Bio

I have been extraordinarily lucky to have been given so many opportunities and to live a life of such breadth and richness of experience. My main interest is now in giving something back, both through developing societal change research that has evolved from my singular experience and through coaching and mentoring emerging leaders and entrepreneurs who can benefit from that experience.

I have studied and researched at three of the world’s leading universities, lived in half-a-dozen countries, and worked in many more. During my career, I have worked in leadership roles in both public and private sectors, with some of my most significant achievements being at the intersection of the two.

My experience ranges from the detail of specific operations and small business to the big picture of driving business strategy and developing economic policy. Whilst the early part of my career as a UK government economist strengthened my economics, as well as giving me a life-long taste for other cultures and travel, I was never at home in a bureaucratic environment. Had MBTI or similar assessment tools then been widely available, I would doubtless have understood why I was always more interested in ideas, innovation and entrepreneurship.

After studying for an MBA, I then worked for several years advising companies on their business and market strategies with a sideline helping small businesses develop. The latter half of my career has been at the cusp of business and government in various leadership, consulting and advisory roles. These have varied from promoting investment and reorganising government schemes to induce private sector investment, through masterminding and implementing a small nation’s national growth strategy and advising leading reformers in government on developing a market economy in the Former Soviet Union to working with entrepreneurs.

Career highlights and achievements

Creating a rescue package for an essential industry in the Caribbean

Creating a rescue package for an essential industry in the Caribbean

Early in my career convincing the British government that an industry on which four newly independent Caribbean islands depended was on the verge of bankruptcy, despite extensive technical support, and that action was needed to save livelihoods. Subsequently, I helped put together a major Anglo-American rescue package. It set a precedent, resulting in future support being focussed on improving commercial viability. The industry recovered and still plays an important role today.

Helping an unfairly labelled prodigal son

Helping an unfairly labelled prodigal son

An early venture in my lifelong interest in startups and growth companies was helping the unfairly labelled prodigal son of a wealthy family. He wanted to make investment and life choices to demonstrate that he could achieve success independently. Whilst my work formally involved carrying out a comparative feasibility study of business opportunities at home in the UK or in faraway New Zealand, I spent an equal amount of time talking with my client about what mattered to him and what he wanted to achieve. It was a role that I now know was close to being his coach! He chose the New Zealand business and has developed it into the global leader of an agro-industrial niche.

Implementing a tourism strategy for the Turks and Caicos Islands

Implementing a tourism strategy for the Turks and Caicos Islands

Masterminding and leading the implementation of a tourism-led national strategy that transformed some small islands, the Turks and Caicos. A key member of the team I developed has just written a book about his role in what we did to catalyse Chinese levels of growth for a dozen years. Such rapid growth is virtually unheard of in the western hemisphere, even for such small places in the Caribbean. The major tourist destination in the Turks and Caicos, Providenciales, remains the only Caribbean island to have been awarded TripAdvisor’s prestigious annual accolade as the best island destination in the world.

Managing academics advising Russia on developing a market economy

Managing academics advising Russia on developing a market economy

Managing a team of British, and later European, academics advising the Russian government on developing a market economy from the rubble of communism. We became the leading source of Western advice for Russian reformers for several years from the mid-1990s following the initial transition efforts of the Harvard-led team. Our organisation evolved into the Russian-European Centre for Economic Policy and, for a short period, I was its director.

Transforming a UK government investment scheme for eastern Europe

Transforming a UK government investment scheme for eastern Europe

As the business and economics lead, I helped transform a UK government scheme to encourage investment in the transition economies of the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The scheme helped catalyse hundreds of millions of pounds of foreign investment into the region, playing a useful role in the economic transformation of countries such as Poland.

Identifying early on the strategic threats of relying on Russian gas

Identifying early on the strategic threats of relying on Russian gas

I had several other important roles associated with various parts of the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia during the first few years of the new century, including leading a consulting team advising the British government on energy policy. We were probably the first to spell out the strategic threats to Britain and Europe of relying too heavily on Russian gas, a threat that has become ever clearer in recent years.

Revitalising CARICOM

Revitalising CARICOM

Having never dropped my Caribbean interests, I have led various projects in the region in recent years. Notable amongst these was working directly to leaders of 14 Caribbean countries seeking to revitalise CARICOM (the region's incipient version of the EU). My team’s work continues to influence change. Although I have reduced my commitments recently, I still provide advisory and consulting support for initiatives that capture my imagination in the Caribbean and, indeed, in other developing and emerging markets.

Since graduating from the Meyler-Campbell Mastered executive coaching programme in 2017, I have gradually given free rein to my lifelong interest in innovation and entrepreneurship. With invaluable initial experience coaching on the Executive MBA programme at Cambridge’s Judge Business School, I have gradually built a portfolio of emerging CEOs both in the UK and abroad. As well as pure coaching, I have taken on various roles as mentor and advisor. I am on the advisory board of a fast-growing tech company working closely with its CEO. This includes providing support through regular funding rounds.

I would not have been able to live a life of such breadth and richness of experience without constantly updating my academic and professional qualifications for which I have been lucky to study and research at some of the world’s best institutions. I graduated primarily in economics from Oriel College, Oxford on its PPE programme. I was to return 17 years later when awarded a mid-career research fellowship at Oxford’s specialist international college, St Antony’s, from where I embarked on the most instructive part of my life working in Moscow. About halfway between these two spells at Oxford, I studied for an MBA at London Business School, during which I spent a semester at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

In addition to these periods at leading universities, I refreshed my MBA in the early 2000s on a senior management leadership programme. More recently, I attended two further distinguished institutions when obtaining the FT’s postgraduate non-executive director diploma in 2014 and subsequently graduating from Meyler Campbell’s Mastered programme in executive coaching in 2017.

If you feel that my background or experience could be helpful to you, I would be delighted to hear from you.

Get in touch