Ramki Sankaranarayanan Receives EGA's Hermes Lifetime Achievement Award for Pioneering Innovation in Global Content Operations

LOS ANGELES, April 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Entertainment Globalization Association (EGA) has honored Ramki Sankaranarayanan, Founder and Global CEO of Prime Focus Technologies (PFT), with the 2025 Hermes Lifetime Achievement Award. The accolade recognizes Ramki's visionary leadership and transformative impact on entertainment localization and media technology worldwide.

Presented at the prestigious Hermes Awards for Entertainment Localization Excellence, the honor celebrates Ramki's role in reimagining global media supply chains—seamlessly blending AI innovation with human creativity to enable scalable, culturally authentic storytelling across geographies.

A trailblazer in media tech for over two decades, Ramki spearheaded the launch of the industry's first Media ERP, laying the foundation for cloud-based Supply Chain that subsequently was articulated within the MovieLabs 2030 Vision. Under his leadership, PFT has continuously pushed the boundaries of localization—leveraging AI-assisted subtitling, dubbing, and metadata solutions through its CLEAR® and CLEAR® AI platforms. Early innovations such as automated subtitle retiming and hybrid AI pipelines have redefined scale and speed in global content delivery.

PFT's localization capabilities span an impressive 150 unique languages globally, including 92 European, 24 African, 18 from the Indian subcontinent, 10 East Asian, and 6 Central Asian languages, showcasing unparalleled depth and reach. Today, PFT supports over 2 million subtitled minutes and 1 million dubbed minutes annually for leading platforms including Star TV, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Warner Bros. Discovery, Crunchyroll, etc.

With 13+ patents and seven NAB Product of the Year Awards, including a 2023 win for AI-led localization, CLEAR® AI exemplifies contemporary Agentic AI, defined by its autonomous Localization Agents capable of independent decision-making, real-time collaboration, and continuous improvement. CLEAR® AI leverages Multi-Agent Collaboration, orchestrating agents specialized in several tasks across content lifecycle. This market-defining approach dramatically improves accuracy, accelerates time-to-market, and reduces manual intervention, reflecting a strategic shift towards intelligent, collaborative AI in localization.

PFT's latest breakthrough, CLEAR® AI Content Studio, further exemplifies this momentum by turning dormant archives into dynamic, revenue-generating content libraries.

"This award is deeply meaningful," said Ramki. "It honors not just my journey, but the passion and relentless innovation of our PFT team & the pivotal role clients have played in embracing the innovation—and the vibrant localization community driving global storytelling forward."

EGA's recognition underscores the rising strategic importance of AI-led, human-enhanced localization—and the visionaries who are shaping its future.

About the Entertainment Globalization Association (EGA)
The EGA is the leading professional body for executives driving content globalization. Its Hermes Awards celebrate excellence in localization and the innovators behind cross-cultural storytelling.

About Prime Focus Technologies (PFT)
Prime Focus Technologies (PFT) is the creator of CLEAR®. It offers streaming platforms, studios, and broadcasters AI technology and media services powered by the cloud that help them enable creativity, efficiency, and, most importantly, revenue generation. PFT works with major companies like Channel 4, ITV, Sinclair Broadcast Group, A&E Networks, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, Crunchyroll, Insight TV, JioStar, BCCI, Tegna, Amazon MGM Studios, and more.

For more information, visit: www.primefocustechnologies.com.

Press Contact
T Shobhana
Senior Vice President and Global Head of Marketing
Prime Focus Technologies
Los Angeles, CA
t.shobhana@primefocus.com

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

Ramki Sankaranarayanan Receives EGA's Hermes Lifetime Achievement Award for Pioneering Innovation in Global Content Operations

Martin Sjolund appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, effective June 17, 2025

Vikram Atal to serve as senior advisor through December 31, 2025

NORFOLK, Va., April 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- PRA Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: PRAA), a global leader in acquiring and collecting nonperforming loans, today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed President of PRA Group Europe Martin Sjolund to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective June 17, 2025. Sjolund succeeds current President and CEO Vikram Atal, who announced that he will retire and serve as a senior advisor through December 31, 2025. Sjolund will be appointed to the Board upon assuming the role of President and CEO, and Atal will retire from the Board at that time.

"On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Vik for his leadership of PRA Group during a pivotal time," said Executive Chair of the Board Steve Fredrickson. "Today's announcement is the culmination of the Board's ongoing succession planning process and commitment to enabling long-term, profitable growth."

"It has been a privilege to lead PRA Group through this transformative time in the company's history," said Atal. "Since March 2023, I have worked closely with Martin, and I am highly confident in his ability to further strengthen our global leadership position. His strong track record in our European business, extensive industry knowledge, thoughtful leadership and commitment to our culture and customers will build on our strengths and create meaningful value for our shareholders in the years to come."

"I am honored to have the opportunity to lead PRA Group as we enter our next phase of growth," said Sjolund. "As a team, we have already achieved record global portfolio purchases and double-digit cash growth, expanded our leadership team, improved operational processes and strengthened our capital structure. These actions have positioned us to continue driving the company forward while delivering value to our shareholders."

About Martin Sjolund
Sjolund has served as President of PRA Group Europe since 2018, providing leadership across 15 markets in Europe, Canada and Australia. During his tenure, Sjolund oversaw nearly $3 billion of successful portfolio investments across Europe, all while significantly improving the profitability of the European business. He led our expansion into two new markets, modernized the IT infrastructure and contact platforms, enhanced the data and analytics function and ultimately created one of Europe's most cost-efficient debt buying platforms.

Before being promoted to his current role, Sjolund served as Chief Operating Officer of Europe from 2015 until 2018. He was previously Director of Group Strategy and Corporate Development (Europe), a position he also held at Aktiv Kapital from 2011 until PRA Group acquired Aktiv Kapital in 2014.

Prior to joining Aktiv Kapital, Sjolund held leadership positions in global technology companies and was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Singapore and London. Sjolund holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and is a graduate of Georgetown University.

About PRA Group
As a global leader in acquiring and collecting nonperforming loans, PRA Group, Inc. returns capital to banks and other creditors to help expand financial services for consumers in the Americas, Europe and Australia. With thousands of employees worldwide, PRA Group companies collaborate with customers to help them resolve their debt. For more information, please visit www.pragroup.com.

News Media Contact:
Elizabeth Kersey
Senior Vice President, Communications and Public Policy
(757) 641-0558
Elizabeth.Kersey@PRAGroup.com

Investor Contact:
Najim Mostamand, CFA
Vice President, Investor Relations
(757) 431-7913
IR@PRAGroup.com

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

PRA Group Announces Leadership Succession Plan