First steps into the Boardroom

I took a year out after I’d finished my job at Man Group in 2012 to rest up and broaden my horizons. I trained as a volunteer guide at St Albans Abbey and, with one eye to the future, took the FT Non Executive Director Certificate, which brought me into contact with some fascinating people. I took a historic tour through corporate governance to put into context where we are today and passed my first ever finance exam.

My first step into the Boardroom was pretty conventional.

You’re often advised to start with a charity, and to pick one you really care about because it will take up far more time than you ever envisaged. Mine is my old school, Christ’s Hospital, where I serve on the Council, the Finance and General Purposes and Investment Committees, and the Campaign Board. The work is fascinating and rewarding, and I’ve learned a lot about how to be a constructive, productive non-executive director.

My second non-exec opportunity also came from a pretty conventional route: networking. Emperor Design is a company I’ve hired – and not hired – many times in my career. In recruiting me, they took the brave decision to bring a client voice directly into their boardroom.

I now find myself in the happy position of having many different perspectives: as a communications professional with privileged access to management teams; as a board member with oversight of a great institution and a young company; and as a fascinated observer of different people and styles, watching carefully to spot the differences between failure and success.

Image: By Sergiu.panaite at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0