Spacehive has today announced the appointment of a new CEO.
Marketing leader Misha Dhanak, the co-founder and former CEO of award-winning agency, The Romans, replaces Chris Gourlay, Spacehive’s founder, who is stepping down as CEO and will join the Board.
Founded in 2011, Spacehive has become a powerful springboard for ideas that make local places better – with the highest campaign success rate of any crowdfunding platform in the UK. Recent projects include the regeneration of Leyton High Street by artist Camille Walala and the transformation of parking spaces in Liverpool into galleries, gardens and playgrounds. The platform matches local community crowdfunding with support from companies, foundations and councils – including Liverpool City Council, the Mayor of London, and the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
Dhanak has a wealth of experience of running commercially successful and award-winning businesses, which includes developing high profile campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands, from Facebook, Twitter and Samsung to innovative start-ups such as Atom Bank.
She will oversee a significant period of growth in the business and is supported by the appointment of Gizem Akyil as VP of Growth to drive development of the technology platform. Akyil was the former Head of Expansion at Deliveroo, where as the 7th person into the team, she developed and implemented the operational and commercial growth strategies that helped the company to rapidly expand across the UK and internationally.
Chris Gourlay, founder of Spacehive said, “These appointments are an exciting step at a pivotal moment in our growth and will enable Spacehive to deliver an impact we are all very proud of.
“It’s been such an exciting journey and I’m very proud of what our brilliant, close-knit team has achieved and so grateful to the hundreds of creators, partners and investors that have helped to bring Spacehive to life.
“There is so much more to come and I’m thrilled that Misha will be leading the next stage of our adventure. She is a brilliant, tenacious and creative business leader and I know she is going to do a fantastic job and get everyone very excited about what we can achieve in the years ahead.
“I’m looking forward to working with her and Gizem and continuing to support Spacehive’s success from a wider orbit.”
Dhanak said, “The Spacehive mission has never been more relevant and represents a lot of things that are important right now: locally-led action, collaboration, tech-for-good and community.
“The opportunity to play a role in this innovative and growing company as it enables people to improve their local area is incredibly exciting and humbling.”