Pennies Chief Alison Hutchinson awarded CBE in Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours

Pennies is very pleased to announce that its chief executive Alison Hutchinson has been awarded a CBE for services to the Economy and Charities in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours, published 11 June 2016.

Pennies is a leading financial technology charity – the digital upgrade of the traditional collection box, helping customers make their pennies count for charity when they pay by card – in-store, online or in an app.

In response to the news, Chairman of Pennies, the digital charity Box, Robert Leitão said:

“We are incredibly proud of Alison receiving a CBE for her services to the Economy and Charities. Alison has enormous vision and a powerful business acumen; and is driven by her philanthropic core to apply financial technology to grow the charity sector.

“It is Alison’s dedication to improving business and people’s engagement with it that has afforded Pennies its dynamism and exponential growth over the last five years. Under her leadership, in just 5 years from launch, Pennies has collected 30 million micro-donations raising over £6.5 million to support over 100 charities; and continues to grow strongly as more and more retailers and consumers join the movement.

“I know I speak for everyone at Pennies in offering my congratulations to her on this thoroughly deserved honour.”

Alison has led fintech charity Pennies as CEO since its conception in 2010. In addition to her full time role at the digital charity box, she holds a number of Non-Executive positions including Aviva Life Holdings UK Ltd, the subsidiary board of Aviva Group plc, and Yorkshire Building Society.  Alison is also a Trustee of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

Alison was previously Chief Executive of FTSE financial services company Kensington Group plc and has also held senior positions in Barclaycard and international technology group IBM.

Pennies is enabled in a number of well-known brands including Domino’s Pizza, Zizzi restaurants, Topps Tiles, The Entertainer, The Fragrance Shop and Screwfix; as well as a growing number of smaller merchants. For more information on Pennies visit: www.pennies.org.uk.

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Notes to Editors

For more information or to arrange an interview with Alison Hutchinson, please contact Rob Dyson, Head of Marketing and Communications at Pennies on rob.dyson@pennies.org.uk.