Blog posts about Conversations

At SocietyWorks we’re proud to have a small but incredible team of people using their skills and experience to support our public sector clients and help our parent charity mySociety achieve its ambitious objectives. 

In this series of blog posts, we speak to the people behind SocietyWorks to share their stories.

This time we’re chatting with Mandy Merron, Chair of the SocietyWorks board of directors.

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Mandy Merron became Chair of the SocietyWorks board of directors in January 2022. 

Like all of our board members, she gives her time and extensive expertise to SocietyWorks voluntarily. 

As well as being our Chair, Mandy also sits on the board of our parent charity mySociety as a Trustee. 

Could you tell us a bit more about yourself and your career?

“Well, I trained as an accountant and then I moved into specialising in working with media, marketing and digital media businesses. 

“I spent over 30 years of my career working at Moore Kingston Smith. For most of that time I was advising businesses on how to grow and build value. More recently I set up a specialist mergers and acquisitions division of the media team.

“Also, I served on the board of the Data and Marketing Association for ten years and the Telephone Preference Service.

“In addition to sitting on the SocietyWorks and mySociety boards, I’m involved in various other things including sitting on the board of a local athletics club and a local primary school. I’m also a non-executive director for two other businesses.

“So although I’ve stepped back from full-time work now, I’m keeping busy but enjoying having a bit more time to play!

“I feel very lucky to work with some lovely people and to be able to help some very interesting organisations which in turn help me to continue to learn.”

As a not-for-profit group, it’s great for us to have someone with your financial and commercial background steering the board. What brought you to SocietyWorks?

“My journey here started when I joined the mySociety board as Treasurer. It’s a position that organisations often struggle to fill, but I’d worked with mySociety’s former Chief Executive Mark Cridge in the past, he knew my background and he invited me to take on the challenge.

“When the position of Chair came up on the SocietyWorks board I was very interested because of my history working with growing digital businesses, so I thought, yeah, I could probably help make a difference here!”

What’s it like being Chair of the SocietyWorks board?

“I see my role here as being the chief cheerleader and bouncer-of-ideas for the senior leadership team. My experiences mean I can be there for the ‘what-if’ scenarios. I’m a sounding board and a critical friend. 

“I can’t tell you how rewarding and exciting it is being on the SocietyWorks board. There’s a wonderful team here punching way above their weight, we have genuinely excellent products that bring about genuine impact for the public sector and it all supports the important work mySociety does.”

What are you hoping to achieve in your position on the SocietyWorks board?

“I suppose ultimately what I want to achieve is for SocietyWorks to reach its full potential, both in terms of what it can do for the public sector and in how it can support mySociety with unrestricted funding to fuel democracy technology that feels more necessary and relevant than ever.

“We share the same goals as our customers, and that’s a really important differentiator.  We’re not here just to make money, we have a purpose to extend the impact of mySociety and help the public sector better serve people through technology.” 

What does being a board member for a not-for-profit organisation mean to you?

“I think like most people who volunteer their time to help not-for-profit businesses grow, it’s about giving back. If you’ve got a skill, a growth mindset and the time, then why not?

“It’s not just a cliche of giving back, though. In all honesty, I have learnt and continue to learn exponentially from the teams at SocietyWorks and mySociety.

“What’s in it for me is a lot of new learning about civic society and civic tech, and on a more basic level, it makes you feel good to be doing something that’s not just for you. 

“There’s a podcast I listen to called The Happiness Podcast by Dr. Laurie Santos and on there is a lot discussion about how one of the things that makes people happy is doing things for other people – and I agree with that.”

Thinking about the challenges facing the public sector, how important is the work SocietyWorks does?

“Councils are under immense pressure to deliver all of the things that are required of them with depleting resources. 

“The fact that we can automate that delivery across different services in an incredibly user-friendly and reliable way, while reducing costs and freeing up resources, is game-changing, and I really do believe that we can and will do more to support councils in the future.” 

Thanks so much for talking to us, Mandy!

At SocietyWorks we’re proud to have a small but incredible team of people using their skills and experience to support our public sector clients and help our parent charity mySociety achieve its ambitious objectives. 

In this series of blog posts, we interview members of our team, including our board of directors, to find out more about them and why they chose SocietyWorks. 

Our first interview is with Anna Scott, one of our non-executive directors. 

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Anna Scott joined the SocietyWorks board of directors in June 2024. 

As a non-executive director Anna volunteers her time to provide strategic advice, drawing upon her extensive background working mostly within the third sector to help us build our brand and communicate effectively. 

Anna also sits on mySociety’s board as a trustee. 

We sat down with Anna recently to get to know her better and find out what brought her to SocietyWorks.

Do you want to start by telling us a bit about yourself and your career up to now?

“I’m Anna. I live in Frome in Somerset with my husband, our two-year-old son and our dog Cilla the King Charles Cavalier (also known as the family hot water bottle).

“My background is in global development and human rights, and more recently open data, digital transformation and user-centred design. I did a Master’s degree in human rights at UCL, and since then have worked mainly in content, communications and policy engagement roles.

“I started my career at the Centre for Global Development which is a big, not-for-profit think tank based in Washington DC focused on reducing poverty. My job there in a nutshell was to help start the European office, so I was involved in organising lots of events, preparing newsletters and generally building strong relationships with European and US stakeholders.

“After that I spent some time working as a content creator, first for The Guardian, where I covered global development, and then for The Mirror, where I was essentially responsible for making things go viral! It was a good lesson in what makes content engaging!

“Then I  joined the Open Data Institute (ODI), another non-profit focused on promoting open data, open innovation and data ethics. As Head of Content, I built the brand and content strategy. It was an amazing experience working across lots of content channels and formats, from podcasts to whitepapers, artworks to even a hand puppet shadow video. I worked closely with designers and the policy team, finding the best ways to communicate complex policy ideas, and curated the annual ODI Summit. 

“After that I led on content and communications for 360 Giving, and worked for varied clients, mainly also in the civic tech space, on content and brand strategy.”

It’s certainly a varied career! And what about now? What are you up to these days (aside from sitting on the SocietyWorks and mySociety boards, of course)?

“Since becoming a parent I’ve been working part-time. I’m currently involved in a digital transformation project at Defra, focusing on making forms more user friendly.

“I’m also involved in lots of content design community projects, namely a working group to help people to advocate for content design. I also co-lead the Defra Digital blog, commissioning posts from across the User Centred Design professions.”

What about outside of work? What do you do in your spare time?

“I don’t have a lot of spare time these days, but when I do I love to make music! 

“I’m a classically trained singer, but what I’m really enjoying at the moment is playing synths (the synthesiser). I love how accessible and expansive these little boxes can be. I’ve been performing at local Electronic Music Open Mics (EMOMs) – my stage name is Astral Synthesis.”

That’s very cool! You’ve clearly got lots going on, so how did we come onto your radar?

“During my time at the ODI I was very lucky to be engaged in discussions and content creation on lots of subjects around open data, data ethics and data infrastructure, in particular who owns data, who’s responsible for it and what policies create or steward it.

“At the time, mySociety was promoting its vision of having open, sustainable infrastructure for political data, and I became really interested in its tools and how they empowered citizens to engage more in democracy.

“We also ran some really great Friday lunchtime lectures at the ODI about various civic tech tools and mySociety came up quite a lot!

“I’ve been interested in civic tech and transparency ever since, so the opportunity to be part of the mySociety and SocietyWorks boards and engage more in this space was really exciting for me.”

What are you hoping to achieve as a member of the SocietyWorks board?

“Sitting across both SocietyWorks and mySociety, I want to use my brand and communications experience to help keep comms activities aligned and complementary across the group. There are two separate but connected brands here, and I’d love to help each develop their individual voice while also supporting each other’s objectives.

“I’m an advocate for accessibility and user-centred design, so I intend to be a champion for making sure our tools are accessible for users across society.

“I’ve also got a real passion for staff wellbeing, developed over years of leading teams. In fact, I’m actually training to be a psychotherapist, although it’s sort of on pause at the moment while I navigate life as a working parent. Those insights are still there, though, and I believe it’s really important to have someone with this perspective on a board of directors to keep wellbeing a priority.” 

We’re happy to have you! And what about you? What does it mean to you to be on the board of a not-for-profit organisation like SocietyWorks?

“It means a lot to me! I’ve spent most of my career working within the third sector and during that time I’ve reported to some really great boards. 

“I’ve seen firsthand what a difference it can make when you have a board of directors that is truly engaged, asks constructive and challenging questions and genuinely wants to help you succeed.

“Having been a fan of mySociety for a while, it’s a privilege to be here and to have the chance to help both the charity and SocietyWorks progress.” 

Thank you so much for talking to us, Anna!