“My boardroom journey started in 2017 and continues on.”
Northern Ireland has more committees and quangos than most, yet smashing the proverbial glass barrier has sometimes seemed impossible, but Nadine Campbell is among the growing number who are proving that boardrooms are no longer male, pale and stale.
In 2017 Nadine joined the Boardroom Apprentice programme, but already had a desire to instigate change from within.
Initially discovering information regarding the programme on Twitter, it was her conversation with founder Eileen Mullan that cemented her application.
“I never felt that I had a place at the table, having a programme such as the Boardroom Apprentice made it a much more comfortable opportunity,” Nadine explained.
“I think it’s important to play your part in our society, otherwise you end up with the same train of thought and opinion. If we are not part of the change collective we won’t have diversity on different boards in Northern Ireland.”
During Nadine’s boardroom placement, she was placed with the Rainbow Project NI, based in Belfast, which works to promote the health and wellbeing of the LGBTQ+ community and their families in Northern Ireland.
“I felt that I had something to give in terms of wanting to volunteer my time to an organisation that I am passionate and care about,” she said “I had something to give, and I actually wanted to support, help and provide strategic direction.
“I know what my passions were in terms of what I was looking for, but I didn’t necessarily know the organisation per say. I did a bit of research and looked at the host boards at the time, and then chose The Rainbow Project. I’m very passionate about LGBTQ+ rights so they were my first choice.”
Not going in completely blind, Nadine had sat on various committees before joining the Boardroom Apprentice.
However, this did not impact any expectations as it was the unknown that attracted her to the programme.
Despite not knowing what to expect outside of training sessions and boardroom placement, Nadine felt that the programme exceeded any expectations she may have had to begin with.
“The structure of the Boardroom Apprentice programme means that you’re learning in bite size chunks,” the 41-year-old said.
“It’s not overwhelming. You’re learning with other people, which means you are developing relationships, even friendships with other apprentices.
“You get to connect with like-minded individuals, learn from the session leaders such as experts in the field of governance, finance, communications and much more. “It’s a way of building up your own network but also learning from one another as well. It is a crash course in leadership. ”The Boardroom Apprentice offers mandatory training sessions that better equip participants ahead of their placement. While initially finding the training sessions to be somewhat intense, the information quickly became second nature to Nadine.
Placed into teams, Nadine explained that they were given a case study to accompany their learnings. It was at the end of the programme that they were to present their findings to the a panel of experts from finance and governance. in Stormont – an activity that Nadine found to be extremely accomplishing and a true demonstration of their newfound knowledge.
“The training gives you the confidence to apply what you’re learning. If you didn’t have the training, the experience could be overwhelming for some.
Nadine also found that shadowing a board offered her to develop existing skills, including her listening skills, negotiation skills and emotional intelligence.
“I really developed my emotional intelligence in terms of being able to pick up on when somebody doesn’t say anything and being able to amplify the voices around the table.
“I’m passionate about raising women’s voices and would amplify what a female had said around the table if I felt they weren’t being heard, which is something I’ve consciously done throughout my board experiences because the boards that I sit on now are predominantly male.
“I suppose that’s the beauty of coming in as a new board member because you do have the luxury of being able to observe the landscape, see who’s who and how people interact with one another.”
With different opportunities arising during the 12-month programme, Nadine in particular took part in a range of fringe events.
When I started the program, I made a commitment to myself that I would push myself out of my comfort zone. This led me to happily take on the additional opportunities when they came our way. I was very focused on what I wanted to get out of the experience. Attending the fringe events opened up new doors, contacts and expanded my network. Which has been invaluable to this day.
“One of the things I would say for anybody who’s a Boardroom Apprentice: if you’re given the chance to go and speak about your own experience, then I would encourage you to take up those opportunities.
Nadine believes the programme is challenging the perceptions of what can be achieved.
“There’s definitely a role for encouraging a diverse board in terms of starting the conversation with boards themselves. The Boardroom Apprentice is actually encouraging people to come forward.
“It’s making sure that you get people from all backgrounds, from all walks of life because you don’t need professionals to be sitting on a board.
“Especially for women, to know that you can be more than just pigeonholed because of your sex, colour or background. I think we just need more diverse representation at all levels of society now because Northern Ireland is becoming more diverse and that’s not currently represented by the decision makers.
“It should be added that when you’re on the programme, you aren’t selected for your specialist knowledge – it’s all values based.
“We need more people to be coming forward, wouldn’t it be great if all of our boards represented our society and enabled real change to occur”
Since completing the programme in 2017/18, Nadine has gone on to become a fully fledged trustee of The Rainbow Project, wherein she is now the Treasurer and leads the Strategy, Sustainability and Finance subcommittee.
Additionally, she is also the interim chair of The Chartered Institute of Fundraising the membership body representing professional fundraisers across the UK.
Applications for Boardroom Apprentice are open until May 24th, 2022.