Jeremy Urbach:

Positioning himself for boardroom success

Jeremy Urbach could be considered a Future Director’s veteran, after completing one of the very first iterations of the Board Ready Program. At the time, Jeremy had just started up his own company and recognised the need to discover more about the boardroom. Now, he is the director of his company – a boutique funds management and finance firm – as well as director and recently-appointed Treasurer of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Victoria.

The topic of MND has always been something Jeremy has held very close to his heart, after the disease heavily affected his family. It gave Jeremy the desire to help and get involved, but given that he had no medical background, he felt like he was left with few options. While he was skilled in certain areas like finance and strategy, he didn’t feel like they were immediately applicable to the cause.

Jeremy had the idea that he could put those skills towards a board that was related to MND, as he was always interested in becoming a director, though he was unsure how to go about it. At the same time, he had been successfully starting up his own company and was beginning to realise that there was no established method that teaches a person how a board operates effectively.

Undertaking the program gave Jeremy the ability to provide his company and board with better strategic direction, as well as the knowledge in marketing his skills and values to showcase his boardroom potential to other organisations. The program answered questions such as Do I have what it takes? What could I bring to a board? How do I even go about approaching one? Moreover, it gave him the confidence necessary to go out and show a board why he’d be so suitable for them.

The program also taught Jeremy that you don’t need to change your skills or attributes in order to be the perfect match for a board. Rather, it showed him that there are boards out there that suit each individual, without needing to change who you are to be effective. The program allowed him to see his strengths, showed him how to properly seek out a board that would be suited to him, and taught him how to position himself in a way that would be most advantageous to success.

Jeremy believes the program provided him with an immense amount of benefits. It taught him how to pitch himself to an organisation, how to focus his aim and recognise what it is he wanted to get out of that organisation, what works for him in terms of approach, and how to feel confident enough to go for it. Through the assignments given to him during the program, he was able to figure out the companies he wanted to target, which encouraged him to connect with them on LinkedIn. This new found confidence and knowledge led to his success in achieving a board role at MND Victoria, where he can finally provide the help he has always wanted to give.

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