It is a privilege to be selected as the next President of the Insurance Institute of Leicester. I am delighted to be given the opportunity to give something back to my profession and in a small way repay the support and guidance I’ve had over the years. It is and always will be a people business and the network that the CII provides is brought alive by the work of local institutes and it’s volunteers, providing a comprehensive education programme and opportunities for networking and having some fun.

My presidential year’s theme is ‘Celebrating the IIL Community’. We have some amazing people on our Council, inspiring role models and a vast amount of skills and experience and I want to shout about it! We are a community that pulls together to help each other with many lifelong friendships and allyships having been formed over the years. I would like to find those who have insurance or financial services roles in Leicestershire but are isolated and introduce them to our fantastic community.

I will be driving active involvement with the CII central team using their resources to help us, I’ve already had a great meeting with our Regional CII Rep, Matt Ward and IIL will be featured in the next edition of the Journal magazine so watch out for it. I would also like to partner with other likeminded organisations with similar objectives to broaden our reach including our regional BIBA branches, work has already started by collaborating with them to share materials for our 2025 Careers Day.

I feel very lucky to have the support of many longstanding, experienced officers and I would like to thank them all for trusting in me and continuing in their roles for the forthcoming year and welcome several new members to Council. I hope to make a positive difference and work closely with you all and especially Tom as our Deputy President to provide continuity ensuring IIL continues to flourish and encourage and welcome new talent to our wonderful profession.