People are being encouraged to work longer, and why not if they want to and can? However, it is critical that as a society we also invest in our young leaders, who can take our businesses and Island forward.
IoD Jersey invests in young people through the Students Sub-Committee which is chaired by Debbie Reeve and which runs the Future Leader’s Scheme, giving sixth form students the opportunity to shadow a director or senior manager for a week. We also encourage young people to become members and to take advantage of not only the career development training the IoD offers, but networking opportunities. For those who have started their careers, we recognise their progression with the IoD Young Director of the Year award.
Encouraging young people is extremely rewarding. Many of our members enjoy mentoring and sharing their experience. I particularly look forward to seeing the short list for the Young Director of the Year award, which is kindly sponsored by Quilter Cheviot, because it represents enthusiasm, aspiration, and a positive future. The award recognises up-and-coming leaders who have demonstrated excellent entrepreneurial potential, ability, ambition, creativity and vision in new or established businesses and who have operated at director level for less than three years.
That person might be a calculated risk taker and innovator who is already generating excitement in the marketplace and who also recognises the importance of good corporate governance/company culture.
We were last able to celebrate this award in 2019, when Natalie Passmore, Finance Director with Jersey Water, was the winner. Winning the award meant a lot to Natalie, ‘I was immensely proud to have been nominated for the IoD Young Director of the Year award in 2019. The IoD is a highly respected Institution in the business community so being recognised for my work as a Director was a true honour. It was even more special as I was relatively new to the position, having been appointed two years earlier. I was up against a very strong field that included some notable entrants from Jersey’s finance and technology industries.
‘Winning the award gave me confidence in my leadership skills and was testament to the hard work of all my team, many of whom were able to be part of the submission process. I would encourage any Young Director to apply as this was a great experience, and I learned so much from the process.’
This is just one category in this year’s awards, kindly sponsored overall by gold sponsor Appleby. After such a difficult year, we wish to celebrate leaders in all fields, whether in the public or private sector. The full list of categories is:
Large Business
SME Business
Family Business
Start-up
Third Sector
Public Sector
Young
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Sustainability
Non-Executive
Nominations have now closed. We have an excellent panel of judges, some of Jersey’s finest directors and former directors from a range of business sectors and backgrounds, who are now reviewing all the entries. The panel is chaired by Kevin Keen who is joined by John Henwood MBE, Brendan McMahon, Dr Lesley Dickie, Kate Wright, Kristina Le Feuvre and Tom Hacquoil.
We shall celebrate our 2021 Award winners at a black-tie ceremony at the Royal Yacht on Friday September 17th. Tickets for this dinner can be purchased on Eventbrite and are selling fast! I do hope as many people as possible will join us to celebrate the directors who have led us through the last unprecedented year.