Top businesswoman builds successful portfolio career <br>with exec-appointments.com

A founding member of the market research giant TNS is using award-winning executive jobsite, exec-appointments.com, to develop a wide-ranging portfolio career.



Dr Liz Nelson, who established Taylor Nelson Sofres, the worldís second largest market research company, has been looking for executive and non-exec positions and has found one of each through exec-appointments.com.

Nelson says the website, which was recommended to her by a friend, has proved to be a quick and efficient way of finding interesting and diverse opportunities.

ìI was interested in several sectors, including public and voluntary. I received seven or eight job notices a day from exec-appointments.com and I donít know of an instance where something irrelevant was put to me. I applied for lots and had some very good interviews. Itís a brilliant way of finding a position.î

Betty Thayer, chief executive of exec-appointments.com, said: ìSenior people are increasingly using the internet to find positions. Itís quick, efficient and responsive. For businesses and organisations, itís an extremely cost-effective way to reach a wide range of candidates.î

executive jobs ñ career, interim & contract
plus non-executive director and senior voluntary positions
Exec-Appointments Ltd Registered in England No. 4010964

Liz Nelsonís most recent position was as a non-executive director on the board of BrightTALK, a fast-growing multi media company. Nelson has found herself surrounded by technology and thirtysomethings, and sheís loving it.

Her first post found through exec-appointments.com was for the chief executive of the CGD Research Trust, a charity set up to promote research and support people with Chronic Granulomatous Disorder. This is a rare condition affecting one baby in every 200,000 with a genetic deficiency.

The trust founded the now hugely successful Jeans for Genes campaign, where people wear jeans for a day and donate 1 to the cause. Other charity partners, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, the Primary Immunodeficiency Association and the Society for Mucopolysaccharide Diseases, joined the campaign. One of Nelsonís big tasks is to pursue the Jeans for Genes trade mark rights internationally.

Nelson is an experienced non-executive director, having spent nine years on the board of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which proved an excellent training ground on how to be a valuable non-exec. ìYou do have to learn not to meddle with day-to-day things,î she says.

She has a broad range of interests. She was chief executive of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. In 1997 she was awarded an OBE for services to eco-labelling ñ an award scheme for products that meet high environmental standards. She is also a non-exec with a personal development company and a French marketing and communications company, and is chairman of Stargate Capital Investment Group ñ a new investment company planning a fund to help female entrepreneurs. She has just taken on a new trustee role with the Immigration Advisory Service, and for many years has been involved with the Open University.


She admits to missing the cut and thrust of corporate life - ìparticularly when you are a public company and you are put under enormous pressure with lawyers and accountants, it is wonderfully exciting.î But there is nothing quite like a portfolio career to keep the grey cells busy, she says. ìI think I probably get more intellectual stimulation now because of the variety of the work Iím doing.î