Vivify, the Manchester-headquartered technology-enabled operator that helps schools extract more value from their estates, has appointed Katie Winstanley as its new chief operating officer as the business prepares for a period of national growth.
Operational leadership to support rapid scaling
Winstanley joins Vivify from Morson Group and will take responsibility for the company’s operational delivery, people strategy, customer experience and business transformation. She will sit on the executive leadership team alongside founder and chief executive Russell Teale and chief financial officer Stephanie Potts.
The company, founded in 2020 and backed by investors Arete and the William Currie Group, says it is one of the UK’s fastest-growing players in the market for technology-led school estate management. The appointment is framed as part of an effort to scale the business while retaining the culture and service model that underpinned early growth.
“We’re incredibly pleased to welcome Katie to Vivify. Over the last few years, we’ve been intentional about building the right leadership team for the future of the business,”
Teale told BusinessCloud that the business has been built on “an exceptional team, an ambitious vision and an unwavering focus on delivering for schools.” He said Winstanley brings experience in transformation and leadership development that will be central to the company’s next phase.
What the new COO will oversee
The role is explicitly wide-ranging. According to the company announcement, Winstanley will lead:
- Operational delivery — ensuring services to school customers are delivered at scale;
- People strategy — developing the leadership and workforce to support expansion;
- Customer experience — maintaining standards as the client base grows;
- Business transformation — building processes and systems to underpin growth.
Those responsibilities reflect common pain points for scale-ups in the facilities and services sector, where growth often tests operational processes, recruitment and client retention simultaneously.
Leadership and investor context
Vivify’s backers — Arete and the William Currie Group — have previously supported businesses in the education and services space, and their involvement signals continued investor appetite for companies that combine commercial returns with public-sector service provision. Vivify’s pitch centres on helping schools unlock the “full value” of their estates through a mix of technology and on-the-ground operational services.
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Chief Executive | Russell Teale |
| Chief Financial Officer | Stephanie Potts |
| Chief Operating Officer (new) | Katie Winstanley |
The company’s stated ambition to expand nationally places operational delivery and personnel development at the top of the agenda — areas traditionally prioritised by private equity and growth investors as they seek to scale revenues and market share without diluting service quality.
Market implications
Vivify’s development speaks to several broader trends in the UK education services market: the outsourcing of non-core school services, the use of technology to optimise estate utilisation, and investor interest in businesses that can deliver both social impact and commercial returns. Appointments such as Winstanley’s are often used to professionalise operations ahead of accelerated roll-out or further fundraising.
While the announcement does not disclose financial targets or an explicit timetable for expansion, the emphasis on operational excellence and leadership capacity-building indicates that Vivify is preparing for a growth phase that will test its systems and people functions.
For schools and local authorities assessing partners to manage estates and facilities, the strength of a provider’s operational leadership will be a key consideration. Vivify has moved to strengthen that element of its proposition by elevating an executive with transformation experience into the COO role.
Further detail on Winstanley’s objectives and any immediate operational changes is expected as she settles into the role and the firm outlines the next steps in its national growth strategy.
