Meet Penny de Valk, Chief Executive of ILM
Penny de Valk became the new Chief Executive for the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) on 29th October 2007. For the last three years she has been Strategy Director at Ceridian UK, a US$1.5bn HR services organisation. Before this she ran several of Ceridian’s HR businesses across Europe and was recently ranked 40th in HR Magazines’s most influential.
Born in New Zealand, de Valk moved to the UK ten years ago prior to which she was Chief Executive of New Zealand’s Institute of Management in Auckland for four years, where she oversaw rapid growth and market impact,
‘My decision to join ILM was driven by a desire to work for an organisation that made a significant contribution to the quality of organisational life and organisational success, and to lead a group of people committed to making a difference to that end,’ says de Valk. ‘Having worked for 20 years helping organisations make the most of their people, I remain convinced that the quality of management and leadership is the most powerful catalyst to driving value in any organisation.’
Looking at the challenges ahead for ILM, de Valk believes that expectations have magnified from every direction for leaders and managers in the UK. ‘While organisations need to get more from less to remain globally competitive, we are also managing a diverse and changing workforce with different expectations for the quality of their working lives,’ says de Valk. ‘The biggest challenge for managers and leaders is to master the broad range of skills required in the modern workplace as well as maintain the personal and professional resilience to thrive in this new environment. We need to do this if we are going to bring out the best in ourselves, our people and our organisations. Even more we need to be able to do this over many years, as retirement ages are pushed out and we have to manage our careers no longer as a sprint but a marathon.’
Having spent 10 years in the UK, de Valk admires the variety, breadth and depth of what is on offer – from the arts and ideas to people and places. ‘Britain is a wonderful place to live and work. On top of the great culture, there is a real dynamism to the country, which always keeps you challenged.’