Management Team

Hans Berggren is the CEO and co-founder of PipeChain and has been group CEO since 2008, responsible for the overall corporate strategy, positioning, business growth, finance, and development.

Hans brings over 30 years of experience in developing and marketing innovative supply chain management software solutions, leadership, private equity investment management, corporate finance, strategic business development, and financial planning.

Agneta has extensive experience working in IT and supply chain management. She began her career in the ERP world, working internationally in the USA, UK, and Germany, primarily within industries such as manufacturing and distribution.

After holding positions as Sales Manager, Business Area Manager, and Sustainability Manager, Agneta became the CEO of PipeChain Networks in 2024. Her initial focus has been on building a sustainable and efficient organisation for continued growth.

Agneta is a passionate, albeit new, powerlifter and aims to qualify for the Swedish Championships this year! Training and spending time with her three sons and good friends are significant parts of her leisure time.

Tony has been with AdvanceFirst Technologies for 14 years and was very much involved in selling the concept of EDI (Electronic data Interchange) to major retailers who were early adopters and their trading partners in the 80’s. He has also been instrumental in setting up successful EDI businesses in South Africa, Turkey and Belgium.

During that time, he has focussed on a competing Supply Chain approach to add value to businesses. His industry knowledge has included DIY, Food, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, clothing and Insurance, to name just a few. Tony gets much satisfaction from seeing the results of his sales coming to fruition for his customers and has many long-standing clients with whom he regularly keeps in touch.

On the personal front, Tony is married with two grown up children; a keen footballer in his day playing at league level in Norway…and yes, he also has a few languages under his belt!

Nick has been with AdvanceFirst Technologies for seven years and has spent most of his career working with some of the leading EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) service providers. During that time, he has designed and delivered numerous EDI and supply chain related process automation solutions for all sizes of businesses from small niche trading organisations to global enterprises across a wide range of industry sectors.

With an academic background in Computer Science & AI, Nick is passionate about identifying where EDI as a base technology employs intelligence to drive “Zero Touch” automation and works closely with AdvanceFirst customers to help them gain maximum return on their investment through the effective exploitation of EDI – by reducing costs, manual intervention and risks to increase operational efficiency. At a personal level, Nick is married with three grown up children, a keen musician and sportsman who would describe himself as a former pole vaulting, guitar playing air steward amongst his many talents.

EDI is not rocket science although by coincidence, Rob is a former rocket scientist. Rob has been with the company virtually since its inception and manages AFT’s Professional Service and Delivery Team, which includes data integration, data format translation, mapping, communications and connectivity specialists who are responsible for the delivery of client specific EDI and supply chain automation projects.

Rob has spent the majority of his career working for some of the UK’s leading EDI service vendors in senior management roles and is ultimately responsible for ensuring all customer engagements are treated and managed as under formal project management methodologies and for ensuring his team deliver solutions to client expectations.  His background in spacecraft engineering, database management and proofreading has given him a keen eye for detail which is a necessary trait for delivering EDI solutions.  As well as being a black belt in karate and former ballroom dancer, Rob likes to play football and will keep doing so for as long as his knees hold out.

Tom is a highly experienced systems architect and development professional having served over 40 years in the industry and led the development and implementation of Tradanet, the UK first and most successful retail supply chain EDI service.

Tom heads up AFT’s technical design and development team and works closely with AdvanceFirst’s clients to integrate and automate trading community messaging with internal business applications and ERP systems as well as bespoke connectivity communications interfaces to facilitate real-time data enquiries from external trading partners.

Tom is also a C# development specialist and has been instrumental in developing bespoke applications to integrate our clients’ storefronts and Amazon merchant account message exchanges seamlessly with this internal business applications. Like most of AdvanceFirst’s employees, Tom spent a significant part of his career as a technical specialist in senior management positions with (then) GE Information Services and INS (International Network Services).

Laura began her career at General Electric (GE) in 1998, working in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and has been actively involved with AFT since 2005.

Currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at AFT, Laura is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations, managing staff and resources, setting and achieving goals, and driving the overall success of the organisation.

Her role involves ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of operations, optimising budgets, and continuously evaluating performance to foster growth and profitability within the company.