Springboard has been supported by committees and advisory boards for many years. Our 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).

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.

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. 

Working closely with the Chair of the Scotland Advisory Board, Paul Wilson of Xpress Recruitment, Kelly reviewed any current skills gaps in the board, which led to the creation of an advert to recruit new board members.  We were overwhelmed with the applications, which also galvanised the Wales and Northern Ireland boards to be established.  

In January this year David Walker the Chair of the North West England Advisory Board handed the reigns over to Adrian Ellis of The Lowry, after helping to set up the board. 

Kelly added “I am really looking forward to working with Adrian Ellis and David Steel, our Deputy Chair.”

In the last 12 months, we have also reignited the London Advisory board and our new Chair, Francisco Macedo of Cliveden House, is supporting Bryan Grierson, Operations Director across London.

Bryan said: “We are currently welcoming our new members and are encouraging more to join. Membership on a board is a great opportunity and experience to those in the sector who want to support development and growth”

Michael Grove of Hotstats is Chair of the Wales Advisory Board and Lisa Steele is the Chair of the Northern Ireland Advisory Board.

Our five highly experienced Chairs have committed to meeting regularly outside their regional meetings, which will drive a consistent approach across the UK.

In the last 12 months, we have put lot of work into developing our advisory boards and members to support the exciting projects that Springboard has planned for the next 18 months.  Springboard to 2022 has ambitious plans to get 10,000 young people into the sector and the advisory board members will all play their part in making this happen.

To enquire about joining an advisory board please get in touch with Kelly Johnstone (kellyj@springboarduk.org.uk)

See below what some of our advisory board members have said: