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Salford Professional Development

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Salford Professional Development is the commercial training arm of the University of Salford, based in Salford and set up as a company in 2012. This listing covers its Non-Executive Director Programme, a two-day course for people seeking a non-executive director (NED) role or a portfolio career. It covers how the NED role differs from an executive director's, the legal framework, formal duties and liabilities, interpersonal skills in the boardroom, and how to secure a first role and manage a portfolio career. Teaching uses case studies, role-play, scenarios and structured group discussion. It runs as a live virtual classroom or on the University of Salford campus. The tutor is John Palfreyman, Associate Professor of Digital Strategy at the University of Leeds, who advises boards. The programme costs £1,195 plus VAT. Other director-level courses include Board Dynamics and Corporate Governance, which can count towards a Certified Directors Programme that ends in a Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Level 8 Certificate in Strategic Direction and Leadership. The site displays the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and continuing professional development (CPD) logos, though the NED programme page names no accreditation. The company is Salford Professional Development Limited, incorporated on 3 July 2012.

The Financial Times NED Network

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The Financial Times (FT) Non-Executive Director Club is the alumni network of the FT Board Director Programme, set up in 2004 and run in London and Asia. Membership is open to graduates of the FT Non-Executive Director (NED) Diploma and to people who have taken its courses. Members are invited to regular speaking and networking events and receive a monthly digital newsletter on legislation, governance news and job opportunities. The programme behind the Club runs the six-month Diploma, a two-day Effective Non-Executive Director Programme workshop, a one-day workshop on getting a first NED role, self-paced online courses of 3 to 4 hours each, and in-house board training for organisations delivered in person, online or in a hybrid format. No separate fee for the Club is published. The UK Diploma costs £8,925 in person or £7,525 virtually, excluding VAT (value added tax), and the Asia Diploma costs £10,250 in person. The Certificate in Board Effectiveness, made up of four online courses, costs £1,750 plus VAT. The Diploma states it is approved by Pearson Education Limited as meeting the criteria for Pearson's Self Regulated Framework, and legal content in two of its modules was updated by Slaughter and May in January 2025. Its faculty are practising non-executive directors and chairs.

University of Leeds Business School

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Leeds University Business School, part of the University of Leeds, runs the Exceptional Non-Executive Director (NED) Programme on its Leeds campus. The programme is for people with executive-level experience who want to develop the skills to serve as a non-executive director. It starts with two face-to-face days on campus, followed by a three-month placement with a high-growth small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) that includes at least three board meetings. An online webinar is held halfway through the placement and a final day on campus closes the course. Sessions cover legal responsibilities, financial literacy for NEDs, best practice on boards, situational leadership and how investment panels make decisions. It runs twice a year, with each cohort lasting four to five months. The fee is £2,800, and places are limited in each cohort. Participants receive a certificate and can apply to join a national NED network. The September 2026 cohort is full, and registration is open for February 2027.

VirtualNonExecs

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VirtualNonExecs is a UK membership network for non-executive directors (NEDs), chairs and board advisors, founded by Ian Wright in 2019. It connects members with companies, private equity and venture capital investors, family offices and founders looking for board members. Subscribing for access to posted board roles is free, and a paid Networker Pro upgrade adds a profile review, fee benchmarks and weekly board introductions. Organisations can use its HiringZone search service, which shortlists chairs, NEDs and fractional advisors from the network for a fixed fee agreed up front, and aims to produce a first shortlist in under five days. DealZone shares off-market capital raises and business sales with members. With Cranfield School of Management it offers the Non-Executive Directors Essentials Programme, an online, self-paced course of 8 modules and 24 short lessons covering governance and directors' duties, board finance, board effectiveness, the role of the chair, artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability. It is stage one of the Cranfield NED pathway, awards a verified Cranfield digital badge on completion, starts on enrolment with no fixed dates, and access does not expire. Membership prices and HiringZone fees are not published on its public pages. The Non-Executive Directors Essentials Programme costs £1,999 plus value added tax (VAT), or £1,499 plus VAT for Networker Pro members, and is provided by Cranfield Management Development Ltd, a subsidiary of Cranfield University. It states it has more than 30,000 members. Leonard Curtis, a professional services group, announced in November 2024 that it had acquired a majority stake. The company, Virtualnonexecs Limited, was incorporated in 2017 and took its current name in July 2019. Ian Wright is founder and chief executive, and Gary Cain is managing director.