Texthelp Names Cathy Donnelly as Chief People Officer

With decades of experience as a senior HR executive, Donnelly will bolster Texthelp’s employee experience.

Today, Texthelp, a global leader in literacy and assistive technology, announced it has appointed Cathy Donnelly as its Chief People Officer (CPO). A senior HR executive with over 25 years’ experience, Cathy’s role will ensure Texthelp’s business strategy is successfully reflected across all HR activity. 

Cathy brings a wealth of experience having spent almost 10 years as the Senior Director of Talent with Liberty IT, an official ‘Great Place to Work’, earning Top 10 placement in the UK and Ireland rankings in 2021. Additionally, Cathy acted as the Global Change Management Lead for Liberty Mutual’s Global HR model which saw her design, develop, and deliver change management and communication strategies across 28 countries and 50,000 employees. 

Prior to Liberty IT, Cathy was HR Manager for IKEA UK & Ireland, with responsibility for leading the HR strategy for over 8,000 employees. In this role, Cathy led a team of over 25 corporate HR professionals and 20 HR managers within stores.

As CPO of Texthelp, Cathy will be developing an employee experience where people are coached and supported to fulfill their potential and feel valued. Building a globally inclusive community that recognizes and celebrates diversity will foster a high-performing culture for the company. Cathy will also be working on developing employee engagement strategies that positively impact business results — from talent acquisition and throughout the entire employee life cycle. Based in Northern Ireland, Cathy will split her time across offices in the US, London, Belfast, the Nordics, and Australia. 

Discussing her appointment Cathy Donnelly stated:

“I am thrilled to take up my role at Texthelp and am excited to be joining such a purpose-driven organization which is making a difference to the lives of so many people around the world. From a HR perspective, it’s the perfect time to join following our recent acquisitions as we move towards building a global culture and community of Texthelpers.”

Martin McKay, CEO and founder of Texthelp added,  “with over 350 Texthelp staff across the world, Cathy’s experience with large and varied teams means she is well equipped to understand the many moving parts of our business. She will help to harmonize our diverse teams as we continue to grow organically and through acquisition. Disability and neurodiversity are attributes which we celebrate at Texthelp and raise awareness for every day, particularly through our HR function. As such, it’s vital that we practice what we preach, reflecting these elements within our business. Having Cathy as our CPO means that we are able to communicate best practices on these areas confidently and effectively, using our own experiences to support the friends and colleagues around us.”

About Texthelp®

Founded in 1996, the Texthelp Group is a global technology company helping people all over the world to understand and to be understood. It has led the way in creating innovative technology for the education and the workplace sectors for the last three decades.

Texthelp believes in a world where difference, disability or language are no longer barriers. It is focused on helping all people learn, understand and communicate through the use of digital education and accessibility tools.  

With over 50 million users worldwide, the Texthelp suite of products includes Read&Write, EquatiO®, WriQ®, Fluency Tutor®, ReachDeck® and Speechstream® which work alongside existing platforms such as Microsoft Office and G-suite, enabling them to be integrated quickly into any classroom or workplace with ease.   

In February 2021, Texthelp acquired the Lingit Group, including Lingit, LexAble and Claro Software. Together these companies offer a range of Assistive Technology tools including Lingdys, Textpilot, ClaroRead, Global Autocorrect and Global Tasks. By combining capabilities and knowledge across the group, Texthelp can now provide a whole suite of literacy and numeracy support to a greater number of end-users across more geographies.

Discover more about us and how we support individuals from education right through to the workplace.