Anna is one of the UK’s award-winning CIOs, being the first ever female to be ranked number one in the CIO100, as well as winning ‘CIO of the year’. A people-centered and transformation leader, with core strengths in strategy leadership and digital transformation, alongside a wealth of experience in delivering large-scale change across multiple industries, particularly retail. Previously the CIO at Asda, Halfords and Morrisons, she has significantly improved technology capabilities in organisations and has an outstanding track record of driving major growth for FTSE100, FTSE250 and regulatory organisations at the senior level. Anna is also incredibly passionate about breaking down barriers in tackling gender equality by carving the way for Women in Consulting, IT and Technology.

Now turned female entrepreneur, being in the handful of women to found and run a management consultancy, Tessiant (alongside partners), who are enjoying phenomenal growth as a 4-year-old startup. Anna brings her 25 years’ worth of experience to consulting clients in major organisations, as well as with the next generation of business leaders as a mentor.

Tessiant are practitioners who help retail and consumer leaders succeed through advice, strategy, and execution, offering a mix of senior advisory and transformation capabilities. Tessiants clients benefit from Annas well-established network of senior advisors and ex C-Suite professionals, providing organisations with a unique offerings of big business experience but from a small customer-centric consultancy.

As a founder and managing partner of Tessiant, Anna specialises in:

· Helping embed technology, digital and data into organisations.

· Define strategy and the role of technology, digital and data.

· Supporting leaders to build the right operating model, teams and capability.

· Successfully deliver culture and transformative change.

· Provide executive coaching to current CIOs and Senior Leaders.

About Tessiant

Tessiant was founded in February 2020 by Anna Barsby (Retail CIO), Matt Neale (Headhunter) and Alex Ball (Consultant), to specialise in strategic advice and transformation delivery for retail. Inspired by our own challenging experiences of leading and resourcing transformation, we combined out expertise into one offering ‘consulting reimagined’. We have since evolved our offering considerably adding a Senior Industry Advisor (SIA) offering in 2021, meaning we can utilise the UK’s most Senior Retail Professionals in our projects. 2021 also saw Stuart Smith (ex. COO Morrisons, Tesco) join our leadership team, expanding our capability into supply chain and operations.

Tessiant are not your traditional consultants, we are practitioners. We help retail and consumer leaders succeed through advice, strategy, and execution, offering a unique mix of senior advisory and transformation capabilities. We provide big business experience from a well-established network of Senior Advisors and ex C-Suite Professionals but from a small customer-centric consultancy.

Giving a unique blend of practitioners with extensive experience leading sizeable teams and operating large organisations, as well as high-grade consultants, experts at leading transformation programmes and creating deliverable strategies. This offering is based on a guiding principle we hold “There is nothing more valuable than providing individuals and teams to clients that have genuinely been there and done that. They have clear lived experiences of clients’ challenges, developing visions and being accountable for real results. They understand how to drive change to deliver true value for customers, colleagues, and shareholders”.

Tessiant have an outstanding track record of driving major growth and delivering real outcomes through strategic leadership, change and digital transformation for FTSE100 and FTSE250 organisations. To find out more about who we are, and our clients visit www.tessiant.com