Andy is an executive coach and mentor who provides support, inspiration and guidance to help leaders flourish and succeed. Following a successful career in Marketing with Unilever and then building his own multinational consultancy company, he now partners with clients as they think through the issues they face in their business activities and relationships. More fundamentally, he guides them in developing their own distinctive leadership approach, based on their personal passions, values and talents.

Andy has always loved searching for insights and sharing ideas, helping people to learn and live life to the full. His passion for coaching arises from a simple belief that our spirit as human beings is fundamentally associated with a desire to make the most of who we are as individuals. And this, in turn, is often related to the potential difference we can make beyond our selves. When people seek to change the world around them in positive ways, they become leaders. They discover a sense of purpose and work to engage other people in bringing about this change in practice.

 Andy understands his role as a leadership coach as being to help people discover and act on this inspiration for themselves. He supports them as they deepen their self-insight, clarify their ambitions and build their understanding of how their mindsets and behaviour can make the biggest possible impact. By listening with empathy and probing with curiosity, he enables leaders to arrive at more authentic, effective ways of addressing the challenges they face.

Andy provides senior executive coaching and learning programmes for a diverse range of charities, start-ups, consultancies and blue-chip corporates. His services typically include:

• One-to-one personal coaching

• Leadership team coaching and facilitation

• Delivery of leadership development programmes

• Keynote conference speeches

Background

Andy obtained a scholarship to study at The Queen’s College, Oxford University and graduated in 1986 with a First in Politics, Philosophy & Economics and a Blue in football. He began his career with Unilever working in a variety of strategic marketing roles in the UK, India and South East Asia. His last position, as Vice-President for the Marketing Academy, involved him setting up and leading the pioneering group responsible for strengthening the marketing capabilities across Unilever’s global organisation.

In 2000, Andy left Unilever to become a Co-Founder of Brand Learning, a capability consultancy which went on to establish offices in London, New York and Singapore. As the business grew over the years, it won many awards for its high levels of employee engagement, including coming Number 1 in The Sunday Times Top 100 List of Best Small Companies to Work For. Andy and his partner Mhairi McEwan were also joint winners of The Sunday Times award for Best Leader of a Small Company in 2011 and authored a book together about building marketing capabilities called The Growth Drivers.

Towards the end of Andy’s time at Brand Learning, his role shifted to leading the development of its leadership practice. He studied towards an MSc in Coaching and Behaviour Change, graduating with Distinction in 2016. The following year, Brand Learning was acquired by Accenture and he took the decision to step away and focus independently on his coaching activities. His second book, The Inspired Leader, was published by Bloomsbury shortly afterwards, exploring how leaders can discover, experience and maintain their personal inspiration. He is now working part-time towards a doctorate at the International Centre for Coaching & Mentoring Studies, Oxford Brookes University. His thesis will explore the role that coaching and mentoring plays for charity CEOs in the UK.

Client testimonials

“Working with Andy one-to-one gave me a sense of being grounded, which was really important when things were ambiguous or big decisions needed to be made. His broad perspective and gentle interrogation style enabled me to crystallise issues and solutions. I also felt a better version of me emerged at the end of our sessions: more confident, more anchored, more appreciative of my own aptitude. I have reflected that when working with Andy, I often had some of my best ideas and, importantly, the conviction to see them through.”

CEO, International Consumer Goods Business

“Working with Andy has transformed my understanding of what it means to be a leader in the charity sector. He is a highly experienced and truly empathetic coach and trainer who can very quickly understand the challenges I face and give just the advice and support I need in any given situation. With Andy's support, I have taken a quantum leap forward in the way I work with and manage my team.”

CEO, Charity


“If you have the opportunity to work with Andy, take it! He listens carefully, guides gently, and is never far away from surfacing the things that matter. He’s also been there and done it himself – so you’re spending time with someone who has led and inspired others.”

CEO, Tech Start Up

Qualifications / Other Credentials

• BA Honours: Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Oxford University.

• Fellow of The Marketing Society.

• Enterprise Fellow of The Prince’s Trust.

• MSc: Coaching & Behaviour Change, Henley Business School.

• Accredited as a Master Executive Coach by the Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS).

Books

• The Growth Drivers: The definitive guide to transforming marketing capabilities (Wiley, 2012)

• The Inspired Leader: How leaders can discover, experience and maintain their inspiration (Bloomsbury, 2018)