News & thinking

Meet Gemma Hood,
culture expert for
startups and SMEs.

January 23, 2023
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January 23, 2023 Stephen Bates

We’re very happy to announce that we’re partnering with SME culture change expert, Gemma Hood. As one of our senior independent advisors, she’ll be working with us to help startups, scaleups and other SMEs boost their performance through people and culture.

“I’m really excited about working with Affinity. As a consultant focused on building positive and authentic organizational cultures, I can see plenty of valuable synergies between my expertise and Affinity’s”.

Gemma Hood

Gemma has over 15 years’ experience in working with fast-paced startup and scaleup business. In this time, she has worked with leaders across a host of sectors including technology, recruitment, marketing and design. In 2020, this culminated in her founding her own startup Culturehood.

Across her career, Gemma has designed, developed, and implemented culture initiatives that span the employment lifecycle. This includes employer branding, embedding values, hiring strategies, engagement campaigns, wellness activities, reward and recognition schemes and a number of DEI programs. Her work has won several awards and accolades including the Sunday Times ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ and the Thames Valley ‘Tech Employer of the Year’.

Gemma is a strong advocate of inclusive environments and, in her spare time, works as a mentor to girls and women in the technology sector.