Northcoders, the Manchester and Leeds based technology solutions and education group, has cemented its strengthened leadership team by formally appointing a number of new members to its board of directors.
Charlotte Prior and Amy Wild join existing executives Chris Hill, Amul Batra and Sandy Lindsay to complete the strategic appointments of the last six months, as demand for Northcoders’ coding and software development training continues to drive the group’s accelerated growth. Nick Parker has also agreed to join the board later in the year.
Having joined Northcoders in August 2018, Charlotte Prior, chief financial officer, was formally appointed to the board on 6th May 2021. Charlotte has significant experience in finance roles ranging from the construction industry to a registered charity, and as leader of Northcoders’ financial operations fulfils a central role in the board’s discussions, plans and strategy.
Amy Wild has over 17 years’ of corporate leadership experience. She joined Northcoders as chief commercial officer in June 2020 to lead the development and execution of all commercial strategies and manage the group’s sales, partnerships and marketing teams, and officially joined her fellow directors on the board in May 2021.
Alongside these appointments, non-executive director Sandy Lindsay will be appointed as the group’s non-executive chair in July 2021. Awarded an MBE in 2015 for services to business and young people, Sandy is the founder and chair of one of the UK’s leading communications agencies, Tangerine, as well as having established an award-winning apprentices’ academy, The Juice Academy, to address the digital skills gap in the North West. She chairs skills groups for the Institute of Directors and the North West Business Leadership Team, is on the Business Leadership Council for Teach First and Vice Chair for Forever Manchester.
Nick Parker, an experienced corporate funding expert, will be joining the Group in July 2021 as a non-executive director. Nick oversaw Wandisco’s IPO and was CFO of Dyson Group plc and Volex PLC, as well as being the CEO of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club PLC.
The expansion of the Northcoders’ board furthers the strength and breadth of the group’s leadership expertise and provides significant support and complementary skillsets to the board’s existing members, including founder and CEO Chris Hill and COO Amul Batra.
The new board, alongside the internal operational board also formed within the last six months, provides a formalised structure and enhanced working practices at director level as the group continues to deliver on its growth strategy and to address the significant digital skills gap in the UK.
Commenting on the appointments, CEO of Northcoders Chris Hill said: “We are in the middle of a period of transformational growth at Northcoders, and I am delighted that we have attracted such an experienced board to help guide us at this exciting moment in time. Moving away from the pandemic, the demand for digital training has never been stronger in the UK. The government has clearly signalled its support for improving access to all forms of education, especially through apprenticeships like ours, and the rapid increase in our corporate hiring partners is evidence that private sector investment in our industry is increasing.
“As we assess the next steps to accelerate further expansion, I look forward to working with our new Board and all of the team at Northcoders who have shown faultless dedication to our journey so far.”
Since its inaugural course in 2015, Northcoders has helped over 750 people switch careers into tech, with average starting salaries of around £25,500. Whilst 95% of Northcoders secure a software engineering role after graduation. Northcoders’ main campus is at Manchester Technology Centre and it has a base at Platform in Leeds.
Over the past three years, it has been selected as one of the country’s brightest tech stars in Creative England’s CE50 list and was named Business of the Year at the 15th Annual Chamber Business Awards. It has also launched scholarship schemes and a deferred payment programme aimed at women and gender minorities, as well as those who identify as BAME or LGBTQ+, have a disability or have had limited access to education, to help address diversity in tech. The firm also relocated its Manchester campus to a new 10,000 sq. ft space at Manchester Technology Centre on Oxford Road in early 2020.
