Former professional rugby player Craig Hudson, once the face of Xero in New Zealand, joined Givenwell as chief customer officer three months ago to help scale its impact in workplace wellbeing.
His part-time appointment was followed soon after by that of his wife Bronwyn Hudson — a registered clinical nutritionist, health coach and PhD researcher — as director of education and impact.
In a recent Linkedin post, Mr Hudson said he and his wife were “caught up in a recent restructure” and had lost their roles.
“It sucks, no way around it, but we also know we’re far from the only ones going through this right now. We’re genuinely proud of the work we did and still really believe in the mission and the problem Givenwell is trying to solve.
“Now we’ll be cheering from the sidelines and hoping they can scale to make a big impact in workplace wellbeing,” he said.
In a separate post, Mrs Hudson said “financial realities” led to the restructure and other members of the team were also affected. While her tenure was not for long, she loved the impact she was able to have and the learnings she gained.
Givenwell, founded by Jonny Mirkin and launched last year, was a finalist in the emerging business category at the recent Grand Business South awards.
When contacted yesterday, Mr Mirkin said about three fulltime equivalent roles would finish this month across a mix of fulltime and part-time positions as Givenwell focused on a new product strategy. The majority of the team remained and was excited about 2026 as that approach was scaled.
When Givenwell first launched, staff could spend their allowance inside its curated wellbeing marketplace; more than 900 wellbeing listings across gyms, therapists, coaches and other services were created to give people a helpful starting point and to support early adoption.
Earlier this year, a claims feature was introduced that let staff use their allowance on almost any wellbeing support they chose.
Over recent months, that had become the main way people used the platform, and the same pattern was being seen across Australia and other international markets.
The business had been reshaped to focus fully on that low administration claims model and wellbeing resources. While the marketplace would remain supported for existing customers, it was expected to play a smaller role over time.
“Like many startups, we’ve been experimenting with different areas of our platform to understand where we create the most value.
“Based on what we’ve learned from our customers, we’ve refocused our team to align with that strategy.
“This means some roles have naturally ended, and we’re grateful for everyone’s contributions.
“Those leaving remain connected as shareholders and part of the Givenwell story,” he said.
This quarter had been Givenwell’s strongest period of growth since its launch and it was now used across New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe.
Plans were being explored to open a Sydney office next year with support from one of its enterprise customers.
