Chris’ leadership journey started in the British Army as an officer in the Royal Engineers where he learnt the principles of highly effective leadership and invented the “pipe fascineâ€. After running his own advisory business helping SMEs build effective leadership as well as being entrepreneurial, Chris did his MBA and moved into advising and working for larger organisations. These included :
•London Underground during its part privatisation heading up cultural change - the largest Private Finance initiative in the UK.
•KPMG setting up and outsourcing business serving global clients
•HSBC Investment Bank building a management development team and getting business buy in from sceptical senior leaders
•UBS, 75 countries and 80,000 staff where he became Global Head of Leadership and where the strategic initiative he worked on is now a Harvard Business School Case study.
On his return to the UK, Chris used his key experiences to date to bring success to other organisations, e.g. UK National Health Service, setting out the first ever nationwide talent and leadership strategy for 1.4m staff. In 2009 he was appointed Visiting Professor of Transformational Leadership at Cass Business School, London. His profile and experience led to Chris being asked to speak to audiences around the world about what really works in day-to-day leadership in the real world and what doesnt. During this time he developed the Mach 2 leadership approach; 2 steps to creating effective, engaging, ethical and entrepreneuriaI leaders.
In 2014 he pulled this together with all his 35 years experience into his book, “Lead to Succeedâ€. This has received excellent reviews from both press and readers, been explained in 3 global podcasts, with over 40,000 downloads and several videos. Chris has introduced the ideas in “Lead to Succeed” via Masterclasses to leaders in organisations as diverse as Investment banks, the UK National Health Service, Royal Bank of Scotland, international banks and law firms to the Myanmar Red Cross and Chinese Space Programme. His other audiences for keynotes have included 400 Project Managers in Dubai, 500 HR Directors, 1200 science students in India and 700 business leaders in Tehran.
Chris has been on the HR Most Influential Thinkers list annually since 2010, been interviewed over 200 times on TV and quoted in many global publications on leadership issues. In recognition of his work developing leaders around the world, Chris was invited to become a Companion of the Institute of Management in 2013.
Out of work he has : skied at 98.6kmph by accident, blown up a 30m factory chimney and driven a Land Rover in 6ft of water for 30 minutes.