NetApp Capital Solutions, supporter of the Leasing Foundation’s Future Leaders programme, have sponsored an award for the person in the programme who demonstrates outstanding potential for growth and achievement.
The Outstanding Future Leader Award has been created by Sharon Butler, NetApp’s EMEA sales director, and Dave Allen, vice-president and general manager Northern EMEA at NetApp.
It comes out of Sharon and NetApp’s enthusiastic commitment to the programme, which she commented on in Leasing Life earlier this year when she said:
“The Leasing Foundation can provide a network for the next generation of leaders that will allow them to thrive”.
The Leasing Foundation Future Leaders programme provides leadership development that identifies, nurtures and supports a network of exceptional people who are the future of the industry. It helps these future leaders to develop visionary and strategic competencies for leadership, to achieve excellence, and to act with clarity, courage, and integrity.
Talking about the award, Sharon says:
“We wanted to recognise the person who, out of all of the talented people who were recommended for the programme, epitomised what we at NetApp see as authentic leadership – open communication, an understanding of business processes, real credibility, personal responsibility and positive influence.”
Entering its second cycle, the programme has developed a unique, world-class leadership programme that identifies, nurtures and supports a network of exceptional people who are the future of the industry.
Professor Peter Thomas, COO of the Leasing Foundation and one of the programme’s advisory group, says
“There are many excellent leadership programmes, but none that are centred on authentic, relevant personal development and reflection and that are led from within the industry. The advantage we have in building our programme is the enthusiastic support and commitment of the Foundation’s Fellows including Sharon Butler and sponsors such as NetApp”.
The programme brings together a small number of young and talented people recommended by senior sponsors from the industry. Participants work together in a facilitated learning set where they can draw on each others’ experiences and insights to help explore current and future leadership challenges. The Foundation provides resources including access to senior leaders in The Crucible, executive coaching and industry briefings. Future Leaders explore issues including how to connect strategy to purpose, how to identify, nurture and create excellence, how to act imaginatively and inclusively and how to focus on creating shared value.
Two recent events have featured the programme. The first, a half-day conference at the Leasing Foundation Annual Conference in October 2014 at the SGEF corporate headquarters in Paris, was sponsored by CIT and included Société Générale Equipment Finance CEO Marie-Christine Ducholet in the Crucible, a workshop on key industry topics including European innovation, and Q&A sessions with Foundation Fellows and Governors. The second was a one-hour panel at the Leasing Life Conference in Warsaw In November, where Carl Daufer (Bibby Leasing) and Rachael Woods (CIT), along with Melanie Chell (Shoosmiths), Lisa Marks (Stephenson Harwood) and Carol Roberts (Bibby Leasing), discussed the aims and outcomes of the programme.
The Outstanding Future Leader Award will be presented in March 2015 at the closing dinner for the programme in London.
“We know that by supporting the programme, we are supporting the industry”, says Sharon Butler. “And that by recognising potential in an Outstanding Future Leader we are marking out someone with true potential – potential to adapt to changes in the industry, potential to grow and so the potential to make their organisation the best it can be.”