New Book Media Release
Contact: Elie Ball, PR: Business, Lifestyle & History T: 07803 392 710 E: elie.ball@pearson.com
Sophie Petit-Zeman ▪ Pub Date: 2nd February 2006 ▪ Price: £14.99
How To Be An Even Better Chair: Sensible Advice from the Public and Charity Sectors
The chairs of not for profit organisations are there to achieve important things, often changing others lives. It’s a tough job and leadership can be a lonely task. Written by chairs for chairs, How To Be An Even Better Chair is not a definitive guide, full of codes and structures; there are plenty of books out there that do that. This is a real practice guide, the book that tells you what it’s really like to chair by sharing the stories of dozens of chairs from all types and sizes of organisations across the public and charity sectors. Covering topics you won’t find addressed anywhere else, it provides a pooled wealth of experience from which all chairs, whatever their level of experience can learn something about being more efficient, effective and quite simply lifting their performance, and that of the board they head. If this book saves you making just one potential mistake, helps you tackle a tricky situation from a position of greater confidence, or reassures you that others have been where you are now and made it through, then it will have done its job.
Chairs featured include: Albert Tucker Comic Relief Bharat Mehta City Parochial Foundation Samantha Mant inc: Bristol Zoo Gardens Maggie Jones West Yorkshire Youth Association Joanna Foster inc: Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust Jane Phillips Chair of National Association of School Governors Janet Paraskeva Chief Executive, The Law Society Julie Mellor Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission. Prue Leith Ashridge Management College, The British Foods Trust and 3E’s David Isaac Chair of Stonewall and Modern Art Oxford Deirdre Hutton Food Standards Agency Michael Hastings Inc: Crime Concern, Comic Relief, Children in Need etc. Jane Campbell Social Care Institute for Excellence Author Dr Sophie Petit-Zeman migrated from medical research to communications and journalism, focusing on science, medicine and social care. She sits on more committees than a person should, is Trustee of the Brain and Spine Foundation and, after completing this book, was appointed Director of Public Dialogue, at the Association of Medical Research Charities. Endorsements “… essential for new chairmen of all sorts of organizations, and it is no bad revision for those who have years of experience… compulsory reading.” Julia Neuberger, experienced chair "… it's somehow comforting to read that even the most experienced chairs can get it wrong, and inspiring to see how they've generally got it right, or put it right. I found this book illuminating, useful, and a surprisingly good read." Prue Leith, experienced chair "The experienced Chair no longer has to feel that he or she is alone in leadership." Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive, National Council for Voluntary Organisations "The best way to help the chair improve the effectiveness of board behaviour is to make available the valuable real world experience of those who have been there and got that tshirt. This book does just that, lucidly and with spirit". Derek Higgs "… a valuable resource for both those who have been chairing for time immemorial and those coming to it bright-eyed and bushy-tailed." Geraldine Peacock, CBE, Chief Charity Commissioner, Chair-designate of the Charity Commission for England and Wales “This book, with its very welcome, down to earth approach, will refresh the experienced as well as guide those who are new to a chairing role.” Jim Coulter, former Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation