Early this year we announced the retirement of our director, Nick Lewis, and the April departure of our board member Jessica Venning Bryan with the arrival of her baby.
After running a three month process to find a new director, we’re excited to announce the appointment of a new member of the PledgeMe board, Rachel Hopkins!
Rachel has spent over 25 years in marketing, branding and customer experience, including working in both the Australian market and Māori / Pasifika engagement. From 1995-1999 Rachel started, grew, and sold a professional services business in Australia.
Recently appointed as the Chief Executive of Diversity Works NZ, Rachel has been part of the Senior Leadership Team of Competenz since early 2013. She held roles as Marketing Director for The Icehouse and Minter Ellison Rudd Watts and as Marketing Manager for The University of Auckland Business School. She spent seven years as a director of Ocean (a branding agency) and, as part of the Future Directors programme, sat on the board of NZX-listed AWF Madison Group for 18 months. In 2016, she was named the Institute of Directors Emerging Director of the Year (Auckland Branch) and has completed the Chartered Director qualification.
She came to us via a recommendation from one of our shareholders (and friends), and started adding value from the first skype chat. (For those that haven’t read Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, you should).
One of her life goals is to “use [her] skills to help women grow businesses and ‘get s*** done’ for the economy and healthier communities” and she believes deeply in the idea of empowering communities. This resonated with me as a founder and also with our company values.
Our plans for growth involve a healthy mix of deepening our roots in New Zealand, supporting indigenous founders, and launching in Australia, and we know that Rachel will add insight and experience to all of those areas.
Thank you, Rachel, for joining us on this next phase of PledgeMe’s journey!
