The value of allyship: for aspiring, early stage and experienced Non-Executive Directors
As the backdrop of uncertainty nationally and internationally continues to intensify, we will be exploring the importance of allyship as a key factor to help support and accelerate careers, led by our Regional Lead, Rebecca Ganz.
The panel will no doubt foster some lively debate as we explore this important topic across the private and public sector and immerse ourselves in what makes great, career changing allies.
We are very much looking forward to hearing the stories and unique perspectives of the wonderful Elizabeth Cameron (EDI specialist, mentor, Trustee & motivational speaker), Joy Parkinson (FMCG expert & experienced portfolio NED) and Rebecca Rennison (Parter at EY, EDI leader and creator of the MACHO programme, which accelerates effective allyship).
Participants are warmly encouraged to ‘bring an ally’ to the event and we will be in touch to confirm ally guests with all those registered nearer the time.
A huge thank you to our sponsors, Eversheds Sutherland, who have kindly offered to host the event.
Lock the date in your diaries and see you (and your ally) there…!
This Women on Boards North Spring get together is a chance to connect with like-minded women – and allies – in a warm, friendly atmosphere over drinks and nibbles.
Lead for the North, Rebecca Ganz
Rebecca Ganz, Non-executive Director, Entrepreneur & C-Suite adviser and Women on Boards Lead for the North
Rebecca Ganz (aka Becks) is an ex-pat who successfully kickstarted her Non-Exec career in August 2018. With a range of Chair, Non-Exec & Advisory Board roles, which span Education, Institutional Health and Business sectors, Becks knows what it takes to strategically build a Non Exec portfolio, while continuing to grow her Entrepreneur and C-Suite coaching practice. Becks is Non-Exec of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust & Blueskeye AI Ltd, Trustee of Leodis Multi Academy Trust and Advisory Board Member for Patchwork Health. As part of her Board roles, she Chairs various committees relating to transformation, strategy, finance, risk & remuneration. For further background on Becks, please see www.rebecca-ganz.com
Speakers
Elizabeth Cameron
Elizabeth is an Equality Diversity & Inclusion Consultant, Trustee, mentor and motivational speaker, who highlights the intersectional experience of race & class, women, single parents, poverty, LGBT+ and disability inequality.
For over 25 years Elizabeth has supported and represented the experience of those with ethnically diverse backgrounds, women and disabled at a national level as well as being a qualified practitioner in support of women who have experienced domestic and sexual violence.
Elizabeth has been Chair of the GMCA Race equality Panel 2021-23, where she worked with GM Mayor, Andy Burnham co-creating policies on Race including the Race Equality Strategy for GM & the Good Employment Charter.
She is a Board member for Chartered Management Institute – Diversity & Inclusion, Advisory Board member at Just Psychology, a Trustee (and joint Deputy Chair) for Faith Network for Manchester & is an Ambassador for Show Racism the Red Card, a National anti-racist educational charity.
Rebecca Rennison
Rebecca is a partner at EY in Manchester focused on Corporate Finance M&A. She has over 20 years’ experience helping shareholders unlock value by completing transformational transactions with Private Equity and global strategic trade. Born in Manchester, she spent 15 years with a North American investment bank whilst living in Vancouver, Canada.
Rebecca is very passionate about DE&I and actively shares her experiences including her Work Life Harmony Handguide and Confidence Boosting Alphabet on how to SMASH Imposter Syndrome. In 2023, she created the “MACHO” programme, which is an acronym for 5 simple, actionable steps that we can all do today to help improve DE&I across our organisations and wider business community.
Rebecca was recognised as a “Changemaker” at the 2022 Yorkshire Rainmakers Awards and was added to the exclusive Northern Power Women POWER list in 2023. She is former Trustee of Big Sisters and Broughton House charities.
Joy Parkinson
Joy has worked across a number of different consumer goods business over more than 30 years. Starting her career with large multinational food business as a graduate at Mars, before moving onto Coca-Cola and then United Biscuits, Joy held various marketing and then general management roles across 20 years in Blue Chip FMCG roles. Her final role at UB was her first board position as MD of the McVities Cake Company where the monthly Innovation Panel tasting new and wonderful cakes was a personal favourite!
Joy then moved into the world of SMEs, firstly to Faith in Nature, where she was MD and then CEO for 9 years. She led a team that scaled the business tenfold, and learnt first-hand the challenges of dealing with and influencing challenging founders! An exciting scale up where, under Joy’s leadership, the business moved from being a niche health food store only brand, to a multi-channel business on sale in more than 20 international markets.
On from Faith in Nature, Joy has become a portfolio Chair and NED, supporting other founders in their plans to scale and then exit, and is currently Chair of Miniml, a rapid growth eco brand operating across personal care and household cleaning categories, as well as Chair of Brew Tea – a premium Manchester based tea business.
What previous Boardroom Insights attendees say:
“A most insightful evening. I met some fascinating ladies and I found the whole event inspiring.”
“I got so much from you and wanted to thank you for sharing your learnings. You’ve helped me reframe what a NED is.”
“It totally surpassed my expectations! Inspirational! I made some great contacts.”
“The session was a true inspiration to me. It was just what I needed at this time. The speakers you chose shared great insights on what NED roles they’d done, why they’d chosen them and how they got them. I also liked the Q&A session where the panel shared their hints on how to demonstrate what you will bring to the organization.”
With thanks to our hosts, Eversheds Sutherland
