Leading With Kindness: A Fifth Generation Voice At Bagnalls

Bagnalls is a sixth generation family business, a national painting contractor managing commercial, industrial and highly decorative contracts throughout the UK. Two members of the fifth generation now work within the business. One is Stephen Bagnall, the Group Managing Director. The other is Ellie Jobes, the Group People Director. In addition, there are three members of the sixth generation working int the business too: Oliver Dyson is the Group Finance Director, Hermione Bagnall is a Marketing Manager and Dan Hallitt is a Project Manager.

Paul Andrews spoke to Ellie to find out more about her role and her journey into the multigenerational family firm. Ellie oversees the HR, learning and development, and health and safety teams and her route into the family firm was anything but planned, and her story offers a candid look at what it takes to lead in an industry, and a business, still finding its way on gender balance.

A Path Not Planned

Before joining Bagnalls, Ellie worked for the NSPCC in a service delivery role, recruiting and training volunteers and carrying safeguarding responsibilities. That work became her unexpected route into HR, when she joined Bagnalls to oversee its Management Trainee programme and other non technical training across the Group.

“I had never considered working for the business. I was intending to spend my career in the charity sector, but a chance meeting at a family funeral, at a time when I was facing redundancy, started a chain of events that led to my appointment at Bagnalls,” explains Ellie.

It is a reminder that succession into a family firm rarely follows a straight line. For her, the pull came not from ambition but from circumstance, and from a business that had quietly shaped her earliest memories.

Early Memories And A Warm Welcome

Ellie’s grandfather was Chairman of the Group after his son, her uncle, became Managing Director. She remembers visiting her grandfather's house in Otley, West Yorkshire, and seeing the Bagnalls calendar that always hung on the wall, a small but constant thread connecting family life to the business long before she joined it. “I remember feeling very welcomed by many in senior roles, which I hadn't necessarily anticipated,” she continues.

That welcome mattered. Around six months into her time at Bagnalls, she attended a managers' conference that, in her words, cemented how she was perceived within the business and as part of the family, she was aware there is always a level of expectation about stepping into leadership.

A Succession Built On Trust

Ellie joined Bagnalls as part of a succession plan for a Board member approaching retirement, a family member she had known well since childhood. Moving that relationship from adult to child, back to adult to adult, was not always straightforward. “I think it was challenging at times for both of us moving from an adult to child to an adult to adult relationship,” she adds.

It is a dynamic familiar to many family businesses, where succession is as much about renegotiating relationships as it is about handing over responsibility.

A Proud Milestone

2025 was, in her words, a 'special year'. Bagnalls celebrated 150 years as a family business, and its apprenticeship programme won seven national awards, including a Princess Royal Training Award. As Ellie continues:

“As I have personally worked to develop our apprenticeship programme, I was incredibly proud to have this recognised at a national level.”

Being A Woman In A Traditional Industry

Painting and decorating remains a male dominated sector, and Ellie believes her perspective as a woman has, at times, been an asset rather than a barrier.

“I've had people confide in me about things that they may not have talked to a male leader about, particularly in a traditional male dominated industry. I think I've also been able to advocate for changes which may have been blind spots for others, for example mental health support.”

Naming Imposter Syndrome

Few topics in family business leadership are discussed as openly, or as rarely, as imposter syndrome. She addresses it directly, and without pretence.

“I know I have had my doubts about my own capability and have sometimes questioned whether I am good enough for the role I am in. Having external coaching and regular meetings with other senior executives at different organisations has been useful for addressing imposter syndrome. This has helped me to put my own business achievements in perspective and get impartial feedback,” continues Ellie.

Her honesty points to a wider truth for the family business community: external perspective, whether through coaching or peer networks, can be as valuable as anything found inside the business itself. She credits several female colleagues with shaping how she leads today, particularly Bagnalls' Group Marketing Director, Joanne Gualda. “I'd previously worked with female leaders who did not lead in the way I wished to lead. Joanne showed that leading with kindness and empathy works, and I hope I have followed her example."

Thinking About Legacy

Asked what she wants to be known for, Ellie’s answer returns to the people the business has touched, particularly through its apprenticeship programme.

“I would want to be known for creating long term, sustainable opportunities for young people through apprenticeships, particularly for those who may have had challenges in their lives. I love how many people say that working for Bagnalls has changed their life, and I am supremely proud of this."

"I am also immensely proud to be a part of Bagnalls’ history as only the second female main board director, and the first who is also a family member.”

Advice For The Next Generation Of Women In Family Business

Ellie also shares her thoughts and guidance to other young women joining a family firm today, insights that are practical, and rooted in her own experience of finding her footing:

• Seize chances to learn from family and non family colleagues alike.

• Take opportunities to grow and develop, even when they feel uncomfortable.

• Do not be afraid to be humble and say you do not know.

• Trust in your own journey and your right to be in post.

• Find an internal or external mentor. It will prove invaluable.

Personal Drivers

At the centre of her role within Bagnalls is a simple motivation: people. “Working with people is hugely important to me. I'm so proud when I see that Bagnalls has had a positive impact on people's lives through job opportunities, development and career progression.”

She is candid, too, about the cost of holding so many roles at once, as a leader, a family member, and beyond. “It can be hard to switch off outside work, as the family business feels like another family member at times. Juggling my role within the business as well as being a mum, wife, daughter, sister, auntie and friend can be challenging at times too,” concludes Ellie.

Reflective Questions

• Where in your own family business have chance and circumstance shaped succession more than planning ever could?

• How does your business support family members moving from a childhood relationship into a genuine adult to adult working partnership?

• What blind spots might exist in your organisation that a different perspective, gender or otherwise, could help you see?

• Is imposter syndrome ever discussed openly in your business, and what support exists for those experiencing it?

• Who are the mentors, inside or outside your business, shaping how the next generation chooses to lead?

This is a story about arriving somewhere unplanned and choosing to stay for the right reasons. It shows that leadership in a family business is rarely a straight inheritance of title, and often a slower process of earning trust, navigating shifting family relationships, and finding your own voice within an established name.

Ellie’s willingness to speak openly about imposter syndrome, the value of female mentors, and the emotional weight of juggling multiple roles offers a grounded, honest account that many in the family business community, women and men alike, will recognise in themselves.