The Institute of Directors (IoD) has appointed three new ambassadors to its West Yorkshire branch.
Mandy Ridyard has been made education and skills ambassador while Brendan Chaplin becomes marketing and communications ambassador.
Rebecca O’Higgins has been appointed student membership ambassador.
Mandy is financial director at Baildon-based Produmax – aerospace engineers and global experts in flight control components and assemblies. The company has grown rapidly over the last five years and exports 70% of its sales worldwide.
Mandy is passionate about employee engagement and leads an apprenticeship programme at Produmax that has seen the average age of employees drop to 35 while headcount has doubled.
Her leadership has seen Produmax win two national aerospace awards.
Brendan is an entrepreneur, performance coach, and IoD chartered director based in Leeds.
After founding market leading training provider Strength and Conditioning Education in 2010, Brendan now supports businesses and organisations across the UK to introduce e-learning, lead generation and performance marketing into their businesses.
He has worked with many high-performance athletes, teams and institutions including The English Institute of Sport, British Tennis, Huddersfield Giants and England Netball.
Rebecca is an IoD student member and was a finalist at last year’s national IoD Student of the Year Awards.
She is currently completing an Executive MBA at Leeds Beckett University having graduated with a BA Honours degree in English and Geography. Rebecca, who comes from Dublin, has lived and worked in Vancouver, London and Leeds over the past seven years, working predominantly in luxury and premium retail for companies including L'Oreal, Estee Lauder and Victoria's Secret.
She now works for Savvy Marketing, Leeds, specialising in digital builds, project management and strategy.
Poonam Kaur, vice-chair of IoD West Yorkshire, said: “We are very pleased to have Mandy, Brendan and Rebecca on board our West Yorkshire committee. Each brings a valuable set of skills and experience with which to support existing IoD members while at the same time encouraging others within the business community to join us and benefit from the IoD, its membership and the professional services it provides.”
The IoD is the UK’s number one organisation for directors, providing connections, professional development and a lobbying voice for all types of business. The Institute helped to secure vital support for directors during the Covid-19 pandemic, including financial assistance for wage bills and changes to insolvency rules.
