Gender balance on Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) board is hailed
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Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) says it has taken a significant step in its journey towards achieving a diverse board membership after announcing that its board is now made up of an equal number of men and women.
The organisation says its first board gender representation report reveals the progress it has made in addressing the issue of under-representation of women in public bodies.
Chairperson Lorna Jack said: “Across all aspects of society, women have an invaluable contribution to make and it is important that they have equal opportunity to undertake strategic roles in public bodies.
“Having 50 per cent of the HIAL board made up of women is a significant step in our journey to achieving a diverse board membership and we welcome applications from individuals, of all gender identifications and from under-represented backgrounds, for any future vacancies on our board.”
The Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 sets a gender representative objective that a board should have a minimum of 50 per cent of non-executive members who are women.
The HIAL board is currently made up of eight members, two executive and six non-executive members, and both groups achieve this gender balance.
The female board members are Lorna Jack, Loraine Strachan, Isabel Todenhoefer and Johanna Wallace.
Lorna Jack, non-executive director and chairperson of the HIAL board, is a chartered accountant and a graduate of Aberdeen University, and has served on the board as non-executive director since March 2014.
She chaired its audit committee for over three years, becoming interim chairperson in 2017 before being appointed chairperson of the board in 2019. She is chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland, the professional body for Scottish solicitors.
Loraine Strachan, non-executive director, is also a chartered accountant, having completed her training with Ernst and Young in South Africa.
She was the finance manager at the logistics arm of Capespan in South Africa in her earlier career, and vice-president for finance and HR at Menzies Aviation for Africa and the Middle East.
Isabel Todenhoefer, non-executive director, is a finance and mergers and acquisitions expert with more than 12 years' experience in the aviation industry, where she worked as head of M&A Deutsche Lufthansa AG in Frankfurt. After leaving Lufthansa she co-founded the real estate financing platform Everge Financing (Sl), based in Madrid. She holds an MBA from Instead, one of the world’s leading graduate business schools.
Johanna Wallace, finance and commercial director, joined HIAL in November 2020. Originally from Inverness-shire, she graduated with an honours degree in maths from the University of Aberdeen and qualified as a chartered accountant in 2001 while working for EY in Glasgow.
She held finance leadership roles across various sectors including manufacturing, brewing and oil and gas.
The full gender representation report is published on the HIAL website.
HIAL manages and operates 11 regional airports, including Wick John O’Groats.
