A Message from Our Chair
As I move into my second year as Chair of IoD NI, I wish to share some of the highlights and work we do as a team.
As a long-standing member of IoD, I was aware of the wide variety of activities undertaken. However, as the Chair, I am astounded by the level of engagement and the variety and extent of the work we do at IoD NI.
We all know the significant issues we face in Northern Ireland, across private, public and the third sector.
To ensure the IoD remains impactful and relevant we focus our activity on the key pillars of :
- Connect
- Develop
- Influence
The first half of the year has seen us deliver a busy events programme. We continued to deliver our flagship Women’s Leadership Conference, with over 500 attendees, with international and local female leaders taking to the stage. We also delivered the ever popular Director Bootcamp, and ensure all members are inducted via the New Member Lunch series.
We continue to develop new initiatives and partnerships and have introduced new programmes this year, including:
Our Business ‘Talk and Tour’ Programme, getting out around the regions, with behind the scene visits to Hutchinson Engineering and MJM Marine. We also saw a relaunch of the Emerging Leaders Programme in partnership with RSM UK, to encourage the next generation of leaders to recognise the power of a strong network.
IoD NI continues to have the highest participation in director training courses outside London. We have awarded 7 Chartered Directors so far in 2025, a testament to the investment NI’s organisations place in their senior leaders. We strongly believe that the personal service coupled with the quality of course leaders and strength of the peer group, makes NI a prime location for national and international delegates. We welcomed delegates from New York, Chile, Nigeria, Republic of Ireland and Great Britain to the courses and really look forward to building on this.
The last few months have been particularly busy around our policy activity. As some of you will be aware, we have established an Infrastructure and Investment Forum, which has held a number of impactful workshops around topics such as energy/grid connectivity, housing, water and transport. These workshops are helping to shape and develop our thinking ahead of our action plan due for publication early 2026.
We have also been continuing to drive forward with recommendations in our IoD Skills Action Plan. A few weeks ago, our Policy Forum met with the Minister for Health, Mike Nesbitt to discuss some of the necessary interventions that can be made from the Department to alleviate economic inactivity and provide our economy with a healthy and thriving workforce. Alongside the areas of health/economic inactivity, we are continuing to pursue the role of “Teachers in Industry” and have held a number of useful conversations with partners at St Marys and we look forward to engaging closer with students and stakeholders at the start of the new academic year in September.
Finally, our day to day policy activity has been particularly busy in relation to consultations. We have responded to a variety of topics including Trust Ports, Curriculum Review of Northern Ireland, UK Industrial Strategy, UK Spending Review and most notably the Good Jobs Consultation, which we continue to engage on closely on behalf of our members.
We are lucky to have a body of supportive partners, who work with us across our events programme and support on the valuable policy work we engage with. We really do appreciate the support and encouragement from you all.
I trust you have enjoyed reading about some of the activity and highlights from IoD NI over the last 6 months. We are an open and accessible team and do encourage our members to get in touch with us. We believe we are serving our members’ needs but do wish to hear from you to ensure we maintain our relevancy.
I know the team is looking forward to a less busy period over the summer and I hope you also get some time to enjoy a break.
John Hansen
Chair, IoD Northern Ireland
