I am a property developer working for Birmingham Development Company, the regenerations specialist behind The Mailbox and The Cube. I won the Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2008 award. I’m also Chairman of the Local Advisory Board for the Metropolitan Enterprise Academy in Birmingham, the first Academy dedicated to enterprise and business for 16-19 year olds. Originally from N.Ireland, I now count Birmingham as my home and am passionate about the place!
1. Who / what is your inspiration?
Sheer hard work and grit is hard to accomplish in practice – I had a perfect example of it in my dad. He always put me and my siblings first to make sure we had every opportunity we could. You don’t need a superstar or a politician to aspire to, it’s often the most selfless deeds that make the biggest impact – so for me it’d have to be him.
2. Which / what type of organisation are you involved in?
I am Chair of the Local Advisory Board for the Metropolitan Academy for Enterprise and Business. That’s a new academy set up for 36 get-up-and go students who are taught (alongside their normal studies) business and enterprise by the city’s leading business professionals. The aim is to change these kid’s attitudes to and experience of business.
3. What prompted you to get involved in volunteering?
For businesses, it’s no longer a luxury to be discretionary about corporate social responsibility. I’ve found that my professional and social life is enhanced by volunteering, meeting new people and generally running towards a problem! I have been helped during my career – it’s not rocket science to pass that on.
4. What’s the best thing about volunteering?
Volunteering brings out the best in people. The difference you make is tangible and often long-lasting. It provides transferrable skills to use in business such as time management, prioritizing tasks, meeting new people, owning a problem, finding a solution etc. For me, the best thing is the personal satisfaction in knowing you’re adding to a community that you live and work in.
5. Who have you met while volunteering?
I have made some good friends volunteering. I enjoy meeting the people at the ‘coalface’ of a charity who are trying to make a difference to the lives of people in the City. I sign up to the saying that ‘people will readily forget what you’ve said to them but they’ll never forget how you’ve made them feel’.
6. What project are you working on at the moment / would like to highlight?
The Academy work is really gearing up now. We have a group of gifted students who are putting themselves out to go that bit further and get ahead in their education and personal development. They want to step out of the Aston classroom and into the Birmingham boardroom.
7. Why should others get involved?
The best volunteers I have seen aren’t those that do it out of an obligation or to tick a box. Do it because you think you can make a difference and really change something!
If any employer is interested in the future of their business and in good young talent, get involved with the Career Academies and support the future business leaders of our great city.
To get involved in this type of voluntary work, please see the Career Academies’ website: www.careeracademies.org.uk and if people are interested in getting involved with their work please contact ….
Guest speaker was Paul Thandi, Chief Executive of The NEC Group and number 1 in The Birmingham Post’s Power 50 2009, who extolled the virtues of the city as a venue to both start and progress a successful career and urged Birmingham’s newest recruits to do all in their power to “make the city different”, pointing out that we have at our disposal all of the
