Gower College Swansea leader shortlisted for national leadership awards

Sarah King, HR Director at Gower College Swansea, has been named a finalist in this year’s Leading Wales Awards.

Sarah has been nominated in the Leadership in the Public Sector category for her role as HR Director where she has transformed the human resources function from a policy driven department to one that puts staff wellbeing and engagement at the heart of everything it does.

She is one of just four finalists in the category. In addition to Sarah’s finalist success, Gower College Swansea’s former student and World Skills 2019 UK competitor, Collette Gorvett also made the Highly Commended list for Young Leader.

The awards, which have been running for 15 years, have eight individual categories including Women in Leadership and Organisational Leadership, which was won last year by the NHS Wales Finance Academy.

Barbara Chidgey, Chair of the Leading Wales Awards consortium, said: “This year our theme is Daring to Lead. We received many impressive and outstanding nominations for individuals in Wales (in all sectors and at all levels of responsibility) whose leadership is courageous, inspirational and transformational. They were a privilege to read and a challenge to shortlist.”

Speaking about Sarah’s nomination, Principal of Gower College Swansea, Mark Jones said: “Sarah is proactive and solutions-oriented and has a very visible presence around the College. She maintains an excellent balance between the traditional, corporate HR role and a focus on staff wellbeing, which is one of the College’s top priorities. She takes the lead on many of these new initiatives as well as focussing the HR team on delivering a high level of customer service to staff and departments across the College.”

Delighted with the news, Sarah said: “There are many great leaders in Wales that I admire, so I am thrilled to have been nominated in the Leadership in the Public Sector category. Current political instability as well as local and international issues create significant challenges for today’s leaders, and I have found that it is incredibly important to pull teams together and to create shared goals based on values, integrity and fairness.”

This is the 15th and concluding year of the Leading Wales Awards. They will culminate with the Awards presentations as part of a legacy dinner at Hilton Cardiff on 26 September 2019. 

Previous alumni include Laura Tenison MBE, Jo Jo Maman Bébé, Mario Kreft MBE, CEO of Pendine Park Care Homes, Kelly Davies, Managing Director of Vi-Ability, and Dr Sabine Maguire of Sparkle, South Gwent Children’s Foundation.