​Who is the modern COO?

​What are operations leaders actually responsible for? What’s normal? And where is the role heading next?

​Ask ten COOs what sits in their remit and you’ll probably get ten different answers. People. Finance. Legal. IT. Strategy. Fundraising. Hiring. Systems. And, inevitably, whatever fell between the cracks this week.

​The role stretches and shifts as companies grow - often much faster than the job description does. Which means most of us have been benchmarking our role against a sample of one: ourselves.

​We asked nearly 300 operations leaders

​COOs, Heads of Ops, Ops Directors, VPs of Ops and Chiefs of Staff told us what they actually own, where their time goes, how their remit changes as companies grow, what’s frustrating them, and what they’d happily hand over to AI - versus what they absolutely wouldn’t.

​The result is The Modern COO Benchmark 2026, from Operations Nation × Vestd. And this is the first time we’re sharing it.

​Come for the data, stay for the conversation - and probably the pub afterwards. 🍻

​Took the survey? This is your chance to see where your answers landed, and to meet the people who answered alongside you.

​By the end of the evening, you’ll have a much better sense of:

​⚡ What actually sits in a typical ops remit - and whether those “how did this become my job?” responsibilities are more normal than you thought

​💡 What ops leaders want AI to take off their plates, and how that compares with what they’re actually using it for today

​🧩 How your role compares with nearly 300 peers, including differences by title and company size

​🔮 Where operations leaders think the role is heading next

​🔄 What all of this means if you’re hiring an ops leader, looking for your next role, or trying to make sense of the one you already have

​📝 Event details

​📣 Who’s it for?

​COOs, Heads of Ops, Ops Directors, VPs of Ops and Chiefs of Staff.

​When we say “COO”, we’re using it as shorthand for senior operations leaders more broadly - because, as the research makes very clear, the titles are only part of the story.

​Took part in the survey? Come and see how your answers compare with everyone else’s - and meet some of the people behind the other data points.

​📌 Timings

​6:00 - Doors, drinks and catching up
6:45 - Welcome, the headline findings, panel discussion and your questions
8:00 - Drinks and conversation
9:00 - Onwards to the nearby pub 🍻

​🍹 Food and drinks

​Food and drinks on us, with alcohol-free options that aren't just orange juice.

​🎥 Can’t make it?

​We’ll be recording the findings and panel discussion, and share it by the end of October.

​Meet your speakers

​Brandon Mensinga

​The view from the COO chair

​COO at Orbital

​Brandon Mensinga is COO of Orbital, where he helped the company raise a $60M Series B led by Brighton Park Capital. He specializes in go-to-market and scale challenges for investor-backed B2B technology companies, leading sales, marketing, customer success, finance, operations, and people teams.

​Previously, he was COO at Trint, growing subscribers from 2,000 to 20,000+ and supporting a £9M raise led by the New York Times, and COO at Signal AI, scaling from 30 to 300+ enterprise customers. At SwiftKey, he led product and then revenue and distribution through its $250M acquisition by Microsoft. He also co-hosts The Operations Room and holds a BBA from Simon Fraser University.

​

​Ifty Nasir OBE

​The founder's view

​Founder and CEO of Vestd

​Ifty Nasir, Vestd’s founder and CEO, left a successful career in energy to tackle a major startup challenge: poor equity management. Along with cofounder Naveed Akram, he launched Vestd to help founders set up and manage share schemes with ease.

​A Stanford graduate, ShareTech pioneer, and recent OBE recipient for his contribution to share schemes, Ifty believes in the power of equity to create life-changing wealth and grow the UK’s net worth.

​Under his leadership, Vestd has helped thousands of founders slice their pies and make equity work for their teams.

​

​Dama Sathianathan

​The investor's view

​Partner at Bethnal Green Ventures

​Dama Sathianathan (she/her) is a partner at Bethnal Green Ventures (BGV), Europe's leading early-stage tech for good VC, backing ambitious founders using tech to tackle pressing social and environmental challenges at scale. At BGV, she leads on deal flow, community and networks, driving BGV's efforts to act with integrity on diversity, equity and inclusion and fuel the broader tech for good movement across the UK.

​Dama previously worked for international NGOs advocating for better human rights practices in global development and humanitarian response and has a background in international relations and human rights.

​Dama sits on the steering committee of VentureESG, the world's largest community of VCs and LPs stewarding better-shared learning and practices to integrate ESG and impact at the fund level and beyond.

​

​Ben Gateley - Moderator

​The COO who became CEO

​CEO & Co-Founder at CharlieHR

​Ben has lived the COO role from the inside out. Co-Founder and former COO of CharlieHR, he now leads the company as CEO. Prior to CharlieHR, Ben co-founded Born Social and The Eleven Enterprises, bringing a breadth of experience across building and scaling companies from the ground up. As Board Member and Chair of Operations Nation, it's safe to say he's one of our own.

​Together with 🙌

​Vestd

​This session is run jointly by Operations Nation and Vestd, as part of the launch for The Modern COO Benchmark Report 2026.

​Vestd is the go-to platform for share schemes, equity management, shareholder governance and funding round execution. FCA-authorised, B-Corp and ISO 27001 certified.

​Work.Life

​The event is hosted at Work.Life - a flexible workspace that takes the hard work out of working happy. B Corp certified. Workspaces designed for startups, SMEs and growing teams who need a place to come together.

​Please note: This is a co-hosted event between Vestd and Operations Nation. Attendee information submitted at registration will be shared with both parties for the purposes of running this event. Read Operations Nation's privacy policy and Vestd's privacy policy.