Zest announces new Chief Product and Innovation Officer

Graham Meinke (pictured above) has been appointed as Chief Product and Innovation Officer of employee benefits technology company, Zest.

Zest’s employee benefits platform offers flexible benefits services for a wide range of well-known businesses across the world, including Hargreaves Lansdown, Taylor Wimpey, ADP and Travis Perkins.

As new Chief Product and Innovation Officer, Meinke brings over a decade of expertise in product management with previous roles including Head of Product and Agile Practice at 10x Banking, where he streamlined product operations and coached the product teams responsible for delivering its cloud-based banking platform. Beyond this, he has provided his expertise as an independent consultant to various London-based fintechs, helping them to cultivate top-tier product teams.

Meinke rejoins Zest after four years after previously holding the role of Head of Product at Zest, where he was instrumental in designing the current platform enabling employers existing complex benefits programmes to be quickly and simply configured to deliver improved employee experience.

Given four in ten (38%) employees report difficulties with using their benefits platform, and over half (54%) reporting that they would leave their current employer if offered a better benefits package,* Meinke will play an integral role in helping businesses and employees secure more value from their employee benefits packages.

His primary focus will be on driving innovation across Zest’s existing products and leading on the development of new solutions. Other responsibilities include improving seamless, technological integrations into an employer’s wider HR ecosystems and pushing the development of Zest’s data AI offering under the direction of the organisation’s newly appointed CEO, Matt Russell.

The announcement marks the third hire to Zest’s senior leadership team, after Russell appointed Liliana Teixeira as Head of Marketing and Adrian Wilding as Chief Financial Officer earlier this year.

Graham Meinke, Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Zest, commented: “During a time of economic turbulence, technology breakthroughs and evolving employee values, the need to innovate is essential. Employees and employers alike deserve to be getting the most from their benefits packages and platforms to help them survive in today’s competitive economic landscape.

I am delighted to be returning to Zest and look forward to continuing to develop a best in class, innovative solution that provides incredible employee experiences for businesses of all sizes.”
Matt Russell, CEO at Zest, commented: “As someone who knows the technology having been part of its creation, I am thrilled to be welcoming Graham back to the business. With benefits playing a critical role in employee experiences, having the right technology to execute this is integral, contributing to a business’ overall success.

We are therefore continually looking for ways to improve our offering, particularly by incorporating more flexibility and personalisation which is where Graham’s expertise will come into play.”

Over the next 12 months, Zest will use its expanded Product and Development team to continue to improve its offering and refine its leading solutions, providing an unrivalled personalised benefits experience for clients and their employees.