In his latest blog, our CEO reports on steps being taken to ensure your Chamber leadership continue to build solid foundations for future growth.
For those of you who are regular attendees at Chamber events, you'll be aware that the diversity of expertise among members is both growing and impressive. We are fortunate to have some genuine thought leaders in their field involved in the group and to be fair, that's been the case for many years. One of those subject matter experts is John Harte, Managing Partner of Integrity Governance.
I remember John tapping me on the shoulder to see if he could be of assistance when I was run off my feet at the first Chamber event I helped out at in late 2010. Since then, he's been around at the right time to offer advice and volunteer his time as we have sought to modernise and diversify the organisation, particularly through the Mentoring Program.
And so, I was delighted that the newly elected Board invited John to deliver some training in our offices this week, focusing on practical governance and board effectiveness.
John is one of the most highly sought after Corporate Governance experts both here in Australia and overseas. He completed the “Leading Professional Services Firms” postgraduate course at Harvard Business School and has regularly participated in the Corporate Governance Summer School at Stanford University. John is a core, national, and international facilitator for the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
It was felt by the new Board that this training would be most useful to the group as we start on the next stage of chambers growth. The training was undertaken to help us build a stronger and more professional Chamber with the capacity to better formulate strategy, track progress and ensure we collectively promote high standards of conduct.
We all had plenty of questions that went on the whiteboard beforehand and one by one the answers were presented with great examples and stories ranging from Dutch East India story to more recent events at home and abroad. It was surprising just how much we managed to cover in the session - the first of a number that we will participate in. We felt it was important that you, as members and associates of the Chamber, had some insight into how we are striving to improve our knowledge and capability, just as you would in your own business.
Tom Mullarkey, Aoife Kealy, John Harte, Fergal Coleman, Carl Walsh and Sandra Booth at this week's Corporate Governance Training session.
This is another step forward in building resilience and professionalism within your Chamber as we expand our national and international operations.
I know that Governance as a topic can be a challenge to some who find it less than stimulating but I would certainly recommend John to deliver advice and training on the topic to your business as it's done in a very accessible and practical way, with good humour and interaction - just look at the smiling, energised faces of some of the board at this week's session (and that was two hours in, after they all had a day at work under their belt too!).
If you'd like to get in touch with John to see how he can help your board add value, you can email him via office@integritygovernance.com
