I couldn’t be more delighted to share the news that Marisa Knowles has been appointed as the new CEO of People Untapped, with effect from 1st August 2024.
This appointment is a wonderful example of true, long-term succession planning. When I founded People Untapped 13 years ago, I always envisaged doing this alongside others, and Marisa has been part of that journey since the start (even when she didn’t know she’d always been part of my plan!).
Without her commitment to the sustainable future of the organisation and the work that we do with clients, we would not have been able to transition to becoming Employee Owned in 2022.
Marisa brings over 25 years of diverse experience within leadership, HR and people development working across the spectrum of start-ups to large corporate organisations. She has a brilliant strategic mind and brings tons of passion for people to this role, and I couldn’t think of anyone better to be my successor. She has been instrumental in our growth to date, and like me, she’s fanatical about delivering behavioural learning that really sticks!
I am absolutely thrilled that Marisa will be leading our business and shaping its future growth story and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead.
As part of this move, we have elevated our leadership team so that others have new roles too. Please join me in also congratulating the following:-
- Gillian Kenward is appointed Chief Client Officer – she’ll lead our exceptional focus on client partnership and many of our major programmes
- Bina Tailor is appointed Client & Operations Director – combining her skills in client learning design and delivery with leadership of our operational functions that serve our clients with unfaltering brilliance
- Katrin Homer is appointed Client & Commercial Director – partnering with clients to design and deliver leadership and team development initiatives and driving our business growth
And as for me…I will be stepping into a non-executive director position part-time to support People Untapped and our leaders in this next chapter of the journey. For the rest of my time, for now, I have a very long personal ‘to-do’ list and I’ve got some local community-related projects noodling in my brain.
To the clients I have worked with personally over the past 13 years, thank you for your trust in our partnership, I’m sure I’ve learnt as much from our work together as I hope you and your people have.
Please join me in celebrating this milestone in the evolution of People Untapped and in congratulating Marisa and the rest of the team on their appointments.
Helen.