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What is diversity in the boardroom? Why should you have a diverse board?

As business leaders, we hear a lot about the need for diverse boards and for the most part we understand what that means – that there is a need for a board that consists of more than one ‘type’ of person and that this will bring great benefit to an organisation.

Boards have now recognised the need for diversity of skills in the board room and this has brought about a renewed intensity of focus on the broader aspects of diversity and strategic composition of the board, considering a broader range of attributes such as ethnicity, age, perspective, experience and now, even tenure on the board but there is still much more to be done.

This event will explore why it is essential to encourage diversity as it allows the opportunity for fresh viewpoints and moves away from the potential ‘group think’ mentality that can occur when like-minded people discuss issues and make decisions. Our panel of speakers will share personal and professional stories supported by recently published data on the diversity of boards which will provide key ‘takeaways’ for attendees.

Key details

Date & time: 21 Feb 2019 08:30 - 11:30

Location: Burnley College, Themis, Burnley

CPD Hours:

Prices from

0.00 GBP + VAT - Member

0.00 GBP + VAT - Non-Member

Event manager:
Miss Lauren Mullan

Contact phone:
0161 806 0890

Contact email:
Lauren.Mullan@iod.com

Agenda

08.30 Arrival and registration

09.00 Welcome from Laura Hartley, IoD Lancashire Committee and Director at Laura Hartley Recruitment

09.10 Olive Strachan MBE, Director at O S Resources Ltd

09.35 Joanne Carlin, Director of People & Development at Daniel Thwaites Plc

10.00 Noel Jolly, Head of People & Talent at BetterBathrooms.com

10.25 Leila McKenzie, Director at Leila McKenzie Associates

11:50 Panel with question and answer session

11.15 Closing remarks and networking

11.30 Event closes

Speakers

Olive Strachan MBE
Director
O S Resources Ltd

Global business woman, Entrepreneur and Founder of Olive Strachan Resources, Olive, who has established and run her own Learning and Development Consultancy since 1998 is 1 of the 392 at MBE who has been honoured in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. Having worked as a Management Development Specialist and an International Learning Development Consultant for over 20 years, Olive is delighted to be recognised to receive the award for her Services to Exports in Professional Business. As a UKTI North West Export Champion Olive has worked in over 25 countries, as a Consultant, Executive Coach and Trainer helping organisations to develop leaders to achieve their full potential.

Aside from her profession, Olive has contributed and undertaken many voluntary roles she has been highly commended by the Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) for her role as the Chair of Manchester Branch before becoming a CIPD Council Representative, a role she has cherished and was very proud to undertake. Olive has also been a mentor for the NatWest Entrepreneurial Spark Programme, mentoring young entrepreneurs in start-up businesses.

Leila McKenzie
Managing Director
Leila McKenzie Associates

Leila holds a 1st Class Honours Degree in Business and Management studies from Leeds and Manchester Metropolitan Universities respectively where she received the RWR Award for the highest mark in the graduating year. Leila has had a uniquely entrepreneurial career since graduation, including working on multiple contract assignments within events management and promotions for businesses such as Nestle, Coca Cola and Unilever. She also founded and opened her own tearoom in York prior to working in executive search for several privately-owned businesses prior to establishing her own business.

In addition to her work within Executive Search, Leila also carries out the role as City Director for Winmark Global, specialising in C Suite peer to peer learning. Leila works closely with FTSE and Fortune companies joining Winmark's full portfolio of 16 CxO networks and developing new opportunities that give business leaders the knowledge and connections to achieve greater impact.

Jo Carlin
Director of People & Development
Daniel Thwaites

Jo Carlin is the Director of People & Development at Daniel Thwaites, a hospitality company established over 200 years ago that now owns over 250 pubs, characterful inns and hotels, ranging from four-star hotels, spas and conference centres.

She joined in 2016 and is transforming the way the business approaches the management, development and engagement of its 1,600 workforce, who are spread the length and breadth of the country.

Having previously worked for Pirelli as UK HR Director; Danone as Head of HR within their Medical Division; MW Brands as Group HR Director; and John West as HR Director Europe, Jo has experience of national and international companies. But regardless of the size of the business, she is passionate about helping businesses create cultures that are engaging and inspiring for all, which in turn enables a more natural diversity at all levels.

Noel Jolly
Head of People & Talent
Betterbathrooms.com

Noel Jolly is the Head of People at Better Bathrooms, a retailer that has been listed in the top 100 of the UK’s fastest growing companies and has been awarded 10 national retailer awards over the last 5 years. It has a national store based footprint and a very successful online offering that gives a truly omnichannel approach to the modern retail market.

He has recently joined the business to help with the next period of growth and its integration into the ROXOR group which will make it a vertically integrated business from manufacturing through supply chain to the eventual retail outlets both on and off line.

He previously ran his own consultancy helping SME’s instigate, improve and develop their people plans and before that he sat on the operational board of Steinhoff UK Retail as Head of People Development for Bensons for Beds, Harvey’s furniture, Concorde Logistics and Cargo Homeshop. Noel has a very commercial outlook and over 25 years of experience helping businesses to be a place of diversity and inclusion.