“Young people can’t be board members.Young people can’t be in positions of power.Young people don’t have enough life experience.Young people don’t understand business.Young people don’t know wrong from right.Young people don’t understand responsible power.”
Yes we can, yes we do, and companies benefit from having a young voice on their board, a young voice who brings a young perspective, a young voice who represents the present market, a young voice who represents the future.
With a bit of facilitation and today’s thinking, a young voice can be a very valuable board member. It isn’t rocket science or even far out of the box. It is just a person under the age of 30 bringing something new and different to the table. If you want to access online markets, the current generation, and the next generation, you’re going to need the point of view of a young person.
I sit proudly on the board of trustees for Diverse City, who are real change-makers in the arts industry. They are now sponsoring me to attend OnBoard, a training programme for young board members, run by Rising Arts Agency.
Onboard has brought together a really cool group of young people who are mostly new to the role of being a board member and I am already learning that I have a lot of experience thanks to being on this board, and that Diverse City tick a lot of positive boxes compared to the issues the others raise from their own boards.
As ever, I always appreciate having my voice heard, and being a board member is a very effective way of getting my point of view across, and seeing my opinion actually make a difference in my little bit of the world.
The Diverse City board of trustees at one of our all day board meetings at the Esmee Foundation in London – I am so proud to be one of these incredible change-makersCo-written with Kerry Laws
