SANCTUS GROUP APPOINTS NEW CHAIR AND CEO

• Dame Sharon White appointed as Chair of newly formed Sanctus Group
• Stephen Read joins the group as CEO

Sanctus Group – which combines employee coaching, mentoring and listening to create motivated and successful workplaces – has today announced the appointment of Dame Sharon White as Chair, joining Stephen Read who took the role of CEO in November.

The appointments mark an important chapter as the group enters a new phase of accelerated growth.

Sanctus helps leadership teams drive performance and productivity by ensuring there is alignment between the goals of their employees and those of the organisation. Through Sanctus, employees can access specific, tailored advice from senior professionals, and expert coaches who challenge and help people to grow and outperform.

Sanctus is already working with more than 250 businesses globally across multiple industries; aligning people to organisational goals, whilst supporting their personal growth, is a truly universal opportunity.

Sharon has held top level roles across the public and private sectors, most recently as Chair of the John Lewis Partnership – the UK’s largest employee-owned business. Her unique perspective on the opportunities – and challenges – of how best to close the gap between what employees want from work and the needs of business, coupled with her desire to help peers tackle the same challenges, mean she’s perfectly poised to help drive the group forward.

On the appointment, Sharon said: “I am thrilled to be joining Sanctus at such an exciting time. I have seen from the Partnership and elsewhere just how much business performance is enhanced when employees feel motivated and their personal goals line up with the business’. This is what Sanctus delivers using simple, modern, digital tools.”

Stephen, who joined Sanctus as CEO in November, has held leadership roles within fast-growing HR software and services businesses, working in areas such as talent assessment, employee benefits technology, learning management and e-learning.

He adds, “I’m delighted to be joining Sanctus as Group CEO and to have the opportunity to be part of a company which provides genuinely purposeful work. I’ve personally experienced the benefit mentoring and coaching can provide, and believe there’s huge potential for Sanctus to enable organisations to navigate the macro issues that every boardroom faces today, by aligning their people.”

“I am looking forward to working with Sharon, who will play a key role in helping our clients realise the value of our unique solutions and the positive impact they have on business performance.”

For more information, visit the Sanctus Group website: Sanctus.io

ENDS

About Sanctus Group

Sanctus Group aligns employees to the goals, strategies and objectives of their employers, whilst supporting the employees to develop, grow and perform:

• Sanctus Coaching is an agile solution, offering on-demand licenses, and a range of
  coaching programmes to funnel those who self-select in order to address specific use cases and challenges
  
• Sanctus Mentoring powered by PushFar is differentiated through its speed and simplicity – mentoring matches up and running in a matter of a few weeks, requiring limited ongoing maintenance, and with a companion app that enables roaming staff to participate
  
• Sanctus Listening is always on, allowing employees to share their sentiment safely, and enabling employers to generate targeted insights into the critical themes that need addressing to ensure a productive and high-performance workforce

About Dame Sharon White

Until September 2024, Sharon served as Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, the UK’s largest employee-owned business, completing a five-year term. Prior to that, she was the Chief Executive of Ofcom, the UK’s regulator for media, telecoms, and postal services, from 2015 to 2019. Sharon began her career in the civil service, initially at the Foreign Office, then as a senior economist at the World Bank in Washington DC; she later joined the Treasury, where she became Second Permanent Secretary and helped manage the UK’s public finances from 2013 to 2015. Additionally, Sharon has extensive experience as a board member in both the for-profit (Barratt Developments) and not-for-profit (Sadler’s Wells) sectors. In January 2025, she will take on the role of Chair at Frontier Economics.

Sharon was awarded a Damehood in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours of 2020 for her work at Ofcom and was named the UK’s most influential black person in the 2023 Powerlist, which celebrates professional role models for young people of African and African Caribbean heritage. Sharon’s actively involved in various initiatives, including Britain’s economic growth, business climate, business integrity, girls’ education, technology and AI. Sharon holds a Master’s degree from University College London and a BA in Economics from Cambridge University.

Media Contacts

For more information, contact Hatch on lucieszalma@hatch.group or call 0113 361 3600 www.hatch.group