Introducing our new Non-Executive Board member: Mercy Shibemba

Interview with Genevieve Laurier, Managing Director and Non-Executive Director, Mercy Shibemba

Earlier this year, we began a search for a new non-executive director to bring dedicated focus around our social impact. After a tough recruitment process, with lots of fantastic applicants, I’m delighted to introduce Mercy Shibemba as our newest executive director.

Why did you create this new non-executive director role?

Gen: I really value the challenge that I get from our board and being asked the tough questions that make you look at things differently. In reflecting on our board, I realised that our non-executive directors had all ended up specialising in supporting different areas of our work and asking related questions. But no one had specialised in our social impact. As a socially-focused organisation, this seemed like an important gap and I really wanted to bring someone on who would give this the attention it deserves. After raising this with our board, they agreed.

Why did you want to join the TSIP board?

Mercy: I remember a conversation with a manager in one of my first jobs, where we spoke about the importance of strategy, governance and a good board. She had asked if I knew what a ‘NED’ was, and that was the first time I had ever heard of the role. Being a NED at 23 wasn’t something I had in mind, but it was a role that I knew I’d like to do in the future.

I often describe my career progression as being handed slightly-too-big-to-fit hand me downs from a big sister. Time and time again, leaders have trusted in me, committed to helping me grow and develop, challenged and championed me.

So, when I saw the opportunity and saw that TSIP was looking for someone who they could support to be all that they need to be great as a NED and who is passionate about generating social change, I sent it to my old manager and she and I knew I had to go for it.

Around that time, the #NotJustNCVO campaign was just beginning to emerge and obviously, the events of 2020 were (and still are) playing out for the social sector. Having spent most of my (albeit short) career in or around the sector, I was not surprised to see the scale and depth of the problem, just disappointed.

For too long, those who’ve been at the heart of ‘doing good’ are often caught up in work environments and cultures that aren’t good. As a young, emerging leader in the sector, I made a commitment to myself that I would build better and contribute my values and skills to do so.

I hope that as the dust continues to settle after a long 18+ months, in light of major conversations which have been reignited, that we continue to stay challenged, focused and are unwilling to become stagnant. The world needs leaders and organisations like TSIP, who are committed to social good and will cultivate healthy leaders and spaces that can facilitate this. 

What were you looking for in a candidate?

Gen: First and foremost, we wanted someone with a passion for social impact and a nuanced understanding of social inequality and efforts to tackle it. We hoped to find someone who would complement our current board members by bringing different skills and knowledge – for example, we encouraged applications from activists and from people who had worked in frontline roles providing direct support to communities, since none of our board members come from this background. It was important that whoever we appointed was confident to speak their mind and could put their points across clearly. But we were not looking for someone with prior experience of being on a board.

So often board-level opportunities are restricted to people who have a long track record of senior leadership, and this biases their membership towards white men over 55 because that is who has historically been entrusted to leadership roles. But we want our board to reflect our team and our communities, which are a lot more diverse than the typical board pool. And in all our work, we want to work with and be led by people with lived experience of the social issues we are trying to tackle.

So for this role, we specifically encouraged applications from people with no prior board experience, young people aged under 30 and people who have experienced discrimination or injustice firsthand. We hoped to find someone who could bring one or more of these perspectives, which were otherwise under-represented in our governance.

I was blown away by the amount of interest we got in the role and the number of interesting candidates. But Mercy brought a balance of everything we were looking for. She has so much to offer our board and I am really excited to have her on our team.

What do you hope to bring to TSIP’s work?

Mercy: At present, I think the social sector at large is trying to understand what it means to share power, particularly with communities it wants to serve and those with lived experience of key issues. I think that what TSIP has to offer in this space is really exciting and refreshing. I’m excited to be a part of it and challenge and champion us along the way!