Katy Leeson, MD of one of the world’s fastest growing digital media agencies, Social Chain, has become the latest Board appointment of Your FLOCK as the company enters its most intensive round of product development and growth so far.
Based in Manchester, Your FLOCK is the world’s first values-based engagement platform that enables companies to understand their employees’ individual values, how they align with company values and culture, and how to maintain that over time, so that companies can hire, keep and develop the best talent for business success.
Katy is the latest addition to the Your FLOCK Board that has recently added an impressive array of leading specialists, including Tom Auld in machine learning/AI, David Levine, tech start up and entrepreneurial growth, and Jess Jackson, who has supported myriad tech start-ups via her senior advisor role at The Growth Company, which was a key investor in the latest round. They join original Board members, Sandy Lindsay MBE, a serial entrepreneur and NED and Laura McGowan, a top HR specialist.
Katy has been MD of Social Chain for five years and has overseen one of the largest growth periods in the company’s history. She has been trialling Your FLOCK with some of her teams, which is what led her to her wider involvement on the Board:
“Using Your FLOCK, and hiring the right people, we have learnt more and more about our company culture and the needs of our team. Not about the marketing values but the real values of the people and our business,’’ she commented.
‘’This learning is the real deal of the company culture and is key for the employee experience at Social Chain, be that working from home or in the office. It’s all about the skills you can give your people as an employer. Not just skills for the job but skills for life, as happy people will create the best work for clients.’’
As Your FLOCK closes its latest investment round and emerges out of its tech start-up stage, Katy’s appointment is perfectly timed as the last piece of an extensive round of Board appointments which will ensure the company has the best chance of fulfilling its ambition to be the leading global SAAS product in the employee engagement space.
Your FLOCK has been working with a number of enterprises to pilot and trial the product and currently has a waiting list of more than 100 businesses wishing to take part in the next round of product development.
Founding Board member, Sandy Lindsay MBE, commented: ‘’The founding partners, Dan Sodergren and Michal Wisniewski, have carefully and very impressively crafted a Board which literally spans the full gamut of knowledge and expertise we now need as we move into the next exciting phase of development and growth. I’ve learned so much already from all of the longer standing exec and new Board members and Katy’s appointment is another ‘win’ for the business, especially as she has been hands on trialling the product in one of our leading target sectors: ‘fast growing enterprises’, so can give us some real insight.’’
Katy joins the already very diverse Board from mid-September. Unlike many tech start-ups, Your FLOCK’s Board comprises more than 60% women: “Working with Your FLOCK is going to be really interesting,’’ Katy concluded. ‘’Not just from a tech point of view, but from a people perspective. They are unlike many other data and people analytics start-ups. They don’t just talk about culture, values and diversity, they live it.”