“I inherited a strong organisation thanks to Mariam Assefa’s remarkable leadership. And from the beginning, the team and I also saw opportunities for transforming WES and taking it to the next level of impact. We envisioned a credential evaluation business that operated efficiently at an even greater scale. And we concluded that, to truly achieve our mission, WES would need to evolve so we could engage more levers of change. Completing this transformation successfully while maintaining our financial independence would require a strong plan and a talented, experienced team.” Esther Benjamin, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director The Challenges of Forging New Pathways Benjamin started as CEO nine months before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt. As she got to know the organisation in those first few months, Benjamin focused on understanding how existing operations could be streamlined, while also planting seeds for an organisational transformation that would enable WES to forge new pathways to impact – developing a more expansive social impact portfolio while also driving new efficiencies in business operations. In 2020, the organisation initiated a restructuring, largely driven by a decline in demand during the pandemic (which ultimately turned out to be temporary). The restructuring was also informed by awareness of the forthcoming business and technology transformation on the horizon; the need for greater automation in WES’s work; and a recognition of skills needed to support WES’s credential evaluation work. As restructuring began, organisational and cultural challenges arose, with some staff questioning why WES’s financial surplus could not be used to maintain staffing levels on the credential evaluation side, despite the declines in demand that WES was experiencing. To help address these challenges and to manage continued organisational transformation, WES hired its first Chief People Officer, Abbie Cowan, who joined WES in 2022, bringing extensive experience from operating in the corporate and public sectors.
CEO and Executive Director Esther Benjamin at the Economic Inclusion Forum, Washington, D.C., 2023 (Copyright David Trozzo)
“When it comes to WES’s mission, there’s huge alignment among staff. Everyone in the organisation is incredibly thoughtful and an amazing advocate for WES’s work. But the nuanced work and operational realities of integrating different elements of WES’s portfolio as a social enterprise can be difficult to align.” Abbie Cowan, Chief People Officer While some employees ultimately departed the organisation as a result of the restructuring, those who stayed began to embrace the new direction while also helping WES to uphold the valuable aspects of its history. Alongside the restructuring, WES’s board approved a new five-year strategic plan in 2020. The plan recognised that the credential evaluation business and the social impact activities were inseparable in driving the mission, and it positioned WES as a self-funded and financially independent social enterprise.
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