Published: July 31, 2026 at 8:26 am
Ian Johnson has retired from the board and as CEO of Big Technologies plc amid the firm’s boardroom battle with its founder Sara Murray OBE.
The company – trading as Buddi – confirmed this morning that Johnson, who only joined the company 16 months ago, has departed as planned following a handover period with acting CEO Charles Lewinton.
Big said it is undertaking a formal process to find a permanent CEO and that it had created and issued new shares to Lewinton.
The company is currently suing Murray for hundreds of millions of pounds after accusing her of forgery and deliberate falsification of documents to push through the company’s £577m IPO in 2021. Murray was dismissed as CEO in March 2025 over the accusations, and her assets have been frozen amid the subsequent and ongoing £320m High Court battle.
She continues to hold 25% of the voting rights in the firm and last month was successful in removing Camilla Macun as a non-executive director at its AGM. She and her supporters however failed to remove three other directors.