Meditation and breathwork instructor Jennifer Horan partners with charities at board level, aligning their impactful missions with mindful leadership.
With three degrees, Jennifer thrives on challenges, especially when it comes to supporting boards in finding their balance. As a trustee and board recruitment consultant, she’s dedicated to ensuring that every board is diverse, inclusive, and committed to making an impact.
For trustee and chair recruitment, Jennifer is your go-to governance geek for all things charity boards. Her expertise spans charities, non-profits, and INGOs, and she’s a champion for neurodiversity in recruitment. She supports charities in accessing a wide range of people, transforming their boards, and boosting their effectiveness. From multi-year trustee recruitment campaigns to building boards from scratch, Jennifer’s partnerships ensure long-term sustainable governance, strategic succession planning and big impact.
Jennifer appoints inclusive, innovative, creative, and resilient leaders who support their organisations in flourishing, enabling charities to move toward a future of equity, sustainability, and high impact.
She has led searches for specifically skilled trustees and specialist roles, including finance trustees, treasurers and clinicians. Her expertise includes searching for individuals with lived experience, such as autistic people, blind people, people who stammer, disabled people, and single parents. She also has a track record of approaching niche professionals such as economists from low to middle-income countries, conservationists, and world-renowned neurologists. She loves a challenge and is eager to support organisations to ensure they represent the varied people they work with.
Her academic journey includes a BA in English and History, an MA in English Literature, and an MA in Holocaust Studies.
Outside the boardroom, Jennifer enjoys curling up with a good book, practices daily meditation and breathwork and loves spending time with her two British Blue Shorthairs – Shelly and Artie (Sherlock and Moriarty). As an Irish woman, music runs in her veins, and she’s proud of her roots as a Limerick School of Music Orchestra member. With a background in Sean-Nós singing, Jennifer aspires to add Kirtan session leader to her resume one day. Jennifer blends her commitment to meditation with her dedication to the charity sector and its potential, ensuring every board finds its harmony.
Talk to Jennifer about:
- Charity trustee recruitment, particularly for INGOs and charities working/supporting neurodivergent people
- Charity chair recruitment
- Recruiting diverse boards
- Specialist trustee roles
- Environment and sustainability recruitment
- Trustee development
“We have never worked with Peridot before, and I’ve been extremely impressed with the professionalism and hard performance by the team. Jennifer Horan is an absolute star, very responsive with an intelligent approach to hiring us the right person and adding lots of value through the process. Thank you and your team for all your hard work.”
Clerk to the Board, Womankind Worldwide
Jennifer's selected track record:
Chair Roles:
Alternative Futures Group | Chair and Trustees
Ambitious about Autism | Chair and Trustees
Anti-Slavery International | Chair
Become | Chair
CPRE: The countryside charity | Chair
Galapagos Conservation Trust | Chair
Gingerbread | Chair
Manchester Pride | Chair
NEBOSH | Trustees
Royal College of Emergency Medicine | Chairs of committees
Smile Train | Chair
STAMMA | Chair
The Children’s Trust | Chair and Chairs of committees
VSO International | Chair
Womankind Worldwide | Co-Chair
World Book Day | Chair
Trustee and Non-Executive Director Roles:
Ambitious about Autism | Trustees and chairs of committees
Become | Treasurer
Brainkind | Trustees and chairs of committees
Care International | Trustees
CPRE: The countryside charity | Trustees
Diabetes UK | Trustees and chairs of committees
Galapagos Conservation Trust | Trustees
Gingerbread | Trustees
Manchester Pride | Treasurer
National Autistic Society | Trustees and Members of Finance Committee
NEBOSH | Trustees
Royal College of Emergency Medicine | Trustees and chairs of committees
Smile Train | Trustees
STAMMA | Trustees
Switchboard LGBT | Trustees
Tax Justice UK | Board members
Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust | Chair and Trustees
UK Collaborative on Development Research | Chair and Non-Executive Directors
VSO International | Trustees and chairs of committees
Womankind Worldwide | Treasurer
World Book Day | Trustees
“My experience with Peridot was excellent. Jennifer supported me throughout the whole process. She had an in-depth understanding of the role and the charity and used this to provide me invaluable support throughout. This instilled confidence in my suitability and ensured I was well prepared at each stage of the application process.”
Chair of the Board, Become Charity
Free online career development workshop
We discuss: starting the process (with or without a recruitment company); how to understand what you need; practical tips from sign-off to interview to induction; and what diversity means for your organisation.
“The support provided by Jennifer and Peridot Partners has been faultless from start to finish. We aimed to recruit four new trustees, each of whom had a clear brief regarding skills, experience, and contribution to the Board’s effectiveness, during a challenging post-pandemic environment. We have appointed five high calibre candidates, a recognition of a thorough search, shortlisting, quality interim briefings and enabled through a superb understanding of the Charity! A job well done!”
Chair, Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust
