Exchange

Nicky is an experienced and sought-after executive coach, consultant and facilitator in developing leaders, teams and organisations. 

She has worked extensively across private and public sectors and in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America with FTSE 100 and 250 organisations, small fast growing start-ups, family businesses, universities, charities, the NHS, the UK Cabinet Office and other central government departments and arms-length bodies.  In her corporate career, Nicky held senior and international leadership roles in HR in high growth tech companies, and in Marketing, Projects and Organisation Development in financial services and banking.  Her last corporate role was as Global Head of Talent with Standard Chartered Bank.

Nicky has worked as an independent consultant and coach for over 20 years, helping leaders and teams to transform their businesses and develop their capabilities to deal with professional and personal challenges and to make the most of new opportunities. Over the years, projects have included developing a business case and target operating model for Egg, the UK’s first internet bank; developing change management capability across Standard Chartered Bank’s footprint; creating and leading top talent programmes for over a decade for the UK Cabinet Office; working alongside top leadership teams to develop the strong relationships and high performance essential for success in a range of challenging situations, from restructuring and closure announcements during economic turbulence and the pandemic to new market, ownership and growth opportunities.

Throughout her career Nicky has worked to bring people together to forge connections, to collaborate, to work across boundaries - between departments within organisations, between organisations in mergers and acquisitions and between public and private sectors – to develop strategic capabilities and to lead system wide change.   Leading WIG’s Exchange Programme brings all of these elements together.

As well as being an experienced organisation consultant and coach, Nicky is a qualified yoga teacher, psychotherapist and coaching supervisor.  She lives in London and Chichester and is an enthusiastic sailor, walker and student of French.

Francis is an experienced strategy and organisation development professional. Dealing regularly with business restructuring and corporate transformation, he has deep expertise in strategy setting, organisation design, leadership effectiveness and culture change.

He has led both the European Leadership Consulting Practice and the European Corporate Restructuring & Change Practice for a global consulting firm.

Francis has also held positions within both the banking and manufacturing sectors, living and working in Belgium, Sweden and France. Since 1996 he has consulted in North America, the Middle East, S.E. Asia and Europe operating at Board and top team levels.   He is now Managing Partner of Blue Grain Partnership, a UK based advisory firm.  

He has worked with a range of organisations across sectors and continents, including Avaya, Aon, PricewaterhouseCoopers, HSBC, Shell, Royal Bank of Scotland, Nokia, General Electric, Ernst & Young, the British Red Cross, Arup, Holcim, B&Q, United Utilities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Philips, Whitehall Industry Group, Cadbury Schweppes, Coors Brewing Company, British Telecommunications, Bayer, BBC News, Honeywell, SES Global, the NHS, Zurich Financial Services, Eon and the Prudential.

Author of The Dynamics of Change (Routledge: London & NY) Francis has published, consulted and lectured on strategy, systems thinking and business transformation.  He is also a member of Faculty for the NHS Leadership Academy, working with senior health and care system leaders across England on integration. 

Francis holds a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from the Department of Systems Science, City,
University of London.

Dani joined WIG’s Leadership team in 2018. She is the Programme Manager responsible for WIG’s Exchange Programme, Senior Leaders Programme, and multiple bespoke programmes. She works closely with programme participants and facilitators to design experiential learning interventions tailored to the cohorts needs.

Dani looks after WIG’s organisational visits, where she works with our members to understand their key priorities and challenges and pairs them with another organisation, who have faced similar challenges and can offer valuable insights. Recent sessions have focused on, recruitment and retention, organisational culture and sustainable innovation and transformation.

She also focuses on our alumni strategy, delivering creative sessions to engage our alumni community of over 2,500 and continue to connect the sectors.

Dani holds a BA Degree in Sociology and Criminology from the University of Nottingham where she was also a member of the Soup Runner’s Society. In her spare time, she enjoys attending Reformer Pilates classes, travelling and skiing.