Installation Speech of New Master, Mark McLane

Good evening Sheriff, our sponsoring Alderman, Peter Estlin, Freeman, members of the Guild, guests and friends, with a special welcome to Vicky Russell - Deputy Chairman of the City Livery Committee and our livery liaison person.

I would like to begin the evening with a thank you to the Master of the Ironmongers’ Company and their team for hosting us in this grand hall along with the catering staff for making this evening so special.

I would like to thank our sponsors Barclays and the Aziz corporation and the admin team from Executive action for supporting this evening and our distinguished guests at my table many of whom are current and past Masters.

I would like to acknowledge our first Master Robert Potter for investing his time and energy in recognising the value of getting the Guild of HR Professionals started and for his continued contribution to the leadership of the court.

Finally I would like to thank past Master Jacqueline Davies not only for her leadership over the past 18 months but for her unwavering dedication to the Guild and the profession at large. Jacqueline has built on the foundation put in place by Robert ensuring that the Guild’s leadership for the future is solidly in place, I am now honoured to be trusted to continue that great body of work and to continue to help the Guild grow toward company status.

That said I would like to acknowledge our leadership and would ask our Senior Warden – Danni Harmer, Middle Warden – Paul Hucknall, Junior Warden – Annette Andrews and the court members to stand and be recognised.

With this strong team I believe the Guild’s future is bright and well positioned for the year ahead in accomplishing the following;

• Support of the City and Lord Mayors vision of ‘helping one million people thrive’ through
  • Building and inclusive city through the power of diversity
  • A healthy city through the ‘This is Me’ in the city campaign
  • A skilled City focussing on building digital skills and innovation
  • And a fair city through employee engagement in our communities
• The advancement of our profession to address the changing needs of our business and the skills our businesses require from a cutting edge HR function
  • Be it advanced analytics
  • AI and machine learning to take out administrative burden
  • collaborating with professional organisations such as the CIPD to deliver the skills needed to advance the profession
• Giving back to the community through charitable and pro bono activities that are anchored in our profession.

With each of these ambitions the leadership of the Guild will be reaching out to our members and prospective members to ask for your support in achieving these goals so please attend and be a part of our first common hall and all members evening on November 27th.

It is said that the HR Guild is a modern Guild and when asked most define modern Guild as a new or newly established Guild and that would be correct, we are. I would also say that the HR Guild is a modern Guild from the standpoint that as a profession we recognise the continued need to modernise the profession to continue to deliver the skills needed to keep our businesses competitive in the market place and organisations successful.

And tonight, we will have the opportunity to weave being a modern Guild into the tradition of the history of a Guild, which again is a symbol of being able to build on the past while looking forward to the future. Tonight is less about speeches and more about Fellowship, taking the time to network and build relationships that might not otherwise occur.

All of this could not be possible without the hard work of all the volunteers, your commitment and generosity in support of the Guild.

I would like to thank John Renz our Clerk and our assistant Clerk Debs whose leadership makes being a part of the Guild such a pleasure. And my partner Carlos whose unwavering support makes my life so full.

Please enjoy the evening, thank you again for your support of the Guild and for the coming year.