John Devlin

John Devlin is the CEO and Founder of Ascensos, a Scottish head-quartered global leader in customer management and business process outsourcing services.

He is a veteran of the customer services & outsourcing industry having held several senior and executive positions over a 25 year career.

Across this career John has partnered with leading global brands such as John Lewis, Selfridges, KFC, Shark Ninja, Aldi, Peloton and Polo Ralph Lauren.

He formed Ascensos in Motherwell, Scotland in 2013 and has scaled his business into a global leader now employing over 3,000 colleagues and with operations in Scotland, England, Romania, Turkey, Trinidad and South Africa.

In 2024 John overseen the successful sale of Ascensos to Firstsource Solutions Limited, a group company of the substantial RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group.

Prior to Ascensos he was Chief Operating Officer at beCogent Ltd from 2002 and, post-acquisition by Teleperformance in 2010, was Managing Director across their UK business.

In 2021 John was recognised as Scotland Winner at the coveted EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

As well as being a fanatic about world-class customer experience, John is equally fanatical about football and previously served as a Director and Chairman of Albion Rovers Football Club.

Originally from Lanarkshire, John now lives in Edinburgh with his family but you can as often find him in his adopted home in Cape Town.