Glen Manchester

Manchester, an only child, was born in St John's Wood, London. Diagnosed as dyslexic, he was educated at Picardy Secondary Community School in Belvedere, Kent, until he was 17. Manchester worked as a Ghillie on a Highland Estate before skipping university to begin his business career with Xerox[1]

Manchester’s businesses have all been founded on a single idea: to change customer engagement for the better[1]

He founded his first company, Geneva Digital, in 1991 aged 25.[2] The company created customer communication solutions for the direct banking and insurance sectors. In 1999, Geneva Digital was acquired by Xenos Group (now Open Text Corporation), a public company and leading specialist in customer communications technology, based in North America. Manchester was appointed President and CEO[3]

In 2001, Manchester founded and privately funded[4] Thunderhead to develop a new generation of enterprise technology for customer engagement[4] Sitting under the Thunderhead umbrella, the Smart Communications platform pioneered - and became the established market leader in - Customer Communication Management (CCM). In this time, Smart Communications transformed from a UK-based start-up to a global cloud-based technology company with operations throughout Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Australia.[2] In 2014, Manchester launched Thunderhead’s next generation of technology, the ONE Engagement Hub, an AI-fuelled Customer Journey Orchestration and Analytics platform designed to help brands respond to in the moment customer intent at scale.[5]

In September 2016, Manchester sold the Smart Communications division of Thunderhead to private equity firm Accel-KKR for an undisclosed sum.[6] Under his leadership, the ONE Engagement Hub became central to Thunderhead’s next stage of growth; in 2018 the business increased headcount by 40%, opened a new data centre for APAC and an additional office in Germany. The same year, Thunderhead was named outright leader in Forrester’s Journey Orchestration and Visioning Wave.[7]

Glen announced ThunderBay in 2020, a new suite of capabilities for the ONE Engagement Hub and the first comprehensive AI for journey-driven engagement.[8] Also in 2020, Thunderhead ONE was once again named Leader in Forrester’s Journey Orchestration Wave[9] and a Leader in Forrester’s Wave for Real Time Interaction Management.[10] The business was also featured in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100, as one of the fastest privately-owned technology companies in the UK[11] and featured in the 2020 UK Deloitte Fast 50.[12]

Manchester was named “Entrepreneur of the Year” at the Real Business Growing Business Awards in 2009[13] and was appointed as a non-executive Director for London & Partners between December 2011 and November 2013[14]

Manchester currently lives in Surrey; he is a father to Jack.

He is a long-standing member and active Enterprise Fellow of the The Prince's Trust,[15] mentoring and supporting many aspiring young entrepreneurs through his work with the charity. Glen is also an aviation and motorsport enthusiast. He helped sponsor the last trans-Atlantic Lancaster Bomber flight in 2014 to support the Canadian War Heritage museum. Glen was part of the crew on this last-ever light transatlantic crossing flight from RAF Coningsby in the UK to Hamilton, Canada.[16]