The leader of Mind Gym plc is to step down due to ill health.
Octavius Black CBE will leave his role as executive chair at the behavioural science company and also step down from the board, it said.
Black co-founded MindGym in 2000 with Dr Sebastian Bailey and has led the company throughout its 26-year history, including its admission to London’s junior AIM public market in 2018.
Under his leadership MindGym has grown into an international behavioural science business that has worked with the majority of the FTSE 100 and S&P 100 and changed the way millions of professionals think, feel and behave at work.
Black remains one of the company’s largest shareholders and will remain a long-term shareholder, MindGym said.
David Nelson will chair the board on an interim basis. Christoffer Ellehuus continues as CEO.
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“When Sebastian and I started MindGym, our mission was to help people use their minds more effectively so they can get more out of life and give more to others,” said Black.
“Twenty-six years on, that mission is being carried forward by an excellent team. Reluctantly, I have had to accept medical advice to give up my role, but I do so knowing the company is in very capable hands, and they have my full support.”
Nelson said: “On behalf of the board and everyone at MindGym, I want to record our gratitude to Octavius for 26 years of extraordinary leadership, and to wish him the very best for the future.
“His conviction that behavioural science can change working life for the better built this Company and remains at the heart of it.
“The board’s focus is unchanged: supporting the CEO and the management team as they lead MindGym’s strategy to build a digitally enabled and recurring revenue business.”