Dear Members,
Although Christmas and the end of year celebrations may seem a distant past, could I wish you all the very best for your new endeavours as well as a prosperous and much more peaceful 2025.
Looking back to the last quarter of 2024 and the start of XTEND’s 25th year, we have already had some very successful and well attended events – both members’ SIGs and speaker talks:
Sep 24 (F2F) – Dame Susan Rice about “New Dawn, New Opportunities” at The City University Club
Oct 24 (Zoom) – NED SIG: Nic Pillow “Funding of early start-ups”
Nov 24 (Zoom) – Lifelong SIG “How will Rachel Reeves first UK Budget affect your Lifelong Finance?”
Nov 24 (Zoom) – Duncan Rooders “Behavioural Economics: From Adam Smith to Modern Applications and Ethical Considerations.”
Dec 24 (F2F) – Magdalena Soffia “Navigating the Future of Work: How technological innovation is shaping UK labour markets and job quality”at the Institute of the Future of Work (IFOW) – hosted at Somerset House.
Here is my point of view:
• Where meeting are mainly to input knowledge such as Lifelong Finance SIG, we should continue online.
• However, as a networking group, and 5 years on from Covid, we really should get back to face-to-face (F2F) meetings whenever possible. The 2 F2F meetings in Q4 ’24 were very well attended and provided very positive discussion and interaction.
Could I please ask you all to suggest any venues (university campuses, professional firms, quaint locations, etc…) you already frequent or are aware of (within a reasonable price range)?
SAVE THE DATES: Looking ahead we have coming up:
TTuesday 28 Jan (Zoom) – Our main meeting this month is a joint meeting with Lifelong Finance SIG “2025 – a year of political and economic upheaval?”
Tuesday 11 Feb (Zoom) – Jean-Philippe Perraud from NEDonBoard “What makes for NED success, from the skills needed, applying for roles and then executing them effectively (warts and all).”
Thursday 20 March (F2F) – Panel moderated by Sue Milton with Susanne Alfs and Chris Potter “CYBER RISKS – A Boardroom priority” at El Vino’s, Fleet Street, London London EC4Y 1BJ
Last thought as many of you have engaged in your work with “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) as well as “Environmental, Social and Governance” (ESG) issues – including being B Corp certified.
Although XTEND is not a politically driven network, with both a 6 months old Starmer government and now the Trump administration in full swing, how do you view these affecting your strategy for the 4 years to come?
As usual, please revert with suggestions for theme talks and venues for your Committee to consider.
If you haven’t already, please make a habit of inviting a guest or two to any of our meetings whether online or F2F.
Many thanks in anticipation for your help.
Thomas
Thomas Saltiel
Chair XTEND – The Executive Network