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Welcome from Karis Stander

Karis Stander,
READ TIME:   2  mins

There are few things more rewarding than to see an idea bear fruit and grow into a substantial enterprise. Even more so when the enterprise delivers such positive outcomes for young people and our industry. Since Andrew Formica and Nichola Pease formally launched their vision to diversify the type of students entering our industry back in March 2013, enormous progress has been made. The organisation now boasts 26 employer partners and has had 422 trainees on and through the scheme.

But that is just the start. The ambition is to become an industry-wide initiative that engages comprehensively with school leavers and graduates throughout the UK and I feel enormously privileged to have joined Investment 2020 at such an exciting time in its development. My first few months as Managing Director have passed in a blur. We have undertaken a brand review, agreed a new mission statement, brand essence and core principles and are unifying behind a noble purpose that truly reflects our vision.

A key focus has been to establish the infrastructure to raise awareness within education about the career opportunities our industry has to offer and sign posting them to our employer partners. To this end, we have also designed and built a new website aimed to appeal to prospective talent that will launch this week. The website is an essential tool of the student attraction campaign and I hope you will agree it is the personification of the cool, vibrant and welcoming personality we wish to project to the young people who are the future of our industry. Of course, none of this could have happened without the goodwill and hard work of you all and an enthusiastic team of contributors who have been extremely generous with their time and effort. In particular I would like to thank the Investment Association for their commitment to the cause plus allowing me and my team to be based at their offices; 21:12, MiP, and Lansons who have given us their skills and expertise pro bono; and of course my executive committee who have offered me so much support and personal time. 2015 promises to be a great year for Investment 2020. I’m looking forward to working closely with you to deliver on our plans and reporting back on our successes in early 2016.

Sincerely,

Karis

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