Lead celebrates first decade at anniversary reception

The community’s main leadership development organisation reflected on 10 years of achievement this week at an anniversary reception attended by many of its graduates.

Guests and graduates of Lead’s programmes, run by the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), enjoyed a lively discussion on leadership values between Keith Black, chief executive of the Regatta group and chair of the JLC and James Timpson, CEO of the Timpson retail empire, who recently found out he is of Jewish heritage.

Lead works cross-communally with trustees, lay leaders and professionals, investing in leadership through development opportunities, programmes, events and networking.

Simi Ben Hur, chief executive of Shaare Zedek UK, is a graduate of the Adam Science Leadership programme. She said: “It really pushed me to think strategically about how the community could work better together. That’s something I’ve taken into the role that I do now.”

Dan Sherman, COO of a major UK charity and an Adam Science alumnae said the programme gives participants “the confidence to be able to think broadly, to be able to draw in partnerships with other people, to seek new ideas and new ways of thinking. People that you can trust from your cohort come back and challenge you but do it in a way that is for the betterment of that idea.”

Dan Bacall, director of external affairs at the office of the Chief Rabbi, took part in the Dangoor Senior Leadership programme in 2017. He calls it a “formative experience, because it emphasised the importance of being authentic in leadership, knowing ourselves and our skills in a much clearer way, and it gave us a range of tools to do that.” He credits Lead with running a programme that creates “more self-aware and effective professionals and lay leaders.”