Member Article

Penrillian CEO shortlisted for award

Joanne Thompson, CEO of mobile technology developer Penrillian, has been shortlisted down to the final four for her category in the Director of the Year awards by the Institute of Directors (IoD). The awards recognise and highlight directors who show outstanding leadership in the boardroom, celebrating the “best of the best” in the regions.

Penrillian is one of the world’s longest-established mobile technology companies. Millions of people use Penrillian’s technology every day, from ticket apps to contactless payment solutions and wireless dongles developed for major clients including Mastercard, EE, TUI and Vodafone.

Joanne’s nomination for Director of the Year (small company) in her home region of the North East is in recognition of the rapid and dramatic transformation she has made in a relatively short time at Penrillian.

She joined the company in September 2015, bringing with her a track record of leading business transformation and significant growth with a number of technology companies. Since her appointment, she has been moving Penrillian from its previous commercial model, to a new model delivering white label products in the Software as a Service (SaaS) market. This move to the rapidly growing SaaS market has created significantly more room for growth and innovation.

Commenting on her nomination, Joanne explained: “Penrillian is an exceptional organisation thanks to two factors: the expertise and knowledge of our staff in a highly specialist technical field; and secondly the culture and integrity of our business. My vision for the company has been to completely revolutionise its way of working: alongside our work to client specifications, we are now leveraging the amazing creativity of our staff to develop innovative products and services of our own. These radical changes are helping Penrillian to fulfil its true potential in developing a portfolio of new product offerings and markets.“

As a CEO in the technology sector, Joanne is passionate about supporting other females in the industry as an active member of both the Women in Transport group and Women on Boards. She is also leading Penrillian on continuing its legacy of supporting both the local community and wider society, most recently campaigning to raise awareness and funds to fight the cause of homelessness, including Joanne sleeping rough for a night.

The IoD award shortlist news comes at an exciting time for Penrillian, which has launched Voyager™, the first mobile ITSO compliant smart ticketing platform for the UK public transport sector. Voyager™ was shortlisted for a global award in the transport industry within one month of its launch. Penrillian is now about to launch Portico™, a new mobile payment technology portal that will enable the “underbanked” greater control over their finances.

The winners for the North East and Yorkshire regions will be announced at the Civic Hall Leeds on 30 June 2016. Regional category winners will automatically go forward to the UK finals later in the year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lorna Kellett .