Coaching Experience
I was born and raised in Africa to middle-aged parents who had lived and fought through WW2. My childhood and my mind was moulded by head-gripping cinema-strong stories about people and places I had never seen or met; about Africa, Ireland, England; about "the War" and my parent's earlier lives and their moves to and within Africa.
Reading, or rather gobbling down, books soon became my daily tardis - my unconscious downtime from the heroic and/or ugly stories of the Rhodesian war. Stories have always been a part of me. I have heard thousands of stories and I know what makes a good story.
But becoming a coach was never part of the plan - I studied commerce and law at university. Fast forward over 20 years and I have now been a freelance Communications Coach since my training in Germany in 1992. Since then I have gained over 23 000 hours experience coaching literally hundreds and hundreds of business executives and politicians. Helping them tell their stories.
This doesn't just mean putting someone in front of a camera. The content of the message, the vocabulary used (I hate jargon and business speak), the delivery, the technical side (I am also very sceptical of powerpoint - how many memorable powerpoint presentations can you remember? Seriously?), the audience and of course the 'desired outcomes' are all part of the process.
Clients include: Mercedes Benz, SAP, Bilfinger & Berger, ThyssenKrupp, The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Rheinhold & Mahler, SGL Carbon, Boehringer Mannheim, Deutsche Bank, the Human Trafficking Foundation, the Conservative Party and many individual political candidates - including 34 of the 2010 intake of Conservative Members of Parliament.
Real World Business & Management Experience
I was Group Managing Director of the eastern division of a German industrial group for 3 years, with full P & L responsibility for 3 manufacturing companies on 2 sites with over 130 staff.
This group of companies was bleeding money yet contractually could not be closed. My job was to limit the losses while the parent group tried to survive the post-reunification recession.
After studying and learning about the companies, their capabilities and their markets and potential markets, I rewrote (and in some cases wrote for the first time) an overarching strategy document for the group and each company in the group. Using this strategic map, within 18 months I took this group of ex-Treuhand companies from a £8M T/O with losses of over £1M to breakeven and then to a small profit - with ZERO reduction in personnel (disallowed by Treuhand).
In the company I managed directly, we cut our LOSSES by ca. 90% despite a 20% reduction in T/O.
This turnaround was achieved by focusing on 15 key areas (covering SALES, OPERATIONS, PRODUCTION, REMUNERATION, PURCHASING), increasing margins and decreasing cost of sales from 56% to 47%.
Turn Around Management (TAM) / Communications / Crisis Management role for an award winning Sussex manufacturing company. This part-time advisory role developed literally overnight into a full-time turnaround and crisis management role following a fire that destroyed the entire UK production facility.
- Winner: Queens Award for Export; Winner: British Chamber of Commerce: National Exporter of the Year 2004; Runner up: National Export Communicator of the Year
- co-handled a successful 7 figure claim vs Lloyds following the fire that destroyed the factory
- managing extensive and complex relationships with 20 key customers in as many countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East following the fire
Public Sector, Political and Voluntary
- Non-Exec Director: Bexhill and Rother PCT, 2003-06.
- Founding Director of what became Policy Exchange - Centre right academic think tank, 2001.
- Sussex Advisory Sub-Committee – Magistrate Selection, 2007 - 2011.
- A variety of voluntary positions within the Conservative Party including Association Chairman and Deputy Chairman, Agent, Sussex Area Officer - Target Seats, Agent assessor.
Member: Carlton. FRSA
