Onecom co-founder Aaron Brown takes on CEO role as Darren Ridge moves to non-exec position.

Onecom has appointed co-founder Aaron Brown as Group Chief Executive Officer, to take over from Darren Ridge, who becomes a non-executive director.

Brown (main pic) co-founded Onecom with Ridge in 2013 following the merger of Premier Telecom and Business Phones Direct.

Brown returned to the business as Chief Operating Officer last June, he has led day-to-day operations.

Onecom has more than 65,000 businesses customers and employs over 900 people across 16 locations, It has completed 14 s acquisitions in the past five years, including Olive Communications, Excalibur Communications, IMS, Daly Systems, Gradwell Communications and Matrix IT. Annual revenues are approximately £220 million.

Brown will lead consolidation of business communications and IT services. Part of this next phase is the launch of Halo, Onecom’s new Agentic AI platform which will enable businesses to use AI to handle voice, messaging and operational workflows.

Ridge said: “Aaron has been instrumental in driving the business over the past year in his role as COO. This appointment reflects the impact he is already having. With Halo launching and the business firmly back on the front foot, this is the right moment for him to lead Onecom. I will continue to support Aaron and the executive team.”

Brown added: “Halo allows us to go beyond traditional communications and IT services, enabling our customers to deploy AI-powered digital workforce.. This creates a powerful new growth engine for Onecom”.