Menai Owen-Jones, Damian Joseph, Kerry Chown, Mair Barron and Andrew Chainey have been named as ambassadors of the Institute of Directors in Wales.
The announcement comes as Richard Selby, co-founder and Director of Pro Steel Engineering, takes up his role as the new Chair of IoD Wales. Starting on Friday 6 November, he will be holding a bi-weekly virtual ‘Coffee with the Chair’ from 8.30am to 9.15am – . https://www.iod.com/events-community/events/event-details/eventdateid/27798
A Chartered Director, Menai Owen-Jones is CEO of national health charity, The Pituitary Foundation, and a non-executive director of Cardiff Metropolitan University, ACEVO and Race Council Cymru. Menai was appointed a Fellow of the RSA in 2019 for significant contribution to social change and was awarded the CEO Today UK and Global Awards 2019. With broad experience in the voluntary sector, across a range of organisations, Menai is passionate about civil society, leadership, equality and also a fluent Welsh speaker.
Damian Joseph is a seasoned entrepreneur with a social mission. He runs a successful coaching company specialising in executive coaching and also runs a company which helps people with disabilities and their families to hire disability equipment and have it delivered to help ease the difficulty of travelling with large amounts of bulky but essential items. Damian's goal is to bring about social change and to create services that are missing for people with disabilities.
Kerry Chown set up Cobalt HR in 2016 to help organisations raise business performance by implementing robust people focused practices. She has over 25 years in senior HR roles with specific experience of pay and benefits, appraisal schemes, employee engagement and performance management.
Mair Barron is Founder and Director of Best Practice Coaching & Mentoring set up in 2017 to support SMEs in South Wales. Previously, Mair held various board and leadership positions working for global leaders, Hays Specialist Recruitment and Odgers Berndtson in the recruitment and executive search markets.
Andrew Chainey has run Tantrwn.com for 20 years. The company is at the forefront of video communications tech, particularly with regards to live streaming, VR, AR, open source RPi, Arduino and Python projects.
All five ambassadors will work closely with the existing eight ambassadors who include Mike Caulfield, Gareth Jarman, David Roberts, Helen Watson, Ian Barwick, Liam Giles, Marianne Pettifor and Meirion Morgan. Together, they will have the support of Chair Richard Selby, National Director Robert Lloyd Griffiths OBE, Simon Williams as Branch Manager and Kerri Anne Mruk as Regional Manager.
Robert Lloyd Griffiths said:
“We know that better Directors create better businesses which in turn leads to a better economy. Now more than ever, we need to embrace and support strong business leadership and corporate governance. Our ambassadors play a really important and highly valued role in connecting, developing and influencing across Wales which is why I am delighted to welcome Menai, Damian, Kerry, Mair and Andrew to the team. Together, they will provide local connectivity with IoD Members and give a local ‘voice’ and presence to our work across Wales.”
As Chair of IoD Wales, Richard Selby has taken over from Jean Church MBE. She was previously Chair of the South and West Wales region from 2008-2011 and remains closely involved with the IoD as Senior Independent Council Member.
