I have sat at the top table with some of the best (and worst) business leaders of the past thirty years, as both a senior colleague and a consultant. Over the past five years I have conducted unprecedented research among CEOs and those they aspire to lead, the result of which is three best-selling books on leadership and international work as a speaker, consultant, and coach.

I believe I add value because of the practical, battle-hardened advice i provide, itself the result of in-depth thinking, original (self-funded) research and my own first-hand experience of leading and advising businesses. My own leadership journey started when I had to lead a newsroom full of highly independent journalists on The Star newspaper in Johannesburg in the 1980s. Since then, I have led teams and businesses for more than three decades.

From journalism I moved into corporate affairs, becoming the director of communications for British Airways in 1996 following a successful period as director of corporate affairs for AEA Technology, the business that was floated off from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Prior to AEA, I was group public relations manager in the UK for Bayer, one of the world’s major chemicals-to-pharmaceuticals companies.

After BA, I then moved into communications consultancy, joining Bell Pottinger in 1998 and eventually becoming Chairman of the Bell Pottinger Group, at the time, the biggest PR Group in the UK. Following the buyout of Bell Pottinger companies from Chime in 2012, I was invited – and accepted – an offer to stay with Bell Pottinger’s parent company, Chime Communications, as Chairman of Public Relations.
This year I relinquished this position to become a part time adviser to Chime, in order to give more time to my writing and leadership work.

As a consultant, I specialised in the field of strategic communications, reputation management and leadership communications coaching. I advised chairmen and chief executives and gained hard-won experience of managing complex and global communications projects and departments. For clients, I managed significant issues and crisis communications in the heat of national controversies in sectors such as chemicals, nuclear, aviation, and banking. Companies I advised included BSkyB, G4S, Gazprom, Airbus, Lloyds TSB, McLaren F1, British Nuclear Fuels, Emirates Airline, 118 118, Marconi, Vauxhall, British Gas, Permira, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Adobe, Fujitsu, SABMiller and Allen & Overy.