The Equal Experts trustee panel is an important part of how we’ll operate as a network-owned business, ensuring that the company continues to operate in the best interests of the network, its customers and employees. 

At a recent panel at the Equal Experts annual conference, EE’s co-founder Thomas de Cad’Oro Granier talked about how the panel will work, and its key responsibilities. In this post we introduce the people who will form the panel alongside Thomas and Ryan Sikorsky, EE’s other co-founder: 

• Alun Coppack, EE employee and Trustee
• Sreekandh Balakrishnan (Sree), CTO at Travelopia and Trustee
• Sofie Jenson, an associate at EE and Trustee

The Employee:
Alun Coppack, EE employee and trustee 

As a ten year veteran of Equal Experts, Alun says he was surprised – but very happy – to be invited to join the trustee panel. “EE is a great place to work and I see the job of the panel as ensuring that continues,” he says. 

Alun figures what he’ll bring to the new panel is his own brand of direct question. No matter what project he’s involved with, Alun wants to understand what we’re trying to achieve, how the team can move the needle, and how they’ll know if they have succeeded. 

Being a trustee is a part-time role and Alun is keen to ensure the panel doesn’t make an industry out of itself. “The trust wasn’t created because the company is flawed and we’re trying to turn it around,” he says. “The idea is to ensure all the good things about the company continue to happen.” 

Alun’s passion for travel brought him to the UK almost 20 years ago and he’s now busy with a young family. Travel might be more complicated with two young kids, but Alun’s still planning a family trip to Greece in October, where he’ll indulge his second passion – oenology. “It’s the study of wine,” he explains. “It blows my mind that you can have two bottles of Chardonnay from the sample place, but depending on how they’re stored or fermented, and when they’re harvested, they taste completely different! “

The Customer:
Sreekandh Balakrishnan (Sree), Technology Director – Innovation

Sreekandh Balakrishnan, better known as Sree, has been an Equal Experts customer for a number of years in his role as director of technology and innovation with Travelopia. 

Sree actually volunteered to join the panel after hearing about EE’s plans to become employee-owned. “I was talking with Thomas about EE’s strengths and areas of improvement and we started talking about the Employee Owned Trust (EOT),” says Sree. “I was in awe, and my belief in that mission inspired me to nominate myself to represent the voice of the customer on the trustee panel.”

Offer accepted, Sree was appointed to the trust panel, and he’s excited to work with fellow panel members to define and evolve the panel’s strategy. “Just like our Agile delivery process, we’re taking an incremental approach to progress, and it’s important to support the existing exec leadership team to provide a smooth transition to the EOT structure,” he says.

When he’s not creating exceptional products for Travelopia’s portfolio of brands, Sree says he dances the delicate dance of parenting two children. “I’m always looking for ways to give them the best education and experiences – it’s a quest that keeps me awake at night,” he says. The counterpoint to that comes from the mountains. “The scenic landscapes and serene yoga practices fill my cup with the energy I need for the hustle of daily life,” says Sree. “The mountains give me renewed purpose and I’m ready to take on whatever the world has in store.” 

The Associate:
Sofie Jenson, delivery lead and trustee 

Sofie hasn’t quite mastered the Tottenham twang after living in London for most of her adult life, but she has made a huge impression in seven years as an Equal Experts associate. 

The Danish native works with some of EE’s biggest customers, including Pret, Open University and Merlin Entertainment. “Most recently I’ve focused on transformation, and what makes me tick is working with organisations that want to change their mindset,” she says. “It’s possible to create great products or services, generate revenue, be efficient and have a healthy work culture!” 

Sofie was thrilled when EE announced the move to an employee trust, and feels honoured to take on the trustee role. “I feel a great responsibility to get it right, and do justice for all my current and future EE network colleagues,” she says. 

When not on the end of a video call, Sofie’s passion is travel and learning about new cultures. “My happy place is probably in the mountains somewhere, ideally hiking up a hill with my family or heading down the mountain on my bike!”

What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned? 

At this year’s Equal Experts Annual conference, EE associate Neha Datt sat down with the group for a panel discussion to find out more about the newly created Equal Experts Trust, and what happens next. Watch the video below or read on to find out more: 

Sreekandh Balakrishnan (Sree), CTO at Travelopia and Trustee, opened the session by explaining the benefit of a trustee group compared to being funded and run by private equity or venture capital. “When companies are funded that way they operate on short [term] models that don’t allow for long-term thinking,” he said. “This model is radical because it takes a long-term balanced view that focuses on generating value for the network, customers and employees first – with profit coming along naturally.”

Neha asked the panel whether they will operate according to the principles of transparency that are a hallmark of EE’s culture. Although it’s still early days, the hope is to be extremely transparent, said Sofie Jenson, an associate at EE and Trustee. “We should share and document our journey, meetings, agendas and learnings, potentially through a Slack channel. It’s important we document those learnings and leave them for whoever comes after us.” 

Next, the discussion moved on to the trust’s guiding principles and guardrails that the team will be following. Sree explained that members of the group have a tenure of two years, with the possibility to renew or appoint new trustees thereafter. 

While guiding principles are still being developed and will be shared in future, he said that the trust has a very different role to the executives. “Trustees won’t replace the execs, we’re more like the conscience keepers of the company’s growth,” said Sree. “The execs continue their roles and we guide them, and nurture the journey.” 

Trustees are appointed to the board for two years, although this can be renewed. “We don’t know how much progress we’ll make in two years but it will depend on how quickly trustees get to grips with what the business really is,” said Thomas de Cad’oro Granier, EE’s founder. 

The trustees all felt that they were excited to be invited to join the group, and agreed that they bring very different skills and experiences to their roles. “Reflecting on the conversations I’ve had with Thomas and Ryan over the years, I think I tend to ask probing and difficult questions. There would be easier people to invite, but I think that’s part of why I was chosen,” said Alun Coppack, EE employee and Trustee. 

“I think there’s a leadership lesson here about building a team based on energy and connection, rather than just ticking off a list of skills. I believe there was a connection and vision alignment felt by both Thomas and me,” Sree added. 

Alun was then asked what the group’s response was to potential unionisation among EE employees. Alun started by saying that while he was an associate and is now an EE employee, he does not represent employees as a whole – he represents the entire network. “The trust is here to provide governance to the execs rather than make decisions about how the company runs. If a decision like that needed to be made, it would come to us for approval, but we don’t drive that decision.” 

In a related question, Neha asked the panel how decision-making will change in EE because of the trust. Thomas explained that major decisions for the execs, like where to invest money, where to open new offices, will still be driven by the exec team, but will come to the Trust for approval. “Most day to day decisions won’t change, but significant investments and strategic decisions will involve the trust,” Sree added. 

Finally, Neha pointed out that the company now owes a debt to Thomas and Ryan that will be repaid over the next 6-8 years. She asked whether this would mean different pressures on the business around cash flow, compensation or associate day rates? 

Thomas replied by saying it was a deliberate decision not to use bank lending to finance the employee buyout, and this made the deal achievable. “We pay everyone’s salaries, then other costs, then profit share for employees, then taxes, then future investments,” he said. “Whatever is left goes towards repayment. We are very happy to be last, whereas the bank would always be first.” 

The panel discussion concluded with Ryan Sikorsky, EE’s Co-Founder, reiterating Sree’s point earlier in the conversation about the fact that the Trust is in the early days of forming, so the plan is to follow an iterative approach, figuring things out as they go along, and communicating openly with the network every step of the way.

Authors: Thomas de Cad’oro Granier; Ryan Sikorsky

In 2022, we shared our vision to shift to full employee ownership. In May 2024, we completed that ambition ahead of schedule, and Equal Experts is now 100% collectively owned by our Network. 

So what does collective ownership mean? 

The short of it is that while becoming collectively owned does not change anything today, it does change everything in the future. It frames the future of Equal Experts as a perpetual trust looking after the network so it can benefit all its members – all valued equally. It’s about changing our perspective so it’s easier to focus on the longer term. It’s about giving us the luxury of time in a world where work is more transactional than it has ever been before.

This is why, even though legally our company becomes employee-owned, we look at Equal Experts as becoming ‘Network’ owned.

Going forward, 100% of the company will be owned collectively via a Trust on behalf of the employees. This is the same well-established ownership model used by the John Lewis Partnership in the UK. What is different for us is that the Trust will look after the interests of not just the employees but of all stakeholders of the Network equally, including our customers. This is why the Trust includes one employee, one customer and one associate.

Our first trustee group was appointed on Monday 30th April, 2024 and are:

Thomas Granier & Ryan Sikorsky, Co-Founders, Equal Experts
Sree Balakrishnan, from our customers
Alun Coppack, from our employees
Sofie Jensen, from our associates

The trustees are guardians of the trust, and by extension, its assets, which are currently the company.  More information on their role to follow.

Securing our long term future – for everyone

Unlike going public or being sold, which could push us off course by creating external pressures, we’ve chosen a path that keeps us independent and preserves our culture. This means that we can ensure Equal Experts remains a place that delivers long-term value to all the stakeholders of our network over short-term profits.

As an expert knowledge consultancy, our assets are 100% human. Our real long-term value is not in our case studies and knowledge playbooks. It is in the quality of the relationships that bind us together around shared values – whether you’re a customer, associate (i.e. supplier contractor), employee or alumni. This is why we consider ourselves to be not just a consultancy, but a network that supports people throughout their entire careers – based on what is relevant to them at each stage of their life.

We designed our organisation to minimise short-term thinking. We have no outside investors, no growth targets, and no individual financial incentives. Thanks to our associate hybrid model, we have less pressure than other consultancies to bill our people. We also have less hierarchy than most organisations of our size. This means people are free from traditional constraints, and have the agency to focus on long-term value creation with our customers.

Moving to co-ownership is more than protecting our legacy – it’s about changing our perspective so that it’s easier to focus on the longer term. And it opens up exciting possibilities to further develop the network value proposition for the long-term benefit of the members themselves.

As founders, we will continue to lead Equal Experts, providing stability and guidance. We have planned for a continuity period that extends over the next decade, and we look forward to being held to account by the Equal Experts Network Trust.

Fifth in a series featuring talks from our recent Geek 23 conference is Todd Anderson, Principal Consultant and Equal Experts, presenting the first lightning talk of the day on the subject of Trust.

Have you ever thought about how important trust is within your team?  What effect does trusting or not trusting have in your work?  We all have stories about where things didn’t go well because of a lack of trust.

But if it’s so important, then why do we never talk about it?  View Todd Anderson’s lightning talk on the topic of trust and why we need to promote it with our customers and teams.

Geek 23 was a specific event for, and led by, our Equal Experts community.  Speakers gave talks on a range of topics including service design, developer experience, operability, leadership, distributed systems, testing, large language models, DevOps, mob programming and microservices.