Stuart Hopper was awarded a Cranfield charity scholarship to attend the Non-Executive Directors' Programme. These scholarships offer free tuition to those working in or with the charity sector.
Stuart was recently appointed to the board of the African Gifted Foundation, a UK-registered charity focusing on STEM education for gifted girls across the African continent. He has also held board roles on his local community arts charity and his undergraduate university alumni association.
“As someone with limited charitable board experience I went into the Non-Executive Directors Programme with two main aims:
- To learn more about the nuts and bolts of being an effective NED for my current board roles.
- To gain guidance on how I might broaden my portfolio NED career.
“The two-day course certainly delivered on both of these.
“I am a lawyer by background and currently run a strategy and operations consultancy, advising law firms and legal departments. Consequently, I fully appreciate the importance of both practical experience as well as a good understanding of theory, underlying frameworks, regulations and markets when providing advice and guidance.
“In this regard, I found that the Cranfield faculty (one of whom has written one of the key books on boards¹) provided an excellent combination of skills and real-life experience, while the participatory format encouraged the programme attendees to contribute and share their experiences in a way that definitely enriched everyone’s learning.
“In terms of the nuts and bolts of being a NED, by moving sequentially through legal responsibilities, effective governance and boardroom finance, I found the later topics on working with boards and committees, risk management, board evaluation and effectiveness and board dynamics built really well on the fundamentals.
“One of my key takeaways was to gain a sense of the overlapping, interlocking nature of board activities. These linkages became much clearer as we progressed through the programme, and were brought out nicely by the faculty with their use of personal anecdote and knowledge.
“When looking at how to secure further NED roles, the programme combined clarity about the key attributes of an effective NED with advice on how to develop and apply my knowledge and skills to board room challenges in different organisations. This, together with some of the practical guidance on such things as how to put together a good NED CV, has certainly given me more confidence in pursuing non-executive placements, building a NED network and, hopefully, a portfolio of NED roles in due course.
“A two-day course will only ever scratch the surface of the myriad issues around non-executive directorships, but here again the programme also provides a really helpful set of additional resources for further reference. My commuting and bedtime reading is sorted for the foreseeable future!
“Finally, the benefits of being in a room with other like-minded people, aligned around a common goal, can’t be underestimated. I must thank all of my fellow programme participants, the faculty and guest speakers – our NED learning journey is off to a great start.”
For more information on the Cranfield Non-Executive Director Programme download the brochure:
1 “Boards” by Patrick Dunne (one of the course materials)
