Geoffrey Bray (Managing Partner)

Geoffrey Bray is an experienced leader and manager with a strong financial background. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant he held a variety of financial positions in the private sector, before moving into general management where he operated at Executive Director level for over twenty years. He was on the main Boards of two listed UK quoted companies for over ten years and was Managing Director of an international high technology company, based in Cambridge, for ten years.

His experience includes 12 years in the construction industry, 7 years in consumer goods and 10 years in high technology, all of which involved manufacturing. Apart from his role with Obsidian he is currently a Director of an investment management company that invests funds from U.S.A. and Japanese institutions in European quoted companies. He is also a Director of two U.K. organisations that operate in the field of ‘social enterprises’.

He is Managing Partner of Obsidian Consulting and has been with the company for thirteen years. As Managing Partner he is responsible for driving the strategy and managing the business as well as being involved in consultancy assignments.

Dave Downing

David has a strong technical background with eighteen years experience in industry, both UK and overseas, working with research organisations and industrial companies. He was Commercial Director for five years, and was then promoted to Managing Director of a UK based, international, industrial manufacturer.

David joined Obsidian in 1997, and is the lead consultant in Obsidian in the personal development and coaching area. He has worked with many different organisations on commercial development matters as well as on a number of personal effectiveness, management and coaching assignments.

Keith Hall

Keith spent 38 years in business and has held senior positions in Sales Management, Supply Chain Management and Human Resource Management. He has been responsible for major change programmes, particularly cultural change. He also has considerable experience in training, management development, performance management, employment law and tribunals.

With Keith’s interest in psychology he specialises in organisational behaviour. This subject looks at the interactions of people in an organisation at all levels. i.e. The competencies, capabilities and attitudes of individuals, the personal interactions between people in the work place (particularly teamworking), and the interactions between people and the organisations in which they are situated (particularly the effect of organisational culture).

Terry Heffernan

Terry is a rounded business professional, with broad business skills acquired during 29 years with GlaxoSmithKline (formerly SmithKline Beecham and the Beecham Group). Previously he worked for Lloyd’s Bank plc and held a sales role at a small engineering company.

Terry’s experience mainly lies within the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and Pharmaceutical industries where he held various sales roles (Territory Manager, Sales Training Officer, Area Sales Manager, National Account Manager, Divisional Sales Manager, and National Field Sales Manager) and latterly was Business Change Manager and I.T. Manager for the European Consumer Healthcare business. As a result, Terry has practical experience of working with and understanding most business functions and processes across the Value Chain. This has been acquired during his career and through the Executive Masters of Business Administration (M.B.A.) he studied at London Business School, successful graduating with a credit in 2001.

Nigel Holder

Nigel Holder served as a fighter pilot and flying instructor for twenty years with the Royal Air Force. Initially trained as a project manager in the 1970s, typical projects included the introduction of Laser Guided Weapons into NATO, and the introduction of the Jaguar into service with the Sultan of Oman's Air Force. On leaving the RAF, he joined British Aerospace as a military contract pilot. He was closely involved in the planning of the contractorisation of flying training for the Canadian Armed Forces, and was responsible for the creation of a flying school for the Nigerian Air Force.

For the last ten years he has focused on project related consultancy with Obsidian Consulting. He has worked with many organisations to help them improve their project performance. His specialisms are; project, programme and risk management, teamwork and process analysis and redesign He is an active member of the Association for Project Management and the Risk SIG.

Sarah Lee

Sarah is an experienced business professional with a strong skill set. She is a modern languages graduate with 15 years experience in business. Prior to joining Obsidian she spent the majority of her career at General Electric Company (GE) where she operated at senior management level in client management, quality and corporate responsibility roles. She has extensive experience of strategy development, change management programmes, project leadership/ mentoring and process improvement, including six sigma. Sarah has worked with a wide range of clients and partners in both the private and public sector.

Sarah joined Obsidian in 2006 and specialises in coaching, team programmes, project management and process improvement. She has a strong track record of delivering successful client projects.

Paul McIntee

Paul has over thirty years experience in technical and commercial management in large multinational companies and two years experience as a business consultant to SMEs. His experience encompasses creating commercial relationships and alliances, strategic and tactical business management, programme and project management as well as creating and leading teams.

He has held senior positions in technology management and commercial management within BT as well as being the ‘VP Customer Projects & Commercial’ during the creation of Azure, the revenue protection spin-out Paul’s international experience includes creating strategic alliances with companies in France , Germany, India and Norway, as well as creating winning proposals and leading successful bid teams .

Paul joined Obsidian in February 2007. His specialisms include commercial and business growth, programme and project management, coaching and senior leadership development. Paul is a chartered engineer and member of the following institutes: IoD, IET, ILM and IBC.

Jeremy Payne

Jeremy has a strong commercial background with over fifteen years experience in major corporations. He has held a number of senior executive positions in strategy, quality and internal management science consultancy. He held a senior group strategy and planning role in BT where he was pivotal in the introduction of the Balanced Scorecard and the European Excellence Model at corporate level. On leaving BT he worked as a Client Partner for a medium sized City of London based Management Consultancy, leading assignments for clients in the telecommunications and financial services sectors.

Jeremy joined Obsidian in 2000. He specialises in organisational and individual Performance Management and the crucial linkages between the two, and has a track record of successful interventions at Board and senior management levels.

Jeremy gained his BA from the University of Cambridge with First Class Honours in 1978 and his MA and PhD from that University in 1982. He successfully completed the International General Management Programme at IMD in Lausanne in 1993 and became an Accredited European Quality Award Assessor in 1995.

Tom Serpell

Experienced B2B marketer and strategist with over 9 years in consultancy. A classics graduate of the ‘60s, Tom has 37 years business-to-business marketing experience. He worked for 2 multi-national manufacturing companies for long spells, his last corporate post being Group Systems Director for a Norway-HQed packaging systems business supplying the food industry throughout the world. In between, he entrepreneured, ran and wound up a high-tech engineering start-up company over a 5 year period.

He has been a small business adviser and is a mentor for the University of Cambridge Enterprise scheme. He was for 2 years a council member and chairman of the Institute of Packaging’s Education Committee. He currently holds a number of non-executive directorships. He set up his own sole trader consultancy practice in 1998, opting to join forces with Obsidian in 2004.

Tom is Obsidian’s strategic marketing specialist. He specialises in helping clients understand the external influences on their organisations; and their position in their marketplace, through original research of assets, markets, clients, competition and other stakeholders. He has particular interest in product strategy and the management of innovation. More about Tom.

John Simpson

An experienced manager and consultant, John spent 6 years as a mathematics teacher before moving into business, first as a statistical systems developer and then as a management science consultant. He has over twenty-five years experience in industry working for a large multinational company where held senior executive positions in Product and Business Planning, Quality and Management Systems, Strategic Planning, Organisational Development and Knowledge Management.

John joined Obsidian in 2001. He specialises in strategy and organisational development and is Obsidian's lead consultant in knowledge management.