Nearly 19% of the UK tech sector consists of women. Undoubtedly, the tech industry has a significant gender gap. However, the UK tech hubs are trying hard to bring a real change and increase the role of women in tech. London is leading the way in bringing about a balance in gender diversity.
While mostly women are less paid as compared to men in the same positions and they are seen less in the leadership positions of tech companies, looks like in 2020, the change is coming and its quite evident. This year, many women have been roped in to play power positions. In November itself, there has been a number of noticeable hires across popular tech companies/startups in the UK and UKTN takes a closer look at it.
Natalie Malevsky joined as new Chief Growth Officer at HyperJar
Founder/s: Mat Megens
Founded year: 2016
Funding: NA
London-based smart spending app HyperJar appointed Natalie Malevsky as their new Chief Growth Officer. She will be responsible for the growth of the fintech company in the UK through consumer acquisition campaigns, end-to-end leadership of brand development and PR and app engagement. With two decades of experience across global media brands such as Dow Jones, BSKyB, Disney, and AOL, digital innovation at Telefonica O2 and more, Malevsky brings considerable product management and marketing expertise to HyperJar.
Natalie Malevsky said: “I’m thrilled to be joining such a high-caliber team at an important time for HyperJar and the FinTech industry. Consumers often have an uneasy relationship with debt and finances, and things have got even more complicated with the pandemic. It’s a great marketing challenge, and a timely one. I intend to use my category experience and knowledge of positive psychology to help HyperJar customers build their money “trust muscle” by planning and spending their money smarter and with greater confidence.”
HyperJar is a money management app, which lets you plan, share and spend using their clever payment card. It is a digital rendering of the dated jam jar budgeting. HyperJar lets customers commit money in advance for future spending and gives an annual growth rate on their spend with partners.
Omnio appointed Rachael Lord as Chief Product Officer
Founder/s: Frank Lambe
Founded year: 2018
Funding: £13.4M
The Banking-as-a-Service platform Omnio appointed Rachael Lord as their Chief Product Officer (CPO) as a part of its ambitious growth plans for its European operations. Rachael has over 20 years of experience of product development in the finance and banking sectors. She has served 10 years at Barclays and two years at Chief Product Officer at Vive. Rachael Lord will be handling the strategy and development of products and services of Omnio. The new CPO will be responsible to be a market leader in the highly dynamic and competitive fintech industry.
Regarding her new role Rachael Lord said, “The disruption in the banking and finance sector, that Fintechs like Omnio have driven, has meant banks need to be more flexible to meet the changing demands of commerce and consumers. The emergence of digital-only banking has forced traditional banks to change the way they operate and develop better products that better serve their business and consumer customers.”
“After meeting with Adrian and the team, it was clear to me that Omnio is driving change within the industry with their portfolio of emerging digital banking services. I’m excited to join a team that is a catalyst for positive change in financial technology, enabling everyone to have access to the banking services that they deserve.”
London-based fintech operates with the mission to find new ways to improve people’s financial lives with the use of technology. Their technology enables both companies and consumers to connect in new, seamless, and secure ways. Omnio work towards delivering innovative and reliable payment and banking services.
Panintelligence roped in ex-Skyscanner marketing head Carol Howley
Founder/s: Ken Miller, Mike Cripps, Zandra Moore
Founded year: 2014
Funding: £4.8M
Data analytics and business intelligence software developer Panintelligence has appointed Carol Howley, the former global head of B2B marketing at digital travel marketplace Skyscanner. Howley is the latest in a series of key board appointments by the company including ex-PayPal Europe and Barclaycard director Howard Bell as a chair person. She has joined Panintelligence to lead the firm’s marketing activities. Business-to-business specialist Howley began her marketing career at Best Western Hotels and joined Skyscanner.
Panintelligence’s new vice president of marketing Carol Howley said: “It’s brilliant to be back living and working in Yorkshire. Panintelligence is an inspiring business with a globally unique product at an exciting stage. I’m looking forward to helping the company maximise its growth and thrilled to have the opportunity to help build a highly successful team, which was one of the most rewarding elements of my role at Skyscanner.”
The software company Panintelligence operates with the vision to enable better decision making. Their solution displays actionable information in real-time and lets people make timely interventions. Panintelligence is a fast-growing business intelligence (BI) and analytics software developer based in Leeds, UK. Its unique ‘pi’ platform provides SaaS providers in the world.
Salesforce appointed Zahra Bahrololoumi as CEO for UK & Ireland
Founder/s: Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Halsey Minor
Founded year: 1999
Funding: £52.3M
Earlier this month, Salesforce announced that Zahra Bahrololoumi will join them as Executive Vice President and CEO, Salesforce UK and Ireland in March 2021. She will lead operations in these key growth markets. Zahra will join Salesforce from Accenture, where she leads the Accenture Technology practice for the UK and Ireland. Her particular focus will be on next-generation systems in AI, cloud computing and other platforms underpinning new applications.
“I am excited to join a company with such an incredible track record of driving positive change and success for its customers,” said Zahra Bahrololoumi. “Salesforce provides outstanding technology to help businesses digitally transform and there is a unique opportunity for Salesforce to accelerate its growth in the UK and Ireland. Salesforce is also deeply committed to the role that businesses can play in society; I can’t wait to get started and support its game-changing work.”
Salesforce, the global leader in CRM that empowers companies across industries to digitally transform and create a 360-degree view of their customers. Salesforce is used by leading companies such as DPD, Unilever, and Barclays.
Orka hires Hayley Gee as Head of Product for Orka Pay
Founder/s: Tom Pickersgill
Founded year: 2016
Funding: NA
Orka, a technology platform for hourly-paid workers, has appointed Hayley Gee as their new Head of Product. Hayley joined from MoneySuperMarket and will play a leading role in driving the growth of Orka’s recently launched salary advance scheme product, Orka Pay.
Prior to that, she served as the Senior Product Manager at the BBC and Product Owner at Booking.com. Besides Orka Pay, she will also lead the development of many new products in the pipeline and enhance the overall user experience of Broadstone, the company’s work platform.
Hayley Gee, Head of Product at Orka, commented: “I’m very excited to be joining Tom and his team at such an important time in the company’s journey and have been extremely impressed by the business and its vision so far. The products they are offering are completely unique and there is huge potential for growth, which I hope to drive forward in the coming months.”
The company provides smart tech-based solutions for shift workers contributing up to 85% of the global workforce. The company works with the mission to create a seamless, integrated, and accessible experience for shift workers so that their lives are much easier.
Crowdfunding platform Spacehive appointed new female CEO
Founder/s: Chris Gourlay
Founded year: 2011
Funding: £1.6M
Recently, Spacehive also announced the appointment of Misha Dhanak as their new CEO replacing Chris Gourlay. Dhanak is the co-founder and former CEO of The Romans, an award-winning agency. She has an experience of running award-winning and commercially successful businesses including high-profile campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands – Facebook, Samsung, and Twitter and startups like Atom Bank.
At Spacehive, Dhanak will oversee a significant period of growth and will be supported by Gizem Akyil, who has been appointed as VP of Growth.
Dhanak said, “The Spacehive mission has never been more relevant and represents a lot of things that are important right now: locally-led action, collaboration, tech-for-good and community. The opportunity to play a role in this innovative and growing company as it enables people to improve their local area is incredibly exciting and humbling.”
Spacehive is the UK’s leading place-based funding platform and one of its most innovative social businesses. It is touted to bring life to local places by improving a playground, sprucing up the park or starting a street market. It aims to provide a powerful springboard for ideas that can make communities happy and prosperous.
Moneybox hires Karen Kerrigan as its first Chief Operating Officer
UK’s saving and investing app Moneybox appoints Karen Kerrigan as its first Chief Operating Officer, effective from 30 November. Karen brings with her a wealth of managerial and legal experience from the world of financial services, spanning both in-house and private practice. In her role as COO at Moneybox, she will take on functional responsibility for the Risk, Compliance, Governance, Customer Operations and People functions, as well as the role of Company Secretary. She will also be tasked with setting up a new legal function, as part of helping to scale the business on the next stage of its growth trajectory.
Karen joins Moneybox from Seedrs, a business that makes investing in startups exciting and available to everyone. Part of the Executive Team and the Board at Seedrs, Karen was responsible for core business scalability including leading the legal, compliance, financial and people teams. A former City lawyer, over the last 7.5 years Karen has played an active role in the wider fintech community, through her positions on the Board of the UK Crowdfunding Association, as well as her involvement in UK and European lobbying efforts for appropriate regulation for a new wave of financial services. She has been recognised for her work through accolades and awards including the Innovate Finance Women in Finance and the Legal 500 GC Powerlist.
Kerrigan, incoming Moneybox COO said, “As someone who believes deeply in the power of fintech to make investing more accessible and fair for customers, I feel motivated and inspired by the Moneybox mission. The team has already helped more people than ever save and invest for their future – through an engaging customer experience, a competitive product suite and a trusted brand. I’m very much looking forward to being part of what’s set to be the most exciting chapter of Moneybox’s growth yet.”
Launched in 2016, the fintech startup has grown rapidly over the past few years to a community of 500,000 customers, over £1bn in assets and a team of 170 people.