I am a friendly, relaxed coach with an informal, yet professional, approach.
My experience allows me to offer my clients a variety of services including personal development mentor, career strategy expert, leadership skills coaching and trusted confidante.
I have over thirty years’ experience of working in organisations ranging from SMEs to FTSE100, in industries as varied as Finance, Technology and Professional Services to the NHS. I have worked with UK headquartered and international companies, both in Human Resources and the business.
With my huge range of experience, I can help and support you to achieve your goals and resolve your concerns and issues.
I came to the UK (from New Zealand) when I was 21, not knowing anyone, nowhere to live and no job.
Following a lot of rejections, my first role was at Hewlett Packard in Human Resources. Career success came quickly, being promoted twice in three years, joining Bank America in a European role and being promoted to HR Manager by the time I was 26, the youngest Vice President in the London Financial sector. A couple of companies and aged 29, I was HR Director at NatWest, three years ahead of my career plan. Following the RBS takeover of NatWest, I moved to Aon in 2000 as HR Director of their Consulting division.
Over my 13-year corporate career I had acquired intimate knowledge of how managers and senior executives think and act when it comes to getting and giving salary increases, promotions and allocating budgets and new opportunities to staff.
I had managed recruitment, reward, learning and HR operations teams, and been responsible for implementing large and small change programmes including restructurings, reward, career frameworks and recruitment. I had dealt with employee relations issues from the simple to the complex and knew how recruitment, objective setting and salary processes could be positively used to help managers and staff to help achieve their goals.
At 35, I realised that a Group HR role was probably several years away and decided to go independent. Having tasted the excitement of managing complex projects, the thought of spending years in the same role did not excite me!
What started as a 5-to-10-year break from corporate roles became a permanent move. An independent career, combining project management, interim management, consultancy, coaching and training suited my need for independence, flexibility and goal achievement, and has allowed me to travel the world and work with a range of organisations across many sectors.
For 20 years, I have been responsible for a range of large and varied 'people' projects including restructurings, change projects, terms and conditions changes and introducing new people systems. I have delivered 8-figure cost savings to multinational organisations and managed teams of up to 50 people across multiple countries.
As a result, I have a very good understanding of how to manage people, 'bosses' and senior executives to achieve my project goals, including getting personal contract extensions and rate increases.
Post Covid, with a desire to put down roots, I have begun to focus on my coaching and training offerings. Working with individuals and small groups, it allows me to give back some of the hard-won knowledge, skills and experience that I have gained over the last thirty-plus years.