Advertisement Space
//Family homes on offer at West Yorkshire development//Cecil Beaton: Staging Icons at Harewood House//Leeds gears up for its biggest wellbeing week 1 - 7 June 2026//Leeds Lit Fest 2026 brings stories, poetry and big ideas to the city//Love, loss and lifelong connections woven into new exhibition//Group health and safety manager appointed at Yorkshire manufacturer Trojan//East Yorkshire village to host biennial open gardens event//The wise Owl at Hawnby stars in prestigious hotel guide//Family homes on offer at West Yorkshire development//Cecil Beaton: Staging Icons at Harewood House//Leeds gears up for its biggest wellbeing week 1 - 7 June 2026//Leeds Lit Fest 2026 brings stories, poetry and big ideas to the city//Love, loss and lifelong connections woven into new exhibition//Group health and safety manager appointed at Yorkshire manufacturer Trojan//East Yorkshire village to host biennial open gardens event//The wise Owl at Hawnby stars in prestigious hotel guide
Ex-YouGov director joins Yorkshire tech enterprise
Back to News
Entrepreneurs

Ex-YouGov director joins Yorkshire tech enterprise

The Editor

The Editor

|2 min read

Forward-thinking AI and Machine Learning (ML) organisation, Third Foundation, has appointed a former YouGov director to become its chief operating officer.

Shirelle Grant was director of client management at YouGov and prior to that director at award-winning B2B marketing automation agency Stein IAS – responsible for the China division based in Shanghai.

Her high-profile appointment comes on the back of Third Foundation announcing some substantial client wins, and the release of a trio of new products – with more set to be unveiled.

Commenting on her arrival, Shirelle said: “It’s such a pivotal – and exciting – time to be involved with Third Foundation’s vast development. Knowing the team’s capabilities and its impressive growth plans, I was eager to be a part of an organisation that’s leading the charge in helping businesses to utilise data correctly.”

“With the power of our automation, we’ll be able to transform how various departments react to their new level of insight previously untapped. A huge factor in this is how Third Foundation’s technology can truly pinpoint ‘what if’ scenarios, enabling organisations to plan – and react positively in a challenging marketplace.

“We have a huge role to play in how we communicate with modern-day marketers, so that they know exactly how to plug in smart automation to transform how they measure the metrics that matter – and which ultimately dictate commercial success.”

CEO, Michael Ward, commented: “Shirelle brings a vast array of leadership qualities and experience to our team – she’s highly motivating, encouraging and inspiring for our organisation.

“Her ambitions match ours in how we want to help clients strategically – and sustainably – grow their businesses and continue to deliver critical data that transforms both performance and how people think.”

Established last summer, Third Foundation integrates AI into the heart of businesses to augment their current thinking, and extract critical, real-time insight to identify company pain points, understand – and analyse – multi-channel performance and accurately forecast scenarios that are likely to impact an ever-changing business landscape.

Based at the Leeming Building in Leeds city centre, the Yorkshire firm is the brainchild of AI and marketing specialist Phillip Midwinter – who has spent 15 years working with technology to drive the strategic use of data within business.

Additionally, in less than a year since it was first formed, Third Foundation has already secured Google Cloud partner status – and completed a purpose-built platform called Prime Radiant alongside its cookieless, cloud-based, fully data compliant, hit-level tracking technology called Galaxia.

Sponsored
728×90

Related Articles

How Yorkshire’s Liz Howard is redefining modern leadership

How Yorkshire’s Liz Howard is redefining modern leadership

From corporate boardrooms to building Up2Eleven, her Leeds-based consultancy, Liz Howard is helping organisations across Yorkshire create emotionally intelligent cultures where people and performance can truly thrive. At a time when businesses across Yorkshire and beyond are grappling with shifting workplace expectations, talent retention challenges and constant change, leadership has never mattered more. For Liz Howard, who is a Chartered Psychologist and highly experienced executive coach, t

Much-loved Ripon interiors store begins new chapter

Much-loved Ripon interiors store begins new chapter

As one chapter comes to a close, an exciting new one begins for The Castle a much-loved interiors and homeware store in the heart of Ripon, North Yorkshire, as the business has now officially passed into the hands of new local family owners Zoe and Robert Nemes, marking a meaningful transition as the previous owners step into retirement after many years of dedicated service. The shop officially opened under the new ownership, welcoming a steady flow of locals, friends, family and loyal custome

Why tax returns are forcing women to rethink their careers

Why tax returns are forcing women to rethink their careers

There's a very specific moment that happens for many professional women at this time of year, and it has nothing to do with spring motivation or fresh starts. It arrives when they're doing their tax return, and what begins as a financial exercise often becomes something far more revealing. Dr Claire Kaye, a former award-winning NHS GP turned career and confidence coach, sees it repeatedly in her practice: women who sit down to work through their figures and, in the process of calculating what