Director, Chair Development & Community

Vistage UK; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Office in Southampton

Travel opportunities

Job summary

Vistage UK is seeking a Director-level leader to unite Chair Development and the Speaker Programme, owning the full lifecycle from Academy to ongoing practice, and overseeing a 130-strong Speaker Programme to fuel member thought leadership.

You will sit on the UK & Ireland senior leadership team, lead a four-person team across Chair Development, the Speaker Programme, Events, and Sponsorship & Partnerships, and shape strategy while coaching Chairs.

Qualifications

• Track record designing and delivering learning programmes or coaching frameworks.
• Commercial thinking, able to connect activity to retention metrics and business impact.
• Strong facilitation skills with experienced business leaders.
• High energy, self-starter with executive presence and integrity.
• Data-informed approach with a feedback framework measuring impact.
• Background in learning and development or programme management.
• Currently operating at senior manager or director level.
• Willingness to be based in London with regular presence in Southampton and UK travel.

Responsibilities

• Chair Development & Enablement: own the full journey from Academy training through facilitator-led sessions.
• Speaker Programme & Speakers Bureau: provide strategic direction and coach the team to manage 130+ speakers.
• Events, Sponsorship & Partnerships: set direction for UK & Ireland events and build partnerships.
• Cross-Functional Intelligence: feed chair/member insights into marketing, growth and leadership.
• Team Leadership: guide a four-person team with strategic direction and coaching.

Skills

Chair Development

Speaker Programme

Leadership

Facilitation

Strategy

Job description

Vistage is creating a Director-level role that brings Chair Development and the Speaker Programme together under one leader for the first time. This role owns the full lifecycle of Chair capability, from Academy through years of ongoing practice, and oversees the 130-strong Speaker Programme that fuels the thought leadership our members value most. You will sit on the UK & Ireland senior leadership team, reporting directly to the Managing Director, and lead a team of four across Chair Development, the Speaker Programme, Events, and Sponsorship & Partnerships. This is a hands-on leadership role: you will set strategy while also facilitating VCG sessions, shaping NCM content, hosting CEO Tables Chair Edition listening sessions, and coaching Chairs across the UK community.

THE COMPANY

Vistage is the world’s largest CEO coaching and peer advisory organisation for small and medium size business (SME) leaders. We offer the most effective approach for SME enterprises to achieve better results and grow faster as well as for SME leaders to maximise their impact.

The 45,000+ members we serve are MDs/CEOs, owners and executives of SMEB organisations located across the UK and around the world. These SME executives typically spend a day or more with Vistage every month to immerse themselves in our comprehensive platform for making better decisions, getting better results and becoming better leaders. Our platform features three core elements: valuable perspectives from a trusted group of peers, professional guidance and meeting facilitation from an accomplished business leader (the Chair), and deep insights from subject matter experts.

Vistage was founded more than 65 years ago and we’ve grown every year since then by innovating to stay on the cutting-edge of business and being relentless in delivering value to our members. Our success is demonstrated by the fact that Vistage member companies grow 2.2 times faster than non-Vistage peer companies. Learn more about us at vistage.co.uk.

VISTAGE EMPLOYEE LIFE

Vistage’s success is anchored by a unique culture which reinforces employee commitment to the Vistage mission. It is a spirit of collective success and achievement which is also reflected in our workplace. Here’s a sample of the employee experience that helps drive our success:

• Welcome to our home. Our UK Office sits in Hedge End, Southampton while out US headquarters sits in San Diego, California. The Hedge End office features an open, modern aesthetic with lots of collaboration spaces and free coffee!
• We invest in your career. Each employee has an actionable career progression plan developed through individual collaboration with their manager.We focus on promoting from within and employee progression plans are complemented by all, we invest in staff development days as well as access to tons of individualised development resources and a tuition reimbursement program.
• We invest in you.Our employee benefits program incredibly generous! We offer life insurance of 4 times your base salary up to a maximum £1,250,000 benefit. Take care of your financial future with a pension plan where employees are automatically enrolled at a 5% contribution, and matching of 4%. You’ll also start with 20 days annual leave to allow you to relax and recharge . . employees receive additional annual paid days off based on tenure. All employee’s also have access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Travel Emergency Service, and more!
• We keep it fun! Whether you’re enjoying office celebrations or toasting your co-workers at our epic annual holiday party, you’ll see that we take having fun as seriously as helping our members succeed! The office vibe is business casual with flexible schedules that take a hybrid approach, splitting time between working in the office and working from home on an agreed cadence. We value mutual respect and laughter . . we hate stiff formality.

Vistage’s culture and sense of mission drives employee loyalty: more than half of our staff has been with the company for five years or longer. Are you ready to start your Vistage journey?

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Chair Development & Enablement. Own the full Chair development journey, from Academy training and early group formation through to designing and facilitating BCG and VCG sessions that drive lasting behaviour change. Design and deliver the annual National Chair Meeting, including the Chair Awards, and host CEO Tables Chair Edition listening sessions. Build an intelligence-led feedback loop across Chair Recruiting and Enablement, Marketing and Growth. Own commercial KPIs including Time to First Member, Time to Launch, Launch Success Rate, Groups in Standard, Member Retention Rate and CEQ.
• Speaker Programme & Speakers Bureau. Provide strategic direction, guidance and coaching to the Speaker Programme team, who manage the day-to-day operations of a curated network of 130+ accredited speakers delivering over 600 sessions a year. Ensure consistently high speaker quality, evolve the roster to meet member needs, and lead the annual Speakers Awards.
• Events, Sponsorship & Partnerships. Set the strategic direction for the UK & Ireland events calendar, including EVEs, CEO Connect and the Scottish Leadership Forum, with the Events Manager owning day-to-day delivery. Set the sponsorship and partnerships strategy, build key relationships and drive the pipeline against an annual target, with the Sponsorship and Partnerships Manager owning day-to-day execution.
• Cross-Functional Intelligence. Act as the structured route for feeding Chair and member intelligence back into Marketing, Growth, Chair Recruiting and Enablement and the senior leadership team, validating ICP hypotheses and informing content strategy.
• Team Leadership. Lead a team of four, comprising a Speaker Programme Manager, Speaker Programme Apprentice, Events Manager and Sponsorship and Partnerships Manager, providing strategic direction, guidance and coaching rather than day-to-day management.

QUALIFICATIONS

• A track record designing and delivering learning programmes, leadership development or coaching frameworks that have genuinely shifted how people operate, not just what they know.
• Commercial thinking, able to connect activity such as a VCG session to a retention metric and explain why it matters to senior leadership.
• Strong facilitation skills, comfortable in front of experienced, accomplished business leaders, commanding the room through credibility and preparation rather than hierarchy.
• High energy, a self-starter mentality and genuine executive presence, with a personal commitment to integrity, transparency and accountability.
• Data-informed rather than data-paralysed, able to design a feedback framework that measures impact at multiple levels.
• A background either in learning and development (e.g. Head of L&D, Director of Leadership Development, or Programme Director in a coaching or executive education organisation) or in a commercial/programme management route (e.g. Head of Faculty, Programme Director at a membership organisation, or experience running speaker panels or expert communities at scale).
• Currently operating at Senior Manager or Director level, ready for a full seat on a senior leadership team.
• Willingness to be based in London with regular presence in Southampton and UK-wide travel for events and Chair community engagement.

COMPENSATION

Competitive base salary plus performance-related bonus. Details discussed at interview stage.

JOB LOCATION

London-based with two to three days per week required at the Vistage UK office in Southampton (Hedge End). UK-wide travel for NCM, CEO Tables Chair Edition, regional events, forums, and Chair community engagement. The National Chair Meeting and flagship events are non-negotiable in-person commitments.