Reward Gateway, the employee engagement technology specialist, has announced the appointment of ecommerce heavyweight Richard Hurd-Wood as Chief Product Officer. The company recently announced a slew of product enhancements and a repositioning from their previous focus on employee benefits to a wider employee engagement remit and this is the first of a number of expected announcements that underpin that.
Richard was most recently UK MD and European COO of Seatwave.com, the leading ticket marketplace for live events where he increased sales by 48% and launched partnerships with major brands including MTV, EMAP and Live Nation.
Prior to that he was an executive director at Camelot where he developed their entire online lottery strategy and their third successful licence bid. He has a background in law and has also held positions as Commercial Director at AOL Europe, was Director of Dell Online and was CEO of Lydeo, a Saatchi-backed digital content company.
Reward Gateway founder and CEO Glenn Elliott said “Back in September we promised our clients a whole new integrated system of tools to help employers better engage with their people through reward, benefits, communications and feedback. I’ve known Richard for nearly 3 years now and I’m absolutely delighted that he’s joining us to help deliver our vision. Its a real testament to the financial strength, global scale and ambition of the business that we’ve created that we’ve been able to attract someone of Richard’s quality. He has an enormous depth of experience to draw upon which he combines with a really hands on, approachable manner which fits our culture perfectly. We’re all really excited about working together.”
Richard Hurd-Wood said “Reward Gateway really is a unique business and I’m so excited to be joining them at this really exciting time. They’ve managed to keep a real start-up, can-do culture as they have grown and I’m looking forward to working with such a dedicated and customer-focussed team in what is already a profitable, globally scaling business. It’s great to be pioneering products which go out immediately to a 1,000 strong blue chip client base. To be able to deliver on what those clients need and expect is a really exciting challenge.”
Reward Gateway, previously known as Asperity Employee Benefits, powers the employee engagement systems of almost 1,000 clients globally. Clients as diverse as IBM, McDonald’s, American Express, KPMG, Unilever, AOL and Yahoo! all rely on the company’s technology. Dual headquartered in London and New York, Reward Gateway was the 2nd fastest growing UK tech company in 2011, the 7th fastest in Europe in 2012 and has revenues approaching $500m. The company is owned by International Benefits Holdings with Inflexion Private Equity as the ultimate majority shareholder.
Electronic Press Kit including downloadable logos, artwork, high quality photos and other resources available online at www.storyboard.me/rewardgateway