Zona de Azar Ukraine – Playtech Evacuates Staff and Overhauls Ukraine Operations 

Ukraine.- April 26th www.zonadeazar.com Playtech has helped evacuate over 450 Kiev-based employees and their families, while around 300 have stayed behind to aid the war effort.

Playtech has needed to establish an entirely new organisational structure to help those who continue to work safely in Ukraine, to accommodate the others in their new homes, and to move essential infrastructure to Estonia, where the company has a long-established presence.

Over 300 non-Ukraine employees volunteered to help out with the relief effort – contacting their colleagues in Ukraine and helping those who have fled. Around 150 employees and their families have moved to Estonia, Poland, Spain and the UK, while over 300 have moved from the capital to the relative safety of Western Ukraine. Playtech has also helped to relocate some 250 family members of those employees who have joined the war effort.

Ukrainians had their bank accounts frozen, so the company made sure that all employees and their families had access to money, plus any food, water and medical supplies that were needed.

Playtech chief executive officer Mor Weizer commented: “The impact the ongoing crisis in Ukraine is having on everyone in the region is devastating and our number one priority above anything else has been the safety of our people in Ukraine.

“As a leading technology company with many stakeholders to serve, we have a responsibility to protect our people, their livelihoods and the Playtech business as a whole. Therefore, their wishes and well-being have been at the centre of all our plans and decision making.”

The Kiev office was an important technology hub for the company and housed 714 staff before the war. While Playtech needed to ask some clients to be patient while the new organisational structure was put in place, it is now operating as normal from Estonia with most Ukrainian employees returning to work in their new locations. Weizer was keen to stress the company’s commitment to Ukraine and his intention to reopen operations in the country as soon as is practically possible.

Next to the company’s disaster recovery efforts, Playtech has also joined the humanitarian relief efforts for the people of Ukraine. Through a company called Sarel Logistics Solutions & Products for Advanced Medicine, Playtech acquired and delivered eight tonnes of essential medical supplies, from Israel directly to hospitals in Ukraine in coordination with the Ukrainian Government.

The equipment sent was based on items specifically requested by hospitals in the country. This essential equipment included first aid kits, advanced tourniquets, blood stopper trauma dressing, chest wound bandage dressing, thermal blankets and more.

The vice president of business development at the Embassy of Ukraine in Israel, Alyona Novgorodskay, said: “On behalf of the Center for Assistance to Ukraine in Israel ‘Unite for Ukraine’ and the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel, we express our gratitude to you for your significant contribution, assistance in collecting donations and organising medical humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.”

Edited by: @MaiaDigital www.zonadeazar.com