The November Volunteer of the Month is Anthony Carey, Head of Board Practice at Mazars LLP. Anthony was selected as the Volunteer of the Month after hosting and delivering a session for ELBA’s Community Partners entitled “Practical Ways to Enhance Your Board’s Effectiveness”.

This is the second time that Anthony has delivered the workshop meaning he has now worked with ELBA to train almost 40 charity trustees and CEO’s in effective board governance. An outstanding contribution.

Anthony is an industry expert in board governance, making his expertise extremely valuable to local charities. One attendee commented, “The session was really useful in helping me reflect on how I carry out my trustee role and improvements that our board could make”.

We caught up with Anthony to find out about his volunteering experience.

Why did you volunteer?
As corporate partners of ELBA we seek to work with ELBA and its charity and community organisation members in a number of ways. Over the course of the year team members are involved including by participating on volunteering days when teams from Mazars help charities and other community organisations on projects organised by ELBA; on social mobility by inviting schools working with ELBA to join our Careers that Count event on the accountancy profession each year and on our board effectiveness evenings.

What did you gain from your volunteering experience?
It was a real privilege to discuss board and trustee issues with a number of charities and community organisations and in so doing to learn a little more about all the great work going on in the area to help residents live fulfilling and healthy lives as well as to meet both residents and representatives of the business community who are acting as trustees for organisations in east London.

Would you recommend volunteering to a colleague and if so, why?
Definitely. There are so many ways we can help as volunteers which are aligned both to our interests and skills and expertise and in so doing make a contribution to the local community of which we have now been part for more than a decade.

Congratulations to Anthony on a fantastic piece of volunteering.

If you think that you could use your professional skills to support local charities then please contact Jonathan Tait via Jonathan.Tait@elba-1.org.uk.