Lessons from the NED Journey – Practical Tips for Securing Board Roles

Are you an aspiring or early-career Non-Executive Director (NED) looking to secure your next board position? Join us for an engaging 45-minute webinar with a current NED who has successfully navigated the early stages of her board career and is continuing to build her portfolio. She will share candid insights, practical strategies, and key lessons learned from her own journey—helping you take meaningful steps toward your next board role.

What You’ll Learn:

• Breaking Into the Boardroom: Actionable advice on securing your first or next NED role, including networking strategies, leveraging your expertise, and identifying opportunities.
• Understanding NED Roles: An overview of typical board positions and how to align your skills and experience with board needs.
• Building & Developing Your Personal Profile: Tips on enhancing your personal brand and visibility and positioning yourself as a strong candidate for future roles.
• Remuneration Expectations: Understand the remuneration landscape for NEDs and how compensation varies across industries, types of companies, and geographic regions.
• Real-World Experiences: First-hand insights from the speaker’s own journey, including challenges faced, lessons learned, and strategies that worked.
• And More: Practical guidance on governance, board responsibilities, and developing the right mindset for long-term success as a NED.

This session is designed to provide honest, experience-based advice from someone who is actively building their NED career—offering you relatable and actionable takeaways.

Aedín is an experienced independent non-executive director and sustainability professional, with a 25+ year executive and advisory career spanning asset and wealth management, funds, tax, insurance, pensions, and ESG.

She is a PCF approved director in the funds sector, currently serving on the boards of Irish regulated entities and sitting on the Council of the Irish Fund Directors Association (IFDA). She is also independent non-executive director on the boards of TG4 and Charities Institute Ireland and contributes to various board committees, including Audit & Risk, Finance, Investment, Strategy and Fundraising.

Aedín is also Chair of the ESG Working Group at IFDA, which she represents at the Central Bank of Ireland’s Climate Risk & Sustainable Finance Forum. She is a co-founding director of the Green Team Network, a collaborative climate action forum for the Irish funds industry and recent winner of the Sustainable Impact Award at the 2025 Spider Awards.

As an ESG and sustainability practitioner, Aedín advises corporate boards and executive teams, and provides training intermittently for professional bodies such as Institute of Banking, Institute of Directors, Insurance Institute Ireland. She is a regular keynote speaker, moderator, and panellist at leading industry events, i.e. the Business Post ESG Summit, the National Pensions Summit, the Chartered Governance Institute Conference. A formal NED reviewer for the Climate Governance Initiative (established by the World Economic Forum), Aedín also evaluates climate courses and programmes from different geographic chapters through the lens of the director.

Aedín’s earlier career included roles across asset management and independent advisory with Cantor Fitzgerald, Friends First, Sarasin & Partners, PwC, L&P Financial Trustees and Ulster Bank Investment Managers. She studied Commerce at UCD and later qualified as a tax consultant and QFA (Qualified Financial Advisor). Aedín also holds a Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors.

Aedín is continuing to build her “portfolio career”, seeking opportunities where she can add value through a mix of commercial and pro-bono roles.