{"id":256427,"date":"2026-01-21T16:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256427\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:40:12","slug":"iconic-ipswich-willis-building-to-become-tech-firm-halos-hq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256427\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Iconic’ Ipswich Willis building to become tech firm Halo’s HQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connor Bennett,in Ipswichand<\/p>\n

Katy Prickett<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Woodger\/BBC<\/p>\n

The Willis insurance firm building remains revolutionary according to its designer Norman Foster<\/p>\n

A technology company that sponsors Ipswich Town FC is to take over one of the most “revolutionary” office buildings in Suffolk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stowmarket-based Halo is to move its global HQ to the Willis Building in Ipswich, which has been occupied by the insurance firm since opening in 1975. <\/p>\n

The Grade I listed glass building was designed by Lord Norman Foster, the renowned architect whose later designs include The Gherkin in London and the main terminal at Stansted Airport. <\/p>\n

Halo founder Paul Hamilton said the move would help the firm achieve its aim to employ 800 graduates by 2030, “creating something very special in Suffolk”. Willis – now called WTW – will retain a smaller presence in the building. <\/p>\n

\"JamieJamie Niblock\/BBC<\/p>\n

Founder Paul Hamilton hopes to be “employing 800 graduates in the next four or five years in this region”<\/p>\n

“I think there is a whole ecosystem around Halo [and] as we do position ourselves as Europe’s number one agentic AI software platform… other technology companies will also gravitate towards Suffolk,” he added. <\/p>\n

Agentic AI is an artificial intelligence system that can accomplish a specific goal with limited supervision.<\/p>\n

Hamilton said: “In terms of being able to provide one of the most progressive employment opportunities in the world for the young people in Suffolk, it’s such a privilege.<\/p>\n

“We deliberately, intentionally, stay out of Silicon Valley, Miami, New York, London, Singapore – all these places where we are told by conventional business people we should have offices.”<\/p>\n

\"MattMatt Marvel\/BBC<\/p>\n

Its yellow and green interior is part of the building’s Grade I listing and Hamilton reckons it creates a very special working environment<\/p>\n

Hamilton founded Halo in his mother-in-law’s spare room<\/a> and currently employs about 200 people in two Stowmarket offices.<\/p>\n

It was initially Ipswich Town’s shirt sleeve sponsor from 2023, but now has its logo on front and centre on the home kit.<\/p>\n

“Ipswich is the natural choice. Half our team live in Ipswich, within a 10-minute walk of our new location,” he said, explaining the move, which will begin this spring. <\/p>\n

It will continue to have an office in Stowmarket – keeping the one with a slide, bar and pool table.<\/p>\n

“Why the Willis Building? It’s iconic – we had a look around many buildings, and there was just something different and we thought we could see ourselves here for the rest of our years.<\/p>\n

The Willis Building celebrated its half century in 2025<\/a>, and Hamilton said he could “see that this will be Halo’s home for the next 50 years”.<\/p>\n

The all-glass exterior building in Ipswich was opened with a roof garden and an indoor swimming pool, which is still there but is not in use.<\/p>\n

It was described by another world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid as “a timeless classic – a vision of what is possible”.<\/p>\n

The BBC understands WTW will retain a smaller presence in the building. <\/p>\n

“We look forward to working closely with everyone at WTW to champion the progression of the town and county,” Hamilton added. <\/p>\n

\"JamieJamie Niblock\/BBC<\/p>\n

For graduates like Bethan Manning, Halo has offered her the sort of tech career she thought she could only achieve by moving to big, expensive cities<\/p>\n

Hamilton said the average age of a Halo employee was 24.2 and many of its graduate trainees are Suffolk born and bred. <\/p>\n

Bethan Manning, 24, from Mildenhall, joined a couple of months ago.<\/p>\n

“I fully expected that to land a graduate role like this, I’d be moving to London or another big city,” she said.<\/p>\n

As well as saving her the expense of big city rents and travel costs, she said she could benefit from living at home after years of independent living at university.<\/p>\n

“We won’t have to move away from friends and family – you can have it all on your doorstep, which is great,” she said. <\/p>\n

\"JamieJamie Niblock\/BBC<\/p>\n

Dan Sheridan is looking forward to the company’s move to the Willis building – and its proximity to Ipswich Town’s Portman Road stadium<\/p>\n

Dan Sheridan was born in Ipswich and the 21-year-old recently graduated from the University of Nottingham. <\/p>\n

“It’s my first experience of a proper workplace; the culture is great; you walk in and it’s just full of grads – and my boss is 25,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You really feel like you’re getting invested in and the fact that I don’t have to move away, I can stay local.<\/p>\n

“I’m really proud of the move [to the new building] – it’s going to be great being near the football ground as well; it’s a big statement and it commits our long-term future to Ipswich.”<\/p>\n

\"JamieJamie Niblock\/BBC<\/p>\n

Alice Davis hopes Halo’s big move will stop the brain drain and give opportunity to Suffolk students and graduates in their hometown<\/p>\n

Alice Davis, 23, worked at Ipswich Hospital before hearing about Halo through the Ipswich Town shirts and applying for a job. <\/p>\n

The economics graduate said: “I love Suffolk and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else – I love that we’ve got beautiful estuaries here, and I love the countryside. <\/p>\n

“What’s really exciting is that the tech hub is expanding beyond Cambridge.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The building has provided a backdrop to various charity sculpture trails, including the Elmer one in 2019<\/p>\n

Jack Abbott, Labour MP for Ipswich, said the move was “massive” for the town.<\/p>\n

“The City of Culture bid isn’t just about putting on a few more gigs and productions and events in 2029,” he said.<\/p>\n

“As fantastic as that would be, it is also about our economic rejuvenation. <\/p>\n

“Bringing more people into town will mean increased footfall, more money to spend in our local shops, restaurants, bars and pubs – so this is a real statement of intent.”<\/p>\n

A WTW spokesperson statement said it would be a “sale-and-leaseback” deal. <\/p>\n

“The intention is to bring our Ipswich office in line with WTW’s wider global real estate portfolio in which WTW is the tenant rather than owner of its office locations. <\/p>\n

“WTW’s Ipswich-based colleagues will still remain located in the Ipswich office following the sale.”<\/p>\n

LISTEN: The Willis Building: A lifelong passion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Bennett,in Ipswichand Katy Prickett Andrew Woodger\/BBC The Willis insurance firm building remains revolutionary according to its designer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-256427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}