Leadership development business Black Isle Group has appointed two Scottish business leaders to its board.
Non-executive director and former BBC senior executive Atholl Duncan and former Budget-Rent-A-Car director Doug Sawers have become non-executive directors of the City of London-based business.
Duncan who is currently chairman of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation; the chairman of UK Coaching; and former chairman of British Horseracing will become chair of Black Isle Group. Sawers, a CA, who was formerly also MD of Ceridian, SD Worx and lastminute.com also joins as a non-exec.
The new investors believe there is considerable opportunity in the leadership development sector as CEOs and executives face coping with an era of unprecedented disruption and change.
Over the past 20 years, the Black Isle Group (BIG) has worked with some of the world’s best-known businesses to help their senior executives and leadership teams outperform.
Duncan said, “The aim is to grow BIG and create a market leading business focused on solving the people challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As technology disrupts the world of leaders, it also creates the opportunity for us to transform leadership development itself.”
Sawers added: “In such a rapidly changing business world, we believe a fundamental change in the way leaders learn is required. We intend to blend face to face learning and new technology to help embed changed behaviour. “The BIG Approach is focused on delivering long lasting change, improved performance and demonstrating clear and measurable results.”
Jeremy Campbell, the former chief people officer at Ceridian and SD Worx, will become the chief executive of Black Isle Group and join the board.
Tim and Beth Richardson, the founders of Black Isle Group, will step back from the day to day running of the business to focus on developing the Black Isle Group Foundation. It supports community and educational projects in developing countries and they says it is fast becoming a unique leadership development opportunity for BIG’s clients.
Tim Richardson, who will remain a key advisor on the board of BIG, said: “These new appointments mark a very exciting moment in the evolution of Black Isle Group. From humble beginnings more than 20 years ago, we have managed to build an exceptional team of talent and serve a great list of international clients.
“Now our vision for the future is, quite simply, to build one of the best leadership development and performance consultancies in the world.”
BIG has a broad range of corporate clients in the City of London, around the UK and internationally. They include Barclays, Standard Chartered, Toyota, Experian and Microsoft.
