The Board of SAMI Consulting Ltd

The Executive of SAMI Consulting Ltd

Please click on any name to see a resume

• Charlene Collison

• Martin Duckworth

• Cathy Dunn

• Colin Fletcher

• Nick Jackson

• Jane Langford

• David Lye

• John Ormerod

• Joe Ravetz

• Wendy Schultz

• David Walden

• Huw Williams

• Alan Woods

Associates: To see the cvs of our associates please click here

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CVs of Directors, Fellows and Principals

Charlene Collison

Charlene Collison has over ten years experience in using scenarios, stories, and narrative to help organisations develop visions of and strategies for the future. She is a regular facilitator within the DTI’s futurefocus unit, and in other government departments, leading both large and small-scale conversations about the future, including making sense of the past, opening new perspectives on the present and exploring possible futures. She has worked widely throughout industry as a consultant and facilitator, helping organisations and individuals to develop more engaging communication and leadership.

Her clients include The Environment Agency, The Body Shop, Hewlett Packard and The Skandia Future Centre. Her background includes management roles in international marketing and training development in graphic design software (Aldus/Adobe) and promotion of the arts. Charlene works with a broad range of issues and sectors. Particular interests are sustainability and lifestyle issues, and mapping “the spirit of the times”. She has a BA in international relations and marketing from the University of Puget Sound in the US, and a Diploma in Organisation Development from Henley Management College. She is a SAMI Principal.

Her SAMI projects have included global scenarios for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and development of our innovative interactive DVD on health futures for the NHS Institute. She is a SAMI Principal.

You can contact Charlene at: charlene.collison@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Martin Duckworth

Martin Duckworth is a strategist, with a proven ability to develop business solutions and the processes needed to move an organisation forward. Experienced in assessing strategic situations, and in developing new markets and new business models: uses futures thinking and scenario planning to enhance the analysis of the external and competitor environment, and develop new business.

In ten years with The Boots Group PLC he was responsible for competitor analysis and developed an intranet to increase cross-company awareness. He took part in a number of strategic and innovation projects, taking the ideas through into generating new business.

His SAMI projects have included work for the National Trust at Avebury, future proofing CSR for BNFL, for the Environment Agency on emerging themes and creating scenarios for the Health and Safety Executive.

You can contact Martin at: Martin.Duckworth@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Cathy Dunn

Cathy has worked for more than 20 years in the field of leadership and organisation development; firstly as an internal consultant for BP and latterly as an independent consultant. She has extensive experience in all stages of design and facilitation of learning activities and is able to work at all levels within an organisation from senior executives through to operational staff.

With a successful track record in managing global leadership development programmes together with designing and developing learning interventions in line with business strategy, direction and culture, she is able to organise and deliver appropriate solutions to support business success including facilitation of teams, groups and organisations to achieve relevant results.

She enjoys facilitating teams and groups to build relevant skills and capabilities and, with her considerable international experience with global programmes, is able to build relationships and influence across all levels.

She also coaches individuals and has a strong interest in the area of voice and personal presence as well as being accredited to use MBTI and FIRO-B processes.

Another interest is her work with organisations to help them develop vocational work-based academic qualifications.

You can contact Cathy on: cathy.dunn@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Colin Fletcher

After holding research and lecturing posts at the Universities of Exeter and Cambridge, Colin worked first with Economic Consultants Ltd and then with Peat Marwick Mitchell (now KPMG) on a variety of strategy and marketing assignments and on various project planning, development and appraisal studies.

He spent many years with John Laing plc, latterly as Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development. Activities covered building and civil engineering, housing and non-residential development, building material manufacture and infrastructure investment/services. He has worked on projects in UK, Europe, USA, South America, Middle East, Africa, Japan and South East Asia.

Colin is a SAMI Fellow. He has a B.A. Hons and M.A. from Exeter University in Economics, a Cambridge M.A. and holds a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance. He is a Certified Management Consultant and a Member of the Institute of Consulting. He is a former chairman and member of the European Council of Economists, and is Chair of The Forecasting Committee for the UK Construction Industries.

You can contact Colin at: colin.fletcher@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Nick Jackson

After a student apprenticeship with Richard Thomas and Baldwins, and a spell with Broken Hill Pty in Australia, Nick worked as an engineer and planner for the British Steel Corporation in South Wales and London. He joined John Laing plc in 1980 and as manager of Strategic Planning he specialised in strategic planning, technology and sustainability for the process sector, housebuilding, construction, building material manufacture and facilities management.

In 2003 he established his own consultancy, and starting working on SAMI Consulting projects in 2005. He is skilled in horizon scanning and scenarios for the public and private sectors, in industry and in services.

He has an MA in engineering from Oxford University, and an MSc in business studies from Imperial College, London. He is a co-author of "Le Batiment en Grande-Bretagne" published by the French Chamber of Commerce in London. He is a SAMI Principal.

His SAMI projects have included work with Sovereign Housing Association, the Future of Services to the Public, ICT Infrastructure in the City of London, and on several projects on future skills needs for the UK, including specialised reports on the construction industry and the automotive retail sector.

You can contact him on: nick.jackson@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Jane Langford

As a director of her own company, Jane Langford has advised on strategic direction and marketing, most recently focussing on strategic relationships and customer care across all sectors. Jane has a wide range of business and leadership experience most notably in government, IT, not-for-profit and large complex commercial enterprises. She has personally worked with and led significant change in corporate organisations and, as a marketing professional, used her imagination and analytical skills to build profitable global revenue streams. She is an ideas person who can see them through to fruition either directly or by directing or advising others.

She brings pleasant self assurance and professionalism to her roles, seeking always to bring out the best in often strong-minded individuals and teams, whether as leader or member. Jane’s early voluntary experience as a presenter for Radio St Helena has developed into effective public speaking and thoughtful representation skills.

Jane has worked for ICL, PE Consulting and Hopewell Consultants. She is a SAMI Principal.

You can contact her on: jane.langford@samiconsulting.co.uk

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David Lye (Fellow)

David has over 15 years Board-level experience, as Chief Executive and Director of Public Sector agencies, and member of the Senior Civil Service. He is now a fellow with SAMI, PCC and other management consultancies

As a successful change manager he implemented transformation of NHS West Midlands, from a regional health authority employing over 1,000 people to a regional office employing just 135. As Chief Executive he managed transformation of the Public Guardianship Office from 550 to 300 staff – achieving full cost recovery for the first time in the agency’s history and improving customer satisfaction at the same time.

He has driven customer focus in the NHS. As Programme Director, he achieved access to NHS dentistry for an extra 2.3 million people between 2008 and 2010. At the Public Guardianship Office he saw a 72% reduction in customer complaints in a year. As Director of Performance in NHS West Midlands, responsible for service commissioning, he achieved what were then the shortest waiting times for operations in the UK.

 
He is an innovator and strategic thinker. As Head of Dentistry at DH (2007-11) he devised a pilot contract which has been welcomed both by Ministers and the dental profession. As Implementation Programme Director for the reform of the Mental Health Act (2004-07), he completely recast the Government’s reforms to the tribunal system in the light of criticism by mental health professionals and service users, prior to successful implementation. As Chief Executive of the Public Guardianship Office, he led a complete overhaul of customer services, leading to the elimination of backlogs of work, reduction in costs, and improvement in customer and staff satisfaction. At NHS West Midlands he introduced systematic performance review, based on patient-focused service specifications.

You can contact David at: david.lye@samiconsulting.co.uk

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John Ormerod

John Ormerod’s career has covered a wide span including the public sector, academia, a range of private sector industries and the accountancy profession. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Directors of Regent’s College, a private sector higher educational institute in Regent’s Park, central London, which offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in business, the liberal arts and psychology/psychotherapy.

Until embarking on a portfolio career in 2005 he was Director, Strategy and Communications and a member of the Management Board of the Export Credits Guarantee Department (“ECGD”) responsible for public affairs and policy issues, international relations, corporate and business strategy, corporate governance and ECGD’s Business Principles. Before joining ECGD John worked in the Corporate Strategy Group at British Telecommunications plc ("BT") and prior to that was for 15 years at United Distillers plc where he set up and served on the boards of joint ventures in Korea, India and Australia and pioneered the use of scenario planning for underpinning investment decisions in emerging markets.

He has been a part-time lecturer in strategy on the MBA programme at the Open University Business School since 1999, teaching in the UK, Russia and Romania and is also a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, and the Royal Society of Arts.

John did his first degree in English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge (albeit that he went up intending to read Natural Sciences), qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1977, took his MBA at Cass Business School, City University, London in 1989 and an MA in Philosophy at the Open University in 2007.

Outside of his work and academic interests he relaxes with classical music and philosophy, often on his canal boat. He is a SAMI Fellow.

His SAMI projects have included the Future of Services to the Public and Scenarios for China and India 2015.

You can contact John at: john.ormerod@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Michael Owen (Chairman)

Michael Owen is a corporate strategist and applied business economist with Director level expertise gained in Glaxo and Unilever in leading and implementing strategic projects and processes worldwide to drive business growth. He first used scenarios at Glaxo to help the newly-merged GlaxoWellcome to identify new strategic directions and priorities. He has used his skills since 2001 in consulting projects on EU enlargement, health economics and consumer communications on pharmaceuticals.

He has a BSc (Wales) and MA in Economics, is a Member of the Society of Business Economists and has been a frequent speaker at international conferences.

SAMI projects have included using scenarios to future proof CSR policies for a major pharmaceutical company and a stakeholder engagement for the Department of Health. He is a SAMI Fellow.

You can contact him on: mike.owen@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Joe Ravetz

Joe Ravetz is a leading thinker on sustainable futures for urban and regional development. His landmark study ‘City-Region 2020 – integrated planning for a sustainable environment’ provides new insights and new pathways, by exploring a detailed case study on the re-engineering of a large conurbation. From this work the Centre for Urban & Regional Ecology (CURE) was formed in collaboration with Professor John Handley. Joe has raised over £2 million in research funding and built an active portfolio of policy-relevant research with four main strands:
 
Environment-development studies:
Spatial development studies:
Futures and information systems:
Evaluation and participation studies:
 

Each of these comprises a range of projects at the regional, UK and EU levels, working across sectors such as housing, transport, land-use, energy and environmental management, economic development, organisational studies.

His current roles include: Research Fellow & Co-Director, Centre for Urban & Regional Ecology, Manchester University; membership of the editorial board of Foresight Journal (Emerald Publishing); coordinator of the Greater Manchester Policy Exchange programme; and Principal for SAMI. In addition Joe delivers many training courses, seminars, keynote presentations and review services around the UK and EU and publishes extensively on social and environmental sustainability

He has a BSc in Architecture, 1983 (University College London) and a Diploma in Architecture, 1987 (Manchester Metropolitan University)

You can contact him on: joe.ravetz@samiconsulting.co.uk

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John Reynolds (Executive and Director)

John Reynolds has wide experience at Director/Board level in Government Departments and Agencies. In 1998 he was asked to set up the Future Unit, which generated influential reports and established future thinking across Whitehall. He also invented the unique creativity centre futurefocus@dti. He later took over responsibility for the Department of Trade and Industry’s Innovation Unit and became Director of the Future and Innovation Unit.

He left the senior civil service following a period on the Board of UK Trade and Investment and leading work on the protection and resilience of the critical national infrastructure, principally energy and telecommunication. This included the preparation of the National Risk Assessment and the associated planning scenarios.
 

His other public sector experience includes, acting as an advisor on science and technology to 2 Prime Ministers; the successful privatisation of 2 laboratories; developing and implementing ‘market based’ management of the radio spectrum;; and the merging of organisations with rationalised services and new branding. He has also managed successful IT programmes and was one of the first Government e-Champions.

Since joining SAMI in 2006 he has led a wide range of projects including:

• ‘Horizon scanning and scenario building: Scenarios for Skills 2020’ for UK Commission for Employment and Skills (and related projects for Sector Skills Councils)
• Leading the Environment Agency project on the key driver of change to 2020; and advising the Agency and EA Wales on the implications for their future strategy
• Leading the Natural England Scenarios project to develop scenario for 2050; including stakeholder engagement and public involvement workshops
• Providing future based strategic policy advice to overseas Governments, including the US State Department
• Advising Department of Health on the introduction of new public engagement requirements.
• Providing coaching on strategic futures across government on behalf of the Government Office for Science, Foresight Horizon Scanning Centre.

He has a 1st Class Honours degree in Marine Technology from the University of Wales, Cardiff; and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

You can contact John at: john.reynolds@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Gill Ringland (Chief Executive and Director)

Gill Ringland's career has spanned academic and industrial worlds, taking in physics, software and information technology, strategy and future thinking in turn. She is a past Member of SRC’s Computing Science Committee and of Council of the Economic and Social Research Council. She has been active in five start-ups, and was responsible for building a £3bn business over five years for ICL. She has been CEO and a Fellow of SAMI since 2002.

She started to use scenarios when responsible for strategy at ICL, and as a result wrote the amazon.com bestseller “Scenario Planning”. She is a Liveryman of the City of London through the Information Technologists. She has a B.Sc., M.Sc., F.B.C.S, M.I.E.E, is a graduate of Stanford University's Senior Executive Program, an ICL Fellow and a Fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science. She is a member of the European Forum on Forward Looking Activities, appointed to advise the European Commission on best practice in anticipating and managing the future

She writes and consults widely as a Fellow of SAMI, to clients in the public, private and third sectors, and is often invited to keynote at conferences from Digital Money to Waste Management. The report “In Safe Hands? the future of financial services” is available in pdf in the News section of this web site.

Gill Ringland’s books are 'why, what, when, how' guides to using futures in organisations:

• "Scenarios in Business", John Wiley, 2002, ISBN 0-470-84382-9

• "Scenarios in Public Policy", John Wiley, 2002, ISBN 0-470-84383-7

• "Scenarios in Marketing", (ed with Laurie Young), John Wiley, 2006, ISBN 0-470-03272-3

• "Scenario Planning, 2nd edition", John Wiley, 2006, ISBN 0-470-01881-X

• “Beyond Crisis”, with Oliver Sparrow and Patricia Lustig, John Wiley, 2010, ISBN 978-0-470-68577-8

• “Here be Dragons”, with Patricia Lustig, Rob Phaal, Martin Duckworth and Chris Yapp, Choir Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9562190-5-3.

You can contact Gill at: gill.ringland@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Wendy Schultz

Wendy Schultz has over 25 years of foresight practice around the world, including ten years at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, where she earned her PHD. While in Hawai’i she worked for five years forecasting global natural gas markets and world LNG trade at the East-West Center, and for over ten years as a researcher, foresight process designer, and project manager at the Hawai’i Research Center for Futures Studies. From 1996 to 2003 she served as visiting faculty with the Masters program in Studies of the Future at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. In 2001 she received a Fulbright award supporting six months’ foresight work as a lecturer and researcher with colleagues at the Finland Futures Research Centre.

She has lectured on futures and foresight and provided training across a wide range of futures tools. She has designed and populated environmental scanning databases for Government Departments (DEFRA and OSI) and more recently has completed scenario building and dissemination projects for the Health and Safety Executive and the Food Ethics Council. Her conference keynotes, workshops, and publications include topics as varied as emerging issues of change drawn from her work with the UK government; the future of transport (Helkama Industries); the future of electronic media (for the Tomorrow Project); and the future of learning and higher education (presentation at the World Future Society 2003 in Mexico City); among others.

Dr. Schultz is a Fellow and an Executive Board member of the World Futures Studies Federation; a Board Member of the Association of Professional Futurists; and a member of the International Advisory Panel of the European Futurists Conference Lucerne. She is Director of Infinite Futures (www.infinitefutures.com) and a SAMI Principal.

Projects with SAMI have included training courses in Mexico and scenario planning in Malaysia, working with the HR team of a major oil company, and a project for the Health and Safety Executive.

You can contact Wendy at: wendy.schultz@samiconsulting.co.uk

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David Walden (Fellow)

David Walden has extensive experience of working in central government, national agencies and delivery organisations. Much of his career was as a civil servant in the Department of Health, joining the senior civil service in 1989. His final role was as Head of Social Care Policy. He also has operational experience, having been the HR Director of an acute hospital NHS Trust and he successfully ran a “care and repair” business within a voluntary sector housing and care provider.

David enjoys tackling strategic policy issues and delivering change in complex environments, whilst maintaining good relationships with stakeholders.

Between 2004 and 2009 he was Director of Strategy at social care regulator, the Commission for Social Care Inspection where he was responsible for many of CSCI’s influential reports, including on home care services, investment in social care and the operation of councils’ eligibility criteria.

He then became Director of Adult Services at the Social Care Institute for Excellence, responsible for evidence of “what works” in social care, retiring in June 2012.

David has special interests in social and long-term care for adults, including its funding, and in healthcare. He has been involved in many policy developments and has a particular interest in regulation and its impact on consumers, providers and commissioners of health and care.

You can contact David at: david.walden@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Richard Walsh (Executive and Director)

Richard's main areas of activity are strategy and forward thinking with companies and government; policy making and public relations. He has a special interest in the heath and protection sector – be it insurance, government or the NHS.

Previously he has worked for 6 years as head of health at the Association of British Insurers with responsibility for ABI policy on health and protection insurance including developing statements of best practice, negotiating with external stakeholders for example the genetics moratorium, HIV risk, BMA fees and ethics, and terrorism.

Before that he spent 11 years in the Department of Health, with his final role being head of strategic planning (senior civil service). Since joining SAMI, he has worked on a number of health related projects for the Department of Health.

You can contact Richard at: richard.walsh@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Huw Williams

Huw Williams has over 20 years experience of strategy development at the leading edge of change and new business development in the telecoms, internet and e-commerce arenas. He has excellent presentational and influencing skills developed over many years of working at Board level.

Since 2003, Huw has run his own telecoms strategy and regulation consultancy, with many leading industry players as clients – AOL, C&W, Cisco, Intel, HP. The consultancy provided an assessment of regulatory impact on the City’s ICT infrastructure, and helped develop a scenario analysis of the future of communications. He has also worked on a feasibility study for WiFi in Oxford. More recently with SAMI, Huw has run workshops on the future of the internet for Nominet, and captured industry experts view on the future of low carbon vehicles for IET.

Huw has also provided e-commerce strategy consultancy to public sector bodies( eg local Councils, National Physical Laboratory), and not-for-profit organisations (European Society of Cardiologists)

Prior to 2003, Huw worked in a range of strategy and business development roles at BT. These included running BT’s main website – www.bt.com; developing BT’s global internet strategy, including a major M&A investment; managing the business case for Video-on-Demand trials; and strategic competitor analysis.

Huw did his first degree in Mathematics at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and completed an MSc in Operational Research at Brunel University. He has published papers in the Journal of Operational Research and in the Journal of the IEE.

You can contact Huw at huw.williams@samiconsulting.co.uk

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Alan Woods (Fellow)

Alan specialises in public policy, regulation, financial services & people development. His career spans top management roles, close working with ministers & CEOs, and shaping public policy.

His recent and current clients include the National Association of Pension Funds (chairing a cross sector group on transparency); the Work and Pensions Select Committee (acting as expert adviser); the General Medical Council and the National Employment Savings Trust (reviewing board effectiveness); personal clients (executive coaching) and the Pensions Regulator (advising on regulatory policy.)

Alan’s career began with a rapid rise through the civil service. After cutting his teeth in operations management, HR, and policy roles he became Principal Private Secretary to successive Cabinet ministers. He then led his Department’s annual spending negotiations with HM Treasury, involving sums totalling £90 billion. In 2000 Alan moved to the Association of British Insurers leading the life insurance industry’s engagement with the public policy world. He led industry-wide improvements through a new quality mark scheme; negotiated successfully with regulators; and shifted the public policy agenda to focus on the UK’s savings gap.

In 2004 Alan became Pensions Policy Director at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). He led the biggest ever reforms of the country’s pensions system resulting in better pensions for millions and a new system of saving. As a member of the top management team at DWP he helped steer the 100,000-strong organisation through the recession. He was a non-executive director of the Pensions, Carers and Disability Service (serving 12 million customers) and chaired the cross-government committee on our ageing society.

Alan brings a breadth of experience across sectors & functions both as executive & non-executive director, and as a board effectiveness reviewer. He is a qualified business coach with clients in CEO & director roles. He is passionate about realising the benefits of diversity, and helping individuals and organisations maximise their potential while staying true to their values.

You can contact Alan at: alan.woods@samiconsulting.co.uk

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