Facebook Director Likes Pennies – and joins the team

Pennies is extremely excited to welcome Leigh Thomas, Director of Global Client Partnerships at Facebook to Pennies’ Trustee Board. 

Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO of Pennies said on the appointment of Leigh Thomas, Facebook:

We are always seeking to explore and challenge our use of social media, and we couldn’t ask for a more ‘plugged in’ professional to help us develop our strategy and tactics in social – as well as offline comms.

Just as Facebook creates and builds communities – online and off, Pennies creates a digital community of people donating their small digital change to contribute to wider physical communities and local and national causes. We can’t wait to have Leigh on board and we know she will add enormous value.

Leigh said of her appointment:

The simplicity of being able to add a few pennies at the end of your payment and them adding up to have a huge benefit for charities across the UK and Republic of Ireland – it’s just brilliant. I am very excited about how I can get involved and be part of something bigger, leaving a legacy for us all to gain from.

Leigh’s role at Facebook is enabling her global partners and their agencies to engage effectively with the platform, across geographies, audiences and devices, in pursuit of bringing the world closer together.

She started creative agency side, with a career highlights including many awards for creativity and effectiveness in roles such as Managing Director of Saatchi & Saatchi, London, and running Digital Agency of the Decade, DARE, as CEO.

Leigh Thomas is active on the exec of WACL (Women in Communications London), and a non-exec director of the tech based marketing company McDonald Butler. She is in the Drum Top 10 Adverati, a Campaign A-lister, and a BIMA top 100 achiever. 

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For more information, please contact Rob Dyson, Head of Marketing and Communications at Pennies on 0300 302 0172 /  rob.dyson@pennies.org.uk.

Notes to Editors

About Pennies

• Pennies is a fintech charity (registered no. 1122489) launched in November 2010. It is the digital upgrade of the traditional charity box, designed to fit with our increasingly cashless lifestyles. Anyone can ‘feel-good’ give with participating Pennies retailers – by donating a few pence to charity when paying by card or digital wallet. It’s as simple as a single press of a button or click of a mouse.
• Pennies estimates that if the UK’s card holders donated 30p once a month over £190M would be raised for charity every year.
• Pennies is live across a breadth of 60+ retail, hospitality and service sector leaders across the UK, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland, including The Entertainer, Domino’s, Boots Opticians, Oasis Fashion, Screwfix, Hobbycraft, Topps Tiles, Virgin Holidays, Zizzi, The Entertainer, and Rontec and MFL roadside retail outlets.
• The charity was recently highlighted in Harrington Starr’s Financial Technologist ‘175 global fintech influencers’ in 2019; the only charity on the list.