For aspiring, early stage and experienced Non-Executive Directors
Times are tough and for many, personal resilience is under pressure like never before. Come together with other Women on Boards members in Manchester to discuss the challenges as board members and leaders, both for ourselves and for our organisations and teams. We hope our open, relaxed conversation over wine and nibbles will also offer us all a boost!
At this special event for members in the North of England, we will hear from two experienced board members how they continue to excel in challenging circumstances and a resilience specialist on proven techniques to build resilient teams.
With a backdrop of post pandemic recovery, the cost-of-living crisis, Brexit related challenges, industrial unrest and the unrelenting theatre of war in Ukraine, the impact at every level of our society and the organisations we work with is profound.
As emerging or established senior leaders in our organisations, maintaining and deepening our resilience reserves is vital, so we can continue to make our individual and collective contributions at our best.
Both practical and inspiring, we look forward to exploring how to:
- Both sustain and grow our inner resilience reserves,
- Expand ‘mind-space’ and hence resources to navigate this unique time of challenge and opportunity, and
- Support having greater confidence as leaders as we run a marathon, which has no defined finish line.
Rebecca Ganz, Women on Boards’ lead in the North, will be facilitating this evening.
More about our speakers:
Speakers
Rebecca Ganz
Non-executive Director, Entrepreneur & C-Suite adviser and Women on Boards Lead for the North West.
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 Chair of BlueSkeye AI Ltd and IFM Bolton Ltd, Non-Exec of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, Trustee of Leodis Multi Academy Trust and Advisory Board Member for Patchwork Health. For further background on Becks, please see www.rebecca-ganz.com
Fiona Cruickshank OBE
Serial Entrepreneur turned investor / Non Exec & Chair of International Centre for Life
A renowned entrepreneur, Angel investor and philanthropist, Fiona has over 25+ years’ experience predominately in the pharmaceutical industry having established, grown and exited several businesses. Receiving an OBE in 2010 for her services to business in the region.
Having started her career as a pharmacist before establishing The Specials Laboratory, a business she grew to employ over 300 people, before selling in 2008 for £20m.
Fiona has since invested in a range of companies, with some successes and plenty of lessons learned along the way.
She recently founded Lead Candidate, a talent sourcing agency specialising in the pharmaceutical sector. Alongside this, Fiona is a Trustee of several diverse charities.
Dr Marilyn Comrie OBE FRSA
Board Member at GMLEP, CEO Manchester Innovation Activities Hub, National Electrification Skills Forum, Director Blair Project Ltd
Marilyn is an award-winning social entrepreneur, green tech innovator, communications specialist and chemistry graduate. Marilyn returns to us to share the very impressive progress made since kindly she spoke at a virtual session in September 2020, in the early days of the pandemic.
With a progressive seventeen-year career including several senior management roles within major plc organisations, Marilyn has rightly earned a reputation for transforming multi-million-pound projects from underachievement into unquestionable success stories.
Marilyn was honoured by HRH The Queen with an OBE for services to woman’s enterprise in 2009, was awarded the prestigious Kofi Annan African Leadership Excellence Award, an honorary doctorate by Birmingham University in 2018, was inducted into the City of Champions Hall of Fame in 2021.
Laura C Aiken
Recovering Engineer, helping STEM leaders build better teams with neuroscience. Specialist in resilience, inclusion
Laura is the Founder of Thrive Leadership. She helps businesses understand and manage stress to build resilient and inclusive workplaces where people thrive. Laura founded Thrive Leadership after a ten year career in engineering and construction, and now works with multinational companies to deliver programming, workshops and coaching in wellbeing, resilience, and culture change.
Alongside her work with Thrive, Laura is one of the consulting specialists for Kintla – a leading Resilience & Performance consultancy in the US founded by Dr Bruce Perry. Laura is also a registered yoga teacher and leads transformational retreats around the world to help leaders build holistic, integrative skills for self-awareness, resilience, and leadership.
What previous Boardroom Insights attendees say:
“A most insightful evening.I met some fascinating ladies and 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
