"Given the outstanding nature of myday, I can ever see this business going from strength to strength whilst leading the way in both product innovation and international sales."
Mark Francis
Collabco has hired Mark Francis as its new CEO and is laying out expansion plans to take its myday education dashboard and app to the U.S. market place. The aim is to grow the company’s total customer base by around 50% in 2016, which will ultimately lead to an increase of Collabco’s Liverpool-based team by around 25%.
myday already counts some of the UK’s leading higher and further education institutions as customers, but this is a critical time of maturation for Collabco as it looks for international expansion.
“Given the outstanding nature of myday, I can ever see this business going from strength to strength whilst leading the way in both product innovation and international sales,” explains Mark Francis, CEO, Collabco.
“Part of my new role will not only be about breaking into the U.S. market, but to ensure that Collabco can scale to meet the demands that new customers bring, whilst also keeping our existing customers happy.
"I've a true passion for working with high-growth technology companies to improve performance and value. It's innovation, knowledge transfer and mission-driven leadership that inspires others to embrace change and I’m very proud to be working within Collabco as CEO.”
Mark joins the company having worked with a number of leading technology brands and software companies to deliver significant growth, productivity and scalability opportunities. Most recently he was managing director of impero software where he delivered significant operational change whilst focusing on growth within key strategic markets.
He has held a number of senior executive level roles within a range of business management software organisations including Sage, IRIS, Access Intelligence and PrintSoft.
A Durham Business School graduate with an MBA and MA in Business Research, Mark has an entrepreneurial spirit and renowned zest for ‘making a difference’ delivering results with a sense of urgency.
The appointment follows a recent £450,000 investment in Collabco by The North West Fund, bringing the total invested by The Fund to over £1.3m. The funding was provided jointly by The North West Fund for Venture Capital, managed by Enterprise Ventures, and The North West Fund for Digital & Creative, managed by AXM.
The North West Fund for Venture Capital and The North West Fund for Digital & Creative are financed jointly by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank.
Mark’s appointment has begun with immediate effect.
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