Welcoming our new CEO

The new CEO of the Hertfordshire Chamber is looking to build on the existing foundations laid by his predecessor to grow the organisation as he moves into the hotseat.

Julian Carter is eager to start his new role and says he has no immediate plans to “rock the boat”, but is keen to continue growing the membership and supporting more businesses across the county.

In an interview before his first day, he also spoke about the need to get more workers back into work.

He joins the Chamber with an enviable track record in venture capital, setting up and advising on a range of mainly tech-based businesses throughout his career.

He says: “I just want to bring all that experience to my local county and I’m excited about the journey ahead.

“I think there’s great potential in the Chamber. Briege achieved a great deal during her tenure and that’s given me a solid foundation to grow from.”

Julian would like to double the current membership during his tenure and will be looking for innovative ideas to achieve that goal.

“We have got to be very creative though, in attracting new members, thinking outside the box and being always mindful of maintaining and improving value-add as the Chamber enjoys a high membership retention rate.

“If I can identify a growth area that we can efficiently scale without incurring additional costs or impacting the level of service, then that’s what we need to be doing.”

Using his background in technology, Julian would like to introduce systems into the Chamber to streamline processes and ultimately benefit the membership.

“The first thing is to understand what members want from their membership and that we are continually providing value-add and we’re always ahead of the curve. We need to understand emerging trends and provide the support and education to our customer base to adopt them.

It’s important to be connecting companies with each other. I’d like to bring more technology into the business to help us connect companies more effectively.”

However, he is quick to point out that he will be thinking more about evolution than revolution.

“The first thing is to maintain stability during a leadership transition. I don’t want to come in proposing lots of big ideas and changes. I firstly need to understand the business and gradually introduce and validate new processes and systems.”

“I’ll be getting to know the team, how they work and how they work together. I’ll look to re-establish the current values and consider if we need new values to live by and what our shared mission is.”

Julian, who grew up in Scarborough, started his career with an apprenticeship in printing technologies. As the father of two teenage boys, he has a keen eye on the opportunities that exist in the workplace, not just for young people, but also the over 50s.

“I am very keen on learning by doing and apprenticeships are becoming much more in vogue now. I’m thinking about my sons’ futures and I would encourage them to take an apprenticeship because you can study for a degree at the same time, avoid getting into debt and actually be able to do the job at the end of it. It’s also quite likely that you may get taken on by the sponsor company.

“I really want to get all workers back in the workplace. I think there’s a lot of ageism still out there in the market. When you consider that the working age population will reduce by 25 per cent by 2050, employers need a change of mindset to avoid this looming challenge.”

Julian, who spent time in Dublin before moving in 2007 to his wife’s home county of Hertfordshire when they started a family, enjoys quiet downtime away from work in his village.

“To me, success is getting the balance right across all aspects of life. One thing I do every day is thank my lucky stars because I am very grateful for what I’ve got.”