The Social Value Exchange, the online marketplace that maximises social and environmental value in supply chains has announced the appointment of Simon Holden, Chief for Business Unit Success at digital transformation company AND Digital, as a new non-executive director.
The Social Value Exchange has seen enormous growth over the past 18 months, driven by a changing legislative environment that has seen social value become a mandatory part of public procurement. The team is growing in response to the demand for our tech, and Simon’s appointment will support the leadership team as the business begins to scale.
Simon has played a big part in the growth and scaling of AND Digital over the last five years. As one of the first hires at the digital transformation company on a mission to close the world’s digital skills gap, Simon brings robust business and account development experience, and proven ability to scale and empower teams to the Social Value Exchange. His current role as Chief for Business Unit Success at AND Digital is focused on supporting the company’s various units and cloud and consulting at scale.
Founded in 2014, AND Digital has over 1,500 employees – all helping businesses accelerate their digital capabilities. It is the go-to partner for global organisations including British Airways, Diageo, and The Telegraph Group. By empowering organisations to build digital products, and grow internal capabilities, its focus is unlike traditional digital transformation consultancies. AND Digital places importance on helping drive innovation and setting customers up for long-term success by helping people within businesses develop world-class digital skills and capabilities.
Simon joined AND Digital to set up and build AND’s second Club, Club Dekker in London. A Club is the core building block of AND, and is where it builds the digital products for its clients and looks after its people.
Each club is a distinct business unit of around 90 people with its own clients and unique culture. After four years, Simon moved on to leading AND’s most significant client accounts, and now supports the establishment and ongoing success of all of AND’s Clubs and wider Business Units.
Simon started his career in the British Army, completing five years with the Royal Artillery, leaving as a Captain. He then joined PA Consulting’s Government practice, working on technology programmes and projects with the Ministry of Justice, Olympic Security Directorate and Department for Education. Simon then joined Qedis (now North Highland), a boutique technology management consultancy, and worked across retail, public and legal sectors.
Commenting on the changes, the Social Value Exchange founder Dan Ebanks, said: “I’m really pleased to have Simon on the team as we embark on a new phase of growth this summer. He’s played a big part in the incredible growth of AND Digital: the Social Value Exchange team will benefit from his invaluable mix of skills and experience of working in the technology sector and digital transformation.”
Simon Holden said:
“I am thrilled to now formally be part of the Social Value Exchange, which aims to have a meaningful and significant impact in local communities. I am impressed by Dan’s vision, drive and desire to build a scalable business whose growth tracks with the positive impact it has on society and the environment. It’s an exciting opportunity to again be involved in building another great business: I’m looking forward to helping Dan create a culture and structure where his teams can do their very best.”
The Social Value Exchange maximises social value from customers’ supply chains and gets that value directly into local communities. It is the social value partner for large public and private sector organisations. The company applies sharing economy principles to its product development, using market design to ensure efficient allocation of resources to communities at the most efficient price. The Social Value Exchange is backed by Bethnal Green Ventures – Europe’s top ‘tech for good’ VC, the Community Impact Partnership and Nesta – the UK’s Innovation Foundation’.
For more information, visit www.socialvalueexchange.org