Glen Manchester (born 16 June 1965), is a technology pioneer, innovator and entrepreneur. He is best known as being the founder & Chief Executive Officer of Thunderhead, a private employee-owned British technology company now owned by Medallia Inc.

Glen Manchester
Born (1965-06-16) June 16, 1965 (age 59)
London, England
OccupationTechnology entrepreneur
Years active1991-present
Known forFounder & (former) CEO of Thunderhead

Early life

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Manchester, an only child, was born in St John's Wood, London. Diagnosed as dyslexic, he was educated at Picardy Secondary Community School in Belvedere, Kent, until he was 17. Manchester then worked as a Ghillie on a Highland Estate in Scotland beginning his business career with Xerox[1]

Career

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He founded his first company, Geneva Digital, in 1991 aged 25.[2] The company created customer communication solutions for the direct banking and insurance sectors. In 1999, Geneva Digital was acquired by Xenos Group (now Open Text Corporation), a public company and leading specialist in customer communications technology, based in North America. Manchester was appointed president and CEO[3]

In 2001, Manchester founded and privately funded[4] Thunderhead to develop a new generation of enterprise technology for customer engagement[4] Sitting under the Thunderhead umbrella, the platform pioneered - and became the market leader in - Customer Communication Management (CCM). In this time, Smart Communications established itself as the industry standard for the G15 investment banks and global P&C insurance sectors, pioneered the use of cloud-based technology in the CCM marketplace and grew to become a successful global organization with operations throughout Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Australia.[citation needed]

In September 2016, Manchester sold the Smart Communications division of Thunderhead to private equity firm Accel-KKR.[5]

In 2016, Manchester then launched Thunderhead's next generation of technology, the ONE Engagement Hub.[6] Developed in the company's Boston development hub in North America, the platform pioneered AI-based Customer Journey Orchestration and Journey Analytics designed to help businesses across all industries respond to in-the-moment customer requirements at scale.

Under Manchester's leadership, Thunderhead's ONE business grew from a disruptive start-up in 2016, to one of the fastest-growing privately owned UK technology companies, featuring in both the Sunday Times Tech Track 100,[7] and the UK Deloitte Fast 50.[8]

In February 2022 Manchester sold Thunderhead.[9]

Personal life

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Manchester currently lives in the UK and is an aviation and motorsport enthusiast, backing his son (Jacks) Motorsport career. Glen sponsored the last trans-Atlantic Lancaster Bomber flight in 2014 to support the Canadian War Heritage museum. He was part of the RCAF crew on this last-ever light transatlantic crossing flight from RAF Coningsby in the UK to Hamilton, Canada.[10] He married Lithuanian model Asta Valentaitė on 8/25/2022.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Cook, Tracy (11 April 2012). "Entrepreneur Glen Manchester became a self-made millionaire in the middle of a recession". Surrey Life. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  2. ^ The Huffington Post. "Glen Manchester". huffingtonpost.co.uk.
  3. ^ "Glen Manchester". Follow The Entrepreneur.
  4. ^ a b Rogers, Bruce. "A Better Way to Manage the Customer Journey". Forbes. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  5. ^ "Thunderhead Sells Smart Communications Division to Accel-KKR" (Press release). 12 September 2016.
  6. ^ "Thunderhead Launches ONE Engagement Hub".
  7. ^ "League table - Fast Track". Archived from the original on 2020-11-27. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  8. ^ "2020 winners".
  9. ^ "Medallia to Acquire Thunderhead, Leader in Every-Channel Journey Orchestration".
  10. ^ "Thunder and Triumph > Vintage Wings of Canada". Archived from the original on 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  11. ^ "Asta Valentaitė and Glen Manchester got engaged: British businessman stabbed Lithuanian in Mallorca". TricksFast. Retrieved 2022-06-21.