Sandra Meadows MBE - CEO/Board member

02/15/24 • 56 min

In this episode, you have Sandra Gordon in conversation with Sandra Meadows MBE a former Chief Executive Officer based in Bristol, Sandra is a Director for the Centre for Mentoring and Coaching, with considerable experience as an advocate, senior manager and non-Executive Director.

Sandra works to achieve positive transformation and improvement within individuals and organisations, encouraging creativity and new ways of thinking. With a strong interest in diverse and inclusive leadership development, her approach is empathic and gently challenging - bringing the individual into focus to identify and transcend barriers to progression. Sandra is a confident, lively and engaging coach and mentor with experience of working with people from all backgrounds.

Sandra has worked within (and across) the private, public and voluntary/charitable sectors, including Trustee roles for a range of local and national organisations including: The City of Bristol College, Skills Active National Council, NAVCA (Chair), The Bristol Beacon (Vice Chair), BrisDoc, St. Paul’s Carnival and several local statutory Boards and partnership groups. Sandra has also served on the Bristol Mayoral Commission on Race Equality and the Commission for Women and works with the current city administration as a City Partner.

In 2019, Sandra was listed amongst the West Women of the Year and in 2022 voted as one of the Most Influential Women in Bristol. She was also honoured with an MBE for Services to the Community of Bristol from HRH King Charles in 2021. A member of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA), she completed the master’s Level course in Coaching and Mentoring at the University of West of England in 2015.

The breadth of her experience includes human resources (covering recruitment, employee relations, training and development) within a global FMCG company, business and organisational development, people and performance improvement, contract management, collaboration and partnership development.

Sandra's client businesses include Statutory Authorities, national and local Charities (inc. Universities as exempt charities) SME's and voluntary sector agencies, working with C-Suite Executives, Trustee Boards, Managers and individual staff members.

Previous Episode

Introduction to ICR and founder Sandra Gordon

Radio Broadcaster and podcaster Sandra Green interviews the founder of I Can Represent podcast Sandra Gordon.

Biography

Sandra’s working career started as an admin assistant, and she worked her way up to running her own Call Centres across 3 sites for some trusted brands. She utilised the opportunity of a career break to undertake voluntary work in Africa, job coaching the homeless, and to become an accredited Life Coach. The trip to Africa also reignited her creative side and led her to starting her own creative business where she worked collectively with Artisans in Africa, which helped to supports their sustainability.

Sandra’s social involvement includes a few projects and enterprise that focus on supporting the underrepresented in the city to have the same opportunities to move forward in their lives.

A chance meeting in the green room of a TV comedy, gave birth to the idea of Rise a social enterprise, which was established after a discussion the lack of visibility of black businesses on the high street. The organisation specialised in providing opportunities for those businesses to promote what they do to a wider audience through organised events, exhibitions and on a weekly local community radio program. Rise also delivered workshops for Black women around personal development and starting their own business. They delivered the annual Rise Awards in the city which recognises and celebrates achievements in Business, Community and entrepreneurship.

As well as a presenter and Broadcaster for community radio led me to become Strategic lead partner for the Black and Green Ambassadors program – putting Black voices into Green environmental spaces, where traditionally we have been absent.

The work for Women’s equality was supported through my work with Bristol Women’s voice, which is a powerful voice for making women’s equality in Bristol a reality, and as a member of the Mayoral Women’s Commission and Business task group. I am currently a Director for the Bristol Women in Business Charter, where we believe that businesses cannot reach their full potential if they fail to recruit and retain a gender-balanced workforce. Our purpose is to recognise and support businesses in and around Bristol that are making progress towards gender equality. Our ambition is to help accelerate the pace of change for the benefit of women, the businesses they work in and the communities they live in.

I became a Commissioner and Co-Chair for the Mayoral Commission on Race Equality to help work on collective solutions to tackling the race inequalities faced by so many in the city. I am also passionate about inclusion and representation and was honoured to be appointed as a Magistrate and as a governor for City of Bristol College.
At the heart of everything Sandra does is about giving everyone a chance to be the best they can be and to bring balance and equality to those groups who are disadvantaged in our society.

www.SLGcoachingandconsultancy.com

Next Episode

Georgia Ramsay - Magistrate

Georgia Ramsay is a Change & Configuration Management Analyst for the Council. She has an active union background – became chair of Unison Bristol Black members group.

Also became an activist within Unison Southwest Region and was Unison Southwest Regional Black Members chair for a number of years.

In 2001 she joined Operation Black Vote (OBV). Its aim was to increase the number of people from black and ethnic minority ethnic groups (BME) who are Magistrates. In order for it to reflect the community they serve. Operation black vote worked with the Ministry of Justice to achieve this aim. Over 600 people showed interest in the scheme and after vetting 50 people from the community were selected, and she was one of the 6 that were successful.

Georgia became a magistrate in 2003, in 2011 she became a ‘Presiding Justice’, and in 2020 started a new role in the Judiciary, Diversity and Community Relations Magistrates (DCRM). The main aspects of the role were: to act as a conduit between the magistracy and the community and members of the public and contribute to a range of diversity efforts within the judiciary.

Georgia also sits on other committees, Pride of Ruth, Nilaari Drug and Mental Health Agency.

You can contact Georgia at [email protected]

More information about being a magistrate at www.gov.uk/become-magistrate/can-you-be-a-magistrate