One of the region’s favourite charities, GNAAS, welcomed a new CEO, David Stockton, last year thanks to the recruitment services of Experience Bank Group. Since his appointment, David has focused on using his commercial flair to cement the future of the charity by encouraging creative income streams, ambitious delivery plans and positive culture within the team.

David who has an impressive career in corporate leadership roles, as well as being a shareholder in multiple companies and being instrumental in a joint venture partnership, was all set for retirement until Peter Neal, founder of Experience Bank Group, approached him about the role.

David realised he was still keen to make a difference in the right place, and applied for the role having seen one of the helicopters fly over his home. He said:

“I joined at a time when the impact of COVID had made the charity have to batten down its hatches and the team was wondering how it would survive. With my experience and skills, alongside a talented team and refreshed board, we restructured, looked after the team, grew our volunteer base, found new ways to fundraise and invested in our culture, office and administration space to encourage supporters to visit.

“The work this team, our paramedics, doctors and pilots do is simply amazing. I am blown away at their approach daily and together we are carving a way forward for a great opportunity to help even more people with our service.”

Through connecting with the local business community, renting out board room and conference space and growing corporate engagement, along with growing legacy donations, the charity has had their busiest year with 1620 interventions, which has led to the team looking at the opportunity to offer their service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Peter himself has been on the main GNAAS board for several years, is a member of the Nominations Committee, a Non-Executive Director of the Trading Company, and has helped identify a number of board members and strengthen governance for the charity recently. Peter said:

“GNAAS is such an intrinsic part of the North East community, so it has been an honour to help them shape the executive and non-executive team to this point and to join the board myself.

“There is still some work on going on that project with further announcements due soon. It has been very satisfying to see the charity thrive under David, particularly seeing the

helicopters get updated; along with the whole team, I look forward to when in around 18 months’ time we can launch the 24 hour a day service.”

As reflection of the recent work undertaken, the charity won the Overall Business of the Year Award and the Best Regional Ambassador accolades at the NEECC Awards.

David concluded:

“As a recruitment expert and as a board member Peter has a number of key skills – he is a great communicator and has people at the heart of everything he does. I would recommend his services wholeheartedly.”

Experience Bank Group incorporates The Experience Bank philanthropic, social enterprise company along with a commercial venture providing three symbiotic services - EB Board Level Recruitment, EB High Performing Boards and EB Continuous Personal Development.

With this combination of specialist expertise, the Experience Bank Group is uniquely positioned to help organisations ensure they have not only the right skills in the leadership team and boardroom but also optimum board performance with higher value creation.

5% of all revenue from Experience Bank Group is gifted to The Experience Bank social enterprise to enable more start-ups, early-stage businesses, charities and social enterprises access to high quality, advisory and non-executive talent.

If you are keen to know more then visit www.theexperiencebank.co.uk or call Peter on 07843 329393.