In February 2021 Springboard launched its new Northern Ireland Advisory Board. Spring board has been supported by committees and advisory boards for many years. Their Advisory Members are responsible for helping to support the strategic vision, direction, goals and quality of service delivery of the Charity (and its trading subsidiary, Springboard UK).

Lisa Steele of Hastings Culloden Estate & Spa has taken on the role of Chair of the Northern Ireland Advisory Board with Nichola Daly of Daly Recruitment as deputy chair.

Although the day-to-day management activity is carried out by the executive team, the role of an Advisory Board Member is to help and support where possible, ensuring that Springboard’s programme of work is relevant to the needs of both its charity beneficiaries and the hospitality, leisure, and tourism industry. They are key to also ensuring that that appropriate partnerships are in place and that our activities are implemented to best effect, in line with Springboard’s strategic priorities and with the adequate funding / resources to support our work.

Nichola speaks of her delight on her appointment and contributions to the board “As a leading recruiter in hospitality, I feel my contribution and experience of working within the hospitality industry compliments the vision of Springboard. As we collectively join together to rebuild and repair our industry, I am passionate about working to develop a clear strategy to secure the talent pipeline for not only the immediate recovery but the future of our industry as a whole”.

Springboard’s longest serving advisory board is our Scotland one. When Kelly Johnstone, COO, joined the organisation in 2014, the Scotland Springboard Advisory board were already an established board, made up of cross-sector industry members across education, government, skills development Scotland, industry bodies and training providers. This board has gone from strength to strength.

Kelly says “It was a vision of mine to set up more Advisory Boards across the UK, inline with the programme of works and to mimic the wealth of experience and knowledge harnessed in our Scotland Advisory Board” 

In 2019, Kelly established the North West England Advisory board, which had a hugely successful first year.  Then, in 2020, hit with the pandemic and lockdowns, we entered into the world of virtual meetings.  During this transformational period of time, many things changed and it gave Springboard an opportunity to visit our advisory board membership.

The advisory board for Springboard NI consist of leading industry representatives including:

• Lisa Steele – GM of Hastings Culloden Estate and Spa.   Chair.
  
• Nichola Daly – Daly Recruitment. Vice Chair.
  
• Paula McInytre – Chef
  
• Malcolm Allan – GM, AC Marriott.
  
• Mark Rice – Curriculum Hub Manager Hospitality & Tourism at Belfast Metropolitan College. 
  
• Richard McGowan – Galgorm Collection.
  
• Jacqueline Canning – Andras House Group.
  
• Esther Dobbin – National Trust.
  

Regional Manager for Northern Ireland is the newly appointed Caitriona Lennox.

Michele McCreary will be heading up the ROI market and is Head of Springboard for the Island of Ireland.

For a full list Springboard’s employability programmes & to upskill visit: https://springboard.uk.net/who-we-are/our-programmes/