Glen Maxwell-Heron

I have had a varied career to date, starting with over 10 years as an Engineer Officer in the Royal Navy learning how people work and the value of getting things done in tight timescales and difficult circumstances in different parts of the world. I then spent the next 10 years working for a consulting firm and large financial services companies delivering large scale IT system changes before taking the opportunity to spend nearly 4 years living and working in Japan. There I was delivering people change work for organisations such as Kirin, Tycho Electronics and Saint-Gobain Isover – all large multi-national companies that valued developing their people and teams.

When I returned to the UK, I decided to become self-employed to accommodate the needs of my young family and also enable me to continue working with a range of different problems in a breadth of organisations. I really enjoy learning how different organisations and sectors operate, asking questions and finding out what makes people and teams tick. I have also learned that small changes to seemingly innocuous things can make a massive difference to the outcomes achieved.

Felix Spender FLoD

My career in the Army gave me a set of technical skills and experience relating to the development of individuals, teams and organisations which included operations, planning, training and logistics. It taught me to understand people recognising that every individual has a unique perspective and that their engagement required subtle variations. I learnt from experience that there were few simple solutions and most problems needed to be solved through a sound collaborative approach.

My second career started as a Crisis Response Consultant focussing on maritime kidnap in Somalia and the Gulf of Guinea. This involved forming, managing and supporting diverse teams to resolve tense situations. During the last 10 years, I have concentrated on supporting SMEs and helped many businesses, including insurance and financial services, law firms, energy firms, defence contractors and corporates achieve increases in operational effectiveness that resulted in productivity increases.

Collaboration, problem solving, conflict resolution and continuous improvement are all part of my mantra of “how can we do stuff better?” I prefer getting my “sleeves rolled up” than pontificating from the side line and take great pleasure watching those I support thriving, be it a local law firm or Bath Rugby.