CEO Today - UK Awards 2023

I was then appointed to the global board of Grant Thornton International Ltd. This included 10 years in China, doing a lot of cross-cultural work – advising boards of member firms about operations and brand development. I worked to bring five separate Chinese accounting firms together within Grant Thornton in China and ended up working with the Chinese government on helping them on the rebranding of the Chinese accounting profession. So, I was intimately involved in writing the guidelines for the branding of Chinese accounting firms, which seems a bit weird now, but I received a letter of thanks so it must be true! Whilst I was commuting between Yorkshire and Beijing, I joined the Institute of Directors in the North of England to maintain my network in the UK. As part of that, I got involved as a volunteer in North Yorkshire, Outstanding Leadership for Business Networking Organisation of the Year Director General, Institute of Directors Jonathan Geldart www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today United Kingdom Awards 2023 9 Can you tell us about the career journey that led you to become Director General at the IoD? Having started my career in the brewing industry, I spent 16 years at PwC, covering experience in insolvency, corporate finance, marketing strategy and their middle market practice. After I left PwC, I walked to the North Pole. And that was a kind of seminal moment for me – doing something that was very different, but which taught me a lot about leadership and resilience. “My name is Jonathan Geldart and I am the Director General of the Institute of Directors. The IoD is the UK’s leading membership organisation for business leaders. Our membership includes directors from right across the business spectrum – from media to manufacturing, from professional services to the public and voluntary sectors. Members include CEOs of large corporations as well as entrepreneurial directors of start-up companies. This year, we are celebrating our 120th year. We also received a Royal Charter in 1906, instructing us to “represent the interests of members and of the business community to government and in the public arena, and to encourage and foster a climate favourable to entrepreneurial activity and wealth creation.” The Charter also tasks the Institute with promoting “for the public benefit high levels of skill, knowledge, professional competence and integrity on the part of directors”, which the IoD seeks to achieve through its training courses and publications on corporate governance.”

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