Deputy.com announces new senior appointments

Deputy, the workforce management and scheduling platform that helps businesses streamline scheduling and employee management, today announced the appointment of David Kelly as General Manager, EMEA, and Heidi Birkin as Head of Marketing, EMEA, with both based in London.

In EMEA, Deputy.com is already used by over 10,000 businesses and has seen 142% growth across Europe over the past 12 months. In 2017, Deputy received $25 million in Series A funding from OpenView, the company’s first from an institutional investor in its eight-year history.

Kelly brings a wealth of experience to the Deputy team, having worked in the human capital consulting and technology industries for the past 18 years and held senior commercial and management roles at IBM, Kenexa and Lumesse, all focussed on SaaS growth. Kelly will work closely with Deputy’s recently appointed Head of Marketing for EMEA, Heidi Birkin, as the company looks to expand its client base in Europe, particularly the UK and Ireland, and target specific sectors including the hospitality industry.

Speaking about his new role, Kelly said: “I’m excited to be joining Deputy at this moment in the company’s history. The admin and communication burden around shift coordination has always been a major headache, whether you’re a restaurant with 20 staff or a retailer with 5,000. Deputy’s SaaS and AI solutions give businesses an intuitive ‘template for growth’, supporting all aspects of shift-based workforce management, reducing costs, and increasing the visibility of how people can impact profit.”

Birkin, who spent more than 20 years at Thomson Reuters and rose to Global Head of Marketing Solutions, joins Deputy Europe with extensive experience of marketing and product management in B2B digital and technology sectors, most recently as Product & Marketing Director at ReachLocal, Europe.

Speaking about her appointment, Birkin said: “The workforce is changing, yet too many businesses struggle to adapt to, and take advantage of, the new landscape. Listening to some of the customer stories from Deputy, and the positive impact our solution can have on a business convinced me to join. For so many businesses, dealing with workforce management in an intelligent way can be transformative.”

Deputy global president, Steve Power, also commented on the appointment: “The European market is seeing vast changes, as companies try to adapt to new expectations of workforce management, especially as it applies to technology, data privacy and user experience. Deputy is committed to EMEA and needs a strong leadership team to help drive our growth. This is why we’ve appointed David and Heidi, who bring the skills, connections and talent we need.”