With governance under pressure from rapid change and rising risk, the CGI Scotland Conference 2025 offers a space for professionals to connect, collaborate and stay ahead. In this comment piece, Gary Gray FCG explores how convening across sectors strengthens resilience and why community is now central to governance excellence.

This has been a month of listening at events, in surveys and across our community. I want to share the themes I’ve heard and explain how they will shape the direction of the Institute in the year ahead.

Ruairí Cosgrove FCG, President of CGIUKI, explains why becoming Chartered was the defining step in their career. From law and strategy to ethics and communication, the qualification opens doors to influential, purpose-driven roles across sectors.

Budget 2025 arrives at a moment of economic uncertainty and shifting expectations for public bodies and businesses alike. The Chancellor’s announcements will carry significant implications for governance, accountability and organisational resilience.

The Chancellor framed her Autumn Budget as one that would deliver stability. The reaction, however, has been anything but calm.

As boards face faster change and sharper scrutiny, the Institute will champion the value of Chartered status, modernise the International Qualifying Programme and expand practical support on AI, data governance and cybersecurity.

Oxfam GB’s handling of the departure of its chief executive has escalated into a wider boardroom concern, with a serving trustee resigning and calling for regulatory intervention.

Nigel Kippax is a Charity sector advisor and an associate with Charity Finance Group. In this comment piece, he discusses how the charity sector’s long standing financial challenges are less about a lack of money and more about unchallenged assumptions, growth mindsets, and outdated funding models that may be limiting real social impact.

The board is the principal decision-making body of an organisation. The board's non-executive directors, trustees, or governors take decisions about the organisation's strategic direction and have oversight of its activities.