“It was a means of showing how I’d meaningfully and materially made an impact”

“What are you doing to feed your soul, as you’re feeding your pockets?”

After a career working in multinationals as a programme manager, Denis Lindsay’s dad offered him this provocation that would change the course of his career. Denis describes his father as an “old school fire breathing Pentecostal preacher”  – when he gave advice, Denis always listened. 

Those words led Denis down a whole new road – of socially minded enterprises. He’s now the chair of the Great Western Credit Union (GWCU), and chief operating officer of Ethical Equity, an investment platform that helps people who are having difficulty raising capital in the private  market.

But his father wasn’t the only influence. Without CMI, Denis says his career would have turned out very differently. “Denis Lindsay the Prince2-qualified project manager would not have been a candidate for those roles,” he says.

It was 2017 when Denis first encountered CMI. He was turning 50. His father had recently passed away. Those major life events inspired Denis to pursue his CMI chartership – an experience that, he says, “changed me”. He was seeking a way to show that he wasn’t just a very good project professional. 

Through becoming a Chartered Manager, he gained a skillset that was far broader: he’d become adept at managing people.