Posts Tagged ‘Non-Executive Directors’

Crispin’s seasonal musing…

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Easter has come and chocolate has been savoured. The weather is more clement, the clocks have been altered and the days are longer. My garden is full of flowers and my allotment is less like a farmer’s field. Is this enough to know that spring is sprung?

At Hunstrete House last week we were delivering a course to a group of extremely talented academics considering the role of being Non-Executive Directors on a Board. I was standing gazing out of the window at a “host of golden daffodils” when suddenly a herd of deer came frisking into view. Was this it? Could I believe that spring had arrived?

At that moment Pete appeared looking flushed and happy. “Hi, Pete, where have you been? We’ve been admiring the deer.”

“I was so hot I went to my room and took my thermal underwear off”

At last I knew spring had sprung.

VOX teams up with Non-Execs again

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

Knowledge West

We’re very happy to once again be working with Knowledge West, a consortium of 6 universities, Business Link and candidates from Plymouth, Exeter and Bournemouth universities. This is our third year delivering expert communications coaching on a programme designed to enable senior academics to join the boards of businesses as Non-Executive Directors (NEDs).

The 2003 Lambert Review into university-business interactions highlighted the lack of academic NEDs in UK businesses, and recommended they consider recruiting academics. In this way companies gain the advice of an independent, analytical mind, while universities benefit from senior staff’s exposure to business.

VOX were originally asked to work on the course after being selected as finalists in the 2005 University of Bristol New Enterprise Competition. We’ll be looking to equip academics to hold their own in the cut and thrust of the boardroom, where cvs, deadlines – and tempers – can all be shorter than in academia.