeles.
