Rosaleen Blair, CBE
Chair
Rosaleen is a passionate entrepreneur and investor. She is the founder and Chair of Alexander Mann Solutions (now known as AMS), a pioneer in the global workforce solutions industry. She created the company in 1996 with the ambition of transforming the way that blue-chip multinationals attract, engage, and retain top talent. Rosaleen served as CEO for 23 years, leading the business through huge geographic and revenue growth, a management buyout, four private equity relationships and a global economic crisis. The business was sold to OMERS Private Equity for £820 million in 2018, and in late 2019 she moved from her executive role as CEO and assumed the position of Chair of AMS, by which time the business had established itself as the market leader, operating in 40 languages in over 100 countries with 11,000 colleagues servicing more than 100 blue-chip organisations. In the 2017 New Year’s Honours List, Rosaleen was awarded a CBE.
Rosaleen is a serial entrepreneur, investing in and advising numerous companies. She is a Non-Executive Director of Kainos Group and is also on the Board of Endeavor Ireland and the Global Advisory Board of VentureWave Capital Ltd. She also advises numerous private equity companies and is a coach and mentor to several entrepreneurs and growth businesses. She has a long-standing involvement with the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year programme and was the returning chair of its global judging panel in 2022. Rosaleen is also involved in several not-for-profit initiatives including Chair of Everywoman, and a board member of the Ludgate Hub, seeking to stimulate economic development in West Cork. She is also on the Advisory Board of Valuable500 and the President’s Advisory Board of University College Cork. Rosaleen supports several charities, both financially and with her time and expertise, including serving as Patron of the Women Supporting Women initiative of the Prince’s Trust. She is passionate about creating opportunities and helping people make the most of them.
