Our Blog

Chairmen look to ease the lonliness of command 1 Dec 2011

It was no surprise when EquityFD sprouted an offshoot designed to help backed businesses find great chairmen. Apart from the strong business rationale, it's becoming increasingly common for FDs to look at chairman roles, rather than CEO ones, when they get fed up of the finance function. EquityChair draws on talent from across the business world, of course, it's not just finance managers. And that means it has its own specialist resource here at the web site. So I'm delighted to introduce the first post for the CindyChairman Blog.

EquityChair co-hosted the first of a number of Chairman dinners with Smith and Williamson last week. It was a great opportunity for a small group of Chairmen to network with their peers and to make very useful contacts across relevant businesses. For example, one of the guests chairs a building supplies business - and another a building services business. Their meeting was of great mutual benefit.

A number of guests commented on how rare it is to be able to meet other Chairmen in such an informal setting and how valuable it is to be able to do so. Networking with your peers is so useful not only where there are synergies across businesses – and therefore the ability to cross-refer; but also where you have the opportunity to discuss common issues faced by boards of private equity backed and growing businesses. We have encouraged the group to keep in touch by sharing contact information and I look forward to seeing some real value created amongst the group.

We have teamed up with Smith and Williamson to host a number of these events over the next year and we are looking forward to extending invitations across our Chairman network once dates and locations are confirmed.

I have always been a great believer in getting small, manageable groups of people together and the enormously positive feedback from the guests this week has only served to strengthen that belief. It can be a lonely job – so enabling Chairmen to build a community of peers with whom they can discuss issues has got to be of benefit not only for the Chairmen themselves, but to the businesses they help run.