Blackbird plc has appointed Anne de Kerckhove as senior non-executive director and chair of its audit committee, effective from today.
The listed cloud video editing platform, which featured on our MediaTech 50 ranking last year, said current NED John Honeycutt has stepped down.
De Kerckhove is an experienced international executive with a wealth of relevant experience in technology, B2B and B2C SaaS, media and entertainment, eCommerce marketplaces and digital transformation, and in helping businesses scale.
She also has extensive non-executive director experience of publicly quoted and private companies, including 888 Holdings plc, 7Digital Group, Metail and chair of the board at AIM-quoted Eagle Eye Solutions Group plc.
After working as a banker in Canada and then a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in London, De Kerckhove focused her career on technology and innovation. Until January 2023, Anne de Kerckhove was the CEO of Freespee, a company in the customer experience orchestration space.
Before that, she held several managing director roles in fast growing companies such as Videology, an online advertising technology platform and Inspired Gaming Group.
An angel investor, mentor and limited partner in over 20 early-stage startups and entrepreneurial funds including CRE, Daphni, Andela, Flutterwave and Carlili, she is actively involved in promoting women, both on boards and within the technology industry, and is a speaker at business conferences and events.
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“To have someone of Anne’s leadership and strategic calibre join us as a senior independent non-executive director at this time will help myself, the board and the executive team enormously,” said Blackbird CEO Ian McDonough.
“Her wealth of knowledge and successful experiences in B2C and B2B SaaS businesses will be of immense value as we launch our new direct to creator platform, elevate.io, as well as operating our award-winning professional platform, Blackbird.”
De Kerckhove added: “I am delighted to join the Blackbird plc board. The company has an impressive track record of video creation and editing with some of the biggest brands in media and entertainment and at many of the world’s most important sporting events.
“Now, the launch of elevate.io, aimed at the creator economy, brings a significant and exciting new growth market to the business.”