As a fan of the FutureFinest Meet the Leader events, I attended this one with excitement.
In the hot seat was Diane Dunion of Dunion & Co and Matthew Ellis, Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner.
As a local firm supporting local businesses and local candidates we are driven to be involved in such a fantastic group. Not only as a Networking opportunity but we take an interest and learning from those with hugely exciting success stories, and be re-assured that Staffordshire is truly a place for business.
Diane spoke freely and engaged the members with a fascinating insight to her career thus far – from leaving education at a standard level to re-training at a later age and juggling a demanding Law degree with a young family alone. As most of us ‘fall into a role’ rather than becoming that pop star or air hostess we always dreamed about – Diane; armed with a law degree found a route to market within the public sector and found herself in love with insolvency and has become a specialist in her field. Diane now runs her own practice with a team of 3 and a strong reputation. Even studying further to branch out and support businesses with turnaround to still strengthen her business.
Matthew, a wonderfully interesting man again left school with no form of higher education and went into business with his best friend after again dreaming of becoming a professional golfer and this not becoming fruitful. Taking his passion for sport he ran a successful chain of sports retail stores before selling up and taking some time to enjoy life. After finding himself involved with the local parish council became more and more interested in local politics has now secured his role as Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner which is one of the most interesting roles I have had the pleasure of hearing about.
The event was highly enlightening and really proved the point that attitude has more to do with recruitment and career success than qualifications!
Skills can be taught and changed – attitude, passion, drive and enthusiasm cannot! And it’s also never too late to train and change your career direction!
Thank you to all involved and we look forward to the next exciting event!
