I have stepped aside from my role as Executive Director because I think it will help more animals

Summary

During the last four years, our work for animals in Anima International faced several big challenges.
I took on the role of Executive Director to help cement the foundations of the organization.
Now that we want to build on these foundations to achieve even more impact for animals, we need different skills at the helm.
Anima International leadership has appointed Jakub Stencel as the new Interim Executive Director.
I have moved from the role of Executive Director to that of President.

After four years as Executive Director of Anima International, I pushed for my colleague Jakub Stencel to take over the role at the beginning of July. No, I’m not off chasing new opportunities or planning a quiet retreat. I’m not taking time off to be with my family (possibly my family are breathing a sigh of relief right now) And no, I wasn’t forced out either. Instead, my colleagues and I came to the less dramatic but far more meaningful conclusion that this change would make us a stronger organization.

My tenure

Becoming Executive Director was never a goal of mine. I’ve always considered myself a ‘reluctant’ leader, often taking the lead when organizing games in primary school (elementary school for the Americans out there) only when no one else volunteered. Ever since deciding over a decade ago that I would dedicate my life to animals, I have simply tried to work wherever I was the most needed. Back in early 2020, I was most needed in the role of Executive Director. And boy, has it been a wild ride.

I took the reins just one month after much of the world went into Covid lockdowns. This worldwide crisis turned people’s thoughts away from animals. Shortly after, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine started. For years, we had been working to help build the foundations of the animal advocacy movement in both Russia and Ukraine, but the war put all of this work into question. Now, not only did we have to rethink our presence in both countries, but we needed to do all we could to ensure the safety of our colleagues. After lots of deliberation, we reluctantly decided to end our work in Russia, and while work in Ukraine continued for over a year despite the ongoing war, we eventually closed our operations there as well.

Throughout all of these difficult moments, our mission to help animals didn’t waver. In Poland, an agricultural powerhouse, we continued to fight for hens – this included making sure that companies are implementing their cage-free policies. An example is our investigation into the largest caged-hen egg farm in the European Union, yet again showing the dreadful systemic abuse of animals. At the same time, we also worked with the private sector to introduce alternatives to animal-based products and pushed the current Polish parliament to be the most animal friendly to date.

In Denmark and Norway, we continued to campaign for one of the most abused animals in the world – chickens. We managed to push a significant portion of the private sector to commit to end its worst practices. The impact from our campaigns led to the term ‘Turbochicken’ – which we introduced to describe breeds of chickens whose genes were selected for the drastically unnatural growth of their bodies – being added, in local vernacular, to the official dictionaries of Denmark and Norway. Furthermore, the Danish government declared they would stop purchasing fast-growing broiler breeds. These events illustrate how far we’ve pushed society to recognize the horrors of factory farming, a system within which chicks’ internal organs collapse under their own weight.

In countries where our operations are smaller, we still manage to keep the industry on its toes. We shone a light on the systematic abuse of animals in the UK by consistently releasing investigations from broiler farms, as well as working with the BBC, one of the largest broadcasters in the world, on an exposé into hock burn – a common welfare issue faced by chickens raised for meat. The story hit hard, being the second most read story on the news site on the day of release and helping to trigger a wave of commitments from retailers to reduce stocking density on their farms. This helped improve the lives of hundreds of millions of chickens and contributed to a shift in the UK supermarket industry towards a lower stocking density for a majority of their products. In Bulgaria, another agricultural country, where we just recently started operations, we released an investigation revealing the horrendous practice of mink farming. Finally, we helped coordinate international pressure on the European Union to revise its animal protection law – an effort that has since been shelved following pressure from the agricultural industry.

During the same period, we also pushed forward a lot of internal restructuring to prepare the organization for further growth and build on the successes above. This included deciding to end some of our programs, such as our campaign in Poland to end live carp sales, which we concluded to be likely ineffective for animals.

As someone who doesn’t think free will exists, I find it difficult to use the word ‘pride’. But looking at these achievements, I do feel pleased. We met some tough challenges head-on and came out stronger. I learned a lot, and became much more resilient and principled as a leader.

Exit, Kirsty (kind of)

In Anima International, we make a big deal out of giving each other constant feedback. We are huge fans of Amy Edmondson’s work on what she calls ‘psychological safety’ and believe it to be the bedrock of our culture. We are trying to build an organization where our effectiveness for animals is separate from our feeling of self-worth.

With that in mind, early in 2024 I was given some very direct and valuable feedback by three of my trusted colleagues. They told me that they felt I was perhaps no longer the best person for the role of Executive Director. They felt that my vision for the organization was not as strong as it should be, that I was more an ‘executor’ rather than someone who creates and drives forward new ideas, and that I had neglected work to ensure all groups within Anima International were aligned in our culture and goals – likely because I didn’t know how to push it forward.

Unsurprisingly, my ego took a hit when trying to swallow this information – I felt that I had somehow failed in my mission to help animals. I am human, after all. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that not only were they right, but that I had felt the same for a long time. It felt like I had been somewhat playing a role because my job had become more focused on working in areas that are not my strengths.

I believe I was a good person to lead the organization through the last four years, but that does not mean that, by default, I should stay in the position until I want to leave. It felt liberating to accept that the organization had changed, and the needs of the role had changed along with it.

The new role

After reflecting on this feedback, I decided to step aside from the role of Executive Director and suggested that Jakub take my place, moving into the role of President instead. In this new role, I will focus on making the problem of factory farming more visible, strengthening relationships with key partners like donors and other animal advocacy organizations, and representing Anima International in high-stakes events and the media.

Usually, in organizations and companies, a president is at the top of the hierarchy. In Anima International, not for the first time, we are doing things a little differently. While my title will be ‘President’, I have taken a step down in the ranks. I will report to the Executive Director, who will ultimately evaluate the quality of my work and my fit within the organization. As the new supreme leader, everything is now his fault.

A note on salaries

In most organizations, if the Executive Director was to move back down the ranks, that would come with a hefty pay cut. In Anima International, our salaries are based on an algorithm that takes into account the years of relevant experience rather than position, so my salary hasn’t changed because of taking a step back. Actually, I have never been the highest-paid person in the organization, even when adjusted for country. This comes with advantages and disadvantages which I won’t go into here, with one upside being that salary is not a barrier for making sure that the right people are in the right position. When making this decision, I thankfully didn’t have to worry about a pay cut.

Enter, Jakub

Jakub Stencel, formerly Director of Global Development, is one of the co-founders of Anima International and a leading driver behind the spectacular progress for animals in Poland. He has been fighting for animals for 13 years, and counting. He also spends too much time playing board games. Jakub, if you’re reading this, consider it an intervention.

Jakub will take on the role of Interim Executive Director, although it is highly likely he will stay in the role long-term. The Executive Director is responsible for driving forward the vision of the organization and deciding what its next iteration should look like. The ED is also one of the main people responsible for setting the norms for our organizational culture (how we act) as well as our goals (what we act on), and our mission (why we act.)

How the change will help more animals

Jakub’s personality is very different to mine. He can be very competitive (hence the board games, Twilight Imperium, especially), is more comfortable with conflict than I am, and is exceptionally good at challenging people to be better human beings and activists.

Specifically, there are a few things that I believe Jakub will be able to do better than me, which are essential for building a stronger organization:

Push even harder for alignment on organizational culture between the national groups within Anima International.
Set out what Anima International aspires to become, achieve, and create for animals.
Quote full scenes from the TV series The Office.

To change the world, every movement and organization needs its leaders to be a guiding star – setting the direction and pushing for norms they want to see. Success also depends on placing the right people in the right roles. I truly believe that with Jakub as a leader, Anima International can become faster, smarter, and more ambitious – and ultimately, help more animals.

My hopes for the movement

Everyone engaged in the animal advocacy movement is part of what I see as the beginning of the end to one of the greatest injustices in history. Not a small feat. And this is exactly why it’s important to really look within ourselves, grapple with our egos, always be trying to become better people and better activists, and make sure the right people are in the right positions within each organization.

When writing this blog post, I could have written a bland ‘leadership change announcement’, informing you and other key stakeholders of this important change in our organization, and that would have been totally fine. But while it’s useful information to have, I don’t think it’s where the real value lies. Instead, I would like to use this opportunity to highlight how important feedback can be to improving our vital work for animals.

I’d like to encourage everyone reading this post to work on decoupling their self-worth from job titles and perceived status. If I can in some small way contribute to the strengthening of this norm in the animal advocacy movement, I would be happy (although not proud, of course). I, for one, still have work to do on myself, and find this quote from Michael Singer, to be on point:

“The natural ups and downs of life can either create personal growth or create personal fears. Which of these dominates is completely dependent on how we view change.”

– Michael Singer, the Untethered Soul

Final thoughts

Finally, I would just like to thank everyone reading this post for putting your trust in Anima International, thereby allowing us to achieve meaningful change for animals. As of now, and with Jakub at the helm, we are entering a new phase. This could mean several different things, including perhaps a large-scale change of how Anima International works to better match our idea of effective change for animals. Nonetheless, no matter what the future holds, I am very confident that our organization will become stronger and even more impactful in our mission to end the injustices that animals face. I invite all of you to walk this path with us until we achieve animal liberation, together.

P.S. You should all go and read Michael Singer. Like, right now.