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Board and Trustee Evaluation with Brendan Mullan

Training Session

29/04/2026

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Board and Trustee Evaluation with Brendan Mullan

A practical session for CEOs and Trustees in the VCSE sector

Evaluating your board and trustees can feel like a sensitive subject, but it’s one of the most important tools you have for building a strong, effective organisation.

This session, led by Brendan Mullan, is designed to explore the real challenges and opportunities around board and director evaluations. Whether you’re a CEO looking to support your trustees or a trustee wanting to reflect on your own role, this is a space to ask questions, gain clarity, and explore ways forward with others facing similar issues.

 

Who is it for?

CEO, Senior Leaders, Trustees, Interim Executive

Date: 29/04/2026

Time: 12.00 - 2:00PM

Venue: CO3 Office, Belfast

Register here

Maybe you’re wondering how to start a conversation about performance at board level without making things uncomfortable. Maybe you’ve noticed some behaviours or gaps in leadership that are holding the organisation back, but you’re not sure how to address them constructively. Or perhaps you simply want to make sure your board is aligned, adding value, and leading with confidence—but there’s no real process in place to check that.

If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many leaders in the VCSE sector want to strengthen governance and accountability but feel unsure where to begin—or how to approach the topic in a way that supports, rather than disrupts, board relationships.

Register here
By the end of the session, you will:
  • Have a clearer understanding of what effective board evaluation looks like in practice.
  • Feel more confident initiating and navigating performance conversations at board level.
  • Leave with practical ideas to strengthen alignment, accountability and impact within your board.
Who will benefit most?

This session will benefit CEOs and trustees who want to strengthen governance without disrupting board relationships. It’s particularly relevant for those who sense there may be gaps in performance, alignment or accountability, but are unsure how to address them constructively. Whether you’re new to board evaluation or looking to refine your approach, this session offers a practical space to reflect and move forward with clarity.

Register here
This session is great for you if...
  • You want a simple, practical way to assess how well your board is performing.
  • You’re unsure how to approach sensitive conversations around performance and accountability.
  • You want your board to be more aligned, engaged and adding real strategic value.

This session will be facilitated by…

Brendan Mullan

Chartered Director

Brendan Mullan has extensive senior management experience in the voluntary, public and private sectors, successfully leading organisations at Managing Director and Chief Executive level. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and a Chartered Director. His academic background also includes a degree in business administration and accountancy from Queen’s University Belfast, an Irish Peace Institute Management Fellowship, and a German Marshall Fellowship to the USA. He is a previous winner of Institute of Directors’ Northern Ireland Non-Executive Director of the Year award and was recognised at the UK Director of the Year Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance. Brendan includes among his interests, competitive rowing and bird watching.

What Members Say About CO3

We’re delighted to get behind the financial resilience programme who, which will support a range of charity leaders from the small right through to the large, will really help give them the skills to be strong and be there for their communities for as long as they’re needed.

As a chief executive it is a very lonely job at times, particularly in small charities and Northern Ireland has got many small charities. So when you feel that loneliness or isolation, the one thing that CO3 brought was the ability to go and chat to somebody, whether it be a mentor or whether it be just another chief exec to bounce off.

Kate Fleck
Member of the Board, OCN NI

CO3 offer a wide range of courses for middle, middle managers, senior managers and chief executives within the third sector. Some of the programmes include the Leading Edge programme, there’s other leadership programmes available and then they also offer some micro learning sessions around how to present things like finances to your board of directors, reviewing your governance structure within the organisation and they would bring in some expert facilitators to deliver those sessions as well.

Martin Flynn
CEO, OCN NI

We’re delighted to get behind the financial resilience programme who, which will support a range of charity leaders from the small right through to the large, will really help give them the skills to be strong and be there for their communities for as long as they’re needed.

As a chief executive it is a very lonely job at times, particularly in small charities and Northern Ireland has got many small charities. So when you feel that loneliness or isolation, the one thing that Co Three brought was the ability to go and chat to somebody, whether it be a mentor or whether it be just another chief exec to bounce off.

Kate Fleck
Member of the Board, OCN NI

“CO3 is always a great network for support, for encouragement, for advice, answers to tricky questions when you're really, really stuck. Overall, it's been a fantastic network of colleagues who are always there for guidance and encouragement whenever things are really tough.”

Karen Collins
Chief Executive, Aware NI

“It is so valuable having other people who are in a similar position that you can network with, you can share problems with, you can ask advice. And so my whole career, CO3 has been really, really important to me in providing those things.”

Roger Courtney
Founder & Director, Roger Courtney Consulting

“I think for me the CO3 is a safe space just to have a chat, to make connections and also to learn from other people who are in a similar position in their career as you are.”

Lisa Keys
Chief Executive, Northern Ireland Boys’ Brigade

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