Lisa Pogson, President – A Personal Statement

Further to our first meeting of the new year, we have a dynamic forward looking Board, which has a great balance of skills, knowledge and experience from a range of business backgrounds, all of who challenge, inspire, support and mentor lots of people in the background (as well as me).

Gender is not the focus, it is having the right people, with the right skills, though the Women in Business group had a strategy to get a woman on all the working groups (as there weren’t many) and a female President too.

I make no apology for our large Board, which has and will work in sub groups when needed to push on things. I am GRATEFUL for everyone’s time, particularly the unpaid, voluntary time. It is a shame we weren’t all at our first meeting of the year but that is what happens, we are all busy and have a life outside work too. Again, it’s great to have more people to help – this photo highlights to me #balanceforbetter

Thank you all, whether you were there or not!

When I got involved with the Board at the Chamber, it was heading in a good direction from where it had been struggling with all sorts of issues, not least some government and EU contracts, which most Chambers have moved away from. Chris and Owen had some difficult conversations and decisions to make with the Board, followed by Paul too. We have definitely moved forward, and I am very grateful to them and everyone involved. I was the only female member of the Board at the time, closely followed by Helen Jaggar, and it was my first Non-Exec role.

I was not too nervous, as used to being in many all male meetings in Construction. I have been helped, supported and encouraged to ask the awkward questions that I had. I have welcomed the back story often, particularly around REAL (thanks Richard) and understanding more about Group accounts (thanks Mark and Michelle Walker too). Eventually Chris and Owen moved moved off the Board, as will I eventually, after I have been Past President from November.

It would be great if any of you and/or some of your team could be at International Women’s Day. One, to support all the team and the Working Group that have pushed on this and two, we have Dan Jarvis there and it would be good to see a mix of people, especially Board or some Rep Council folk, even if you can’t stay for the whole event, as it goes on into the early evening.