IoD Wales Member Spotlight – Monthly Feature

Member Name: Nicola Garnish
Job Title: Group Managing Director
Company Name: Genpower

1. Tell us a bit about yourself — what do you do, and what’s your journey been like as a business leader?
I am the Group Managing Director for a Welsh family run business established in 2006. We are the worldwide licensee for JCB tools and power products, and sole UK and Ireland licensee for Hyundai power products. Day to day I’m either based in our Pembrokeshire Head office or meeting clients and business partners at our 3PL distribution centre in Newport, Gwent. I’m responsible for the day to day leadership, overall management of the business, five of our directors and our team of over 100 employees across all of our sites.

My journey as a business leader has developed from the early 90s where I spent 20 years with Halfords retail which gave me great insight into the world of business management and people development. At the age of forty I decided to leave retail and explore the trade industry and spent my next eight years in multi-site leadership roles within automotive and construction. I joined Genpower in 2019 as Operations Director and moved into the Managing Director role in 2023.

2. What achievement or milestone are you most proud of in your career so far?
Being named a finalist in the IoD Director of the Year awards 2026 would definitely be up there as one of my more recent proudest moments on a personal level. If I went back to my early career days in the 90’s I was awarded ‘General Manager of the Year’ for Halfords and back then, I was the only female manager amongst a few hundred men and so that was certainly a proud accomplishment! The same happened when I worked in Automotive in 2012, in an industry where competition was fierce, but I do love a challenge!

The milestones and achievements that I will always be most proud of are those where I joined a business that was massively underperforming and built teams where we supported each other to completely turn things around. ‘Together, we make it happen’ has always been a favourite mantra.

3. What advice would you give to other directors striving for excellence in leadership?
Push yourself out of your comfort zones, always be true to yourself and always be open to learning. Trust, integrity and resilience are the most important characteristics for me both personally and in business. I’ve always built great, long term business partnerships and teams based on these traits.

Networking is so important for both business growth and personal development and I’d encourage any leader to join business networking groups and talk to leaders from all walks of life. It’s incredible where these conversations can take you and support your business, often when you least expect it!

My last bit of advice is spend time developing your team, surround yourself with capable people and support them to the hilt. People work for people and there’s no better way to celebrate the good times and work through the tough times than to do it all with a team of people that trust and care for each other and drive the business goals.

4. How has your involvement with the IoD supported your professional journey?
The IoD has opened up a network of amazing like-minded people from all types of businesses, institutes and industries that have supported me, listened to me, advised me and allowed me to form many long term relationships and friendships over the past few years. Jo Price and Rebecca Davies are amazing at orchestrating all of this and make the right introductions based on really getting to know you and your business. It’s a great Institute to be part of but as with everything, you get out what you put in!

Check back next month as we continue to celebrate the outstanding leaders shaping the future of Welsh business.