Guest articles

1. What inspired you to join the BBG Dubai & Northern Emirates Committee?

I’m very proud to be British and very keen to be an active supporter of the local British Community in whatever shape or form appropriate. Joining the BBG provided me with an opportunity to meet fellow Brits, understand their business needs and assess what I could do to help or support them with their ambitions and those of UK plc in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

2. What does your role involve?

My role is primarily to support the Chairman and other Committee members on the delivery of our vision to be the “Go to Business Group in the Region”. We’ve invested considerable time and effort to re-set our strategy, we’ve a plan in place and I see part of my role as ensuring we successfully execute against the plan. I also think it important that I meet with members and prospective members to get their feedback on how they feel the BBG is helping or could help and ensure we are positioning ourselves correctly to support our members meet their objectives.

3. Is there anything special you have been working on?

My focus has been strategy, strategy and strategy. When I joined I felt the BBG had lost it’s way, our membership engagement wasn’t effective, we were running too many events with half-hearted attendance and our membership numbers were falling. It was vital that we re-set the vision of the BBG, confirm our purpose and start to provide members with real tangible benefits. Whilst we’ve only just started on this journey I’m already starting to see the “green shoots of progress” and over the coming six months I expect these to grow such that at next year’s AGM we have very little to say as our members will already know and feel what has been achieved and what is on the horizon.

4. What’s next?

Next is all about delivery against the strategy, we’ve four work streams which we are focused on; our value proposition to members, membership engagement, collaboration with key stakeholders and operational excellence.......driving these forward is all that is “next” for me.