Catherine Thomson M.Ed. is a self-employed organisation development consultant with a strong interest in human resource process design, competency research, change management, and leadership development. Over the last twenty-five years she has held senior human resource positions in both the public and private sectors. These include roles within the financial sector, education and central government.

Some of her posts held prior to setting up her own company in April 1996, include:
• HR Architect with Barclays Bank
• Head of Development and Training with Education Department, Edinburgh
• Senior Change Consultant with Employment Department, London HQ.

Since becoming self- employed she has worked extensively in the following industries:
• Financial Services
• Utilities
• Retailing
• Pharmaceutical
• Travel
• Telecommunications
• Local and Central Government
• Not for Profit Sector

She has worked internationally in the following areas:
• HR Strategy and policy development with major oil company , Amsterdam
• HR process design, build and implementation with Financial Services companies in South Africa
• Organisational re-structure, design of HR processes to support re-structure, plus change and communication planning and implementation with a major telecommunications company in Sudan
• Undertaken 360 degree climate and leadership style exercise on the top 30 managers in Tanzania with telecoms company.

Example consulting assignments include:
• Completed a major competency research study to support the design and build of key human resource processes. Developed an organisational competency framework to support all roles within a Call Centre environment
• Designed and implemented a pilot scheme for Citizens Advice Bureau looking at developing the strategic capability of the Boards – this is now going to be implemented UK wide.
• Undertook a competency research on strategic scientific roles within the pharmaceutical industry to inform the subsequent design of a Development Centre for Strategic management roles to enable future capability to be grown within the company
• Project management within the Housing Sector, co-ordinating all project activity across 4 different workstreams, identifying risks and issues and mitigating actions, defining deliverables and presenting at Steering group forums as well as reconciliation of effort, time and other resources.
• Designed and implemented a coaching and mentoring scheme for UBS Warburg ( global trading bank)
• Design and facilitation of Leadership Development process which includes a 360 degree component – First Great Western and First Scotrail.
• Design and implementation of an internal Mentoring Process for UBS Warburg ( Global Trading Bank)
• Design and implementation of a Mentoring Programme for Entrepreneurs, which involved an individual assessment against entrepreneurial competencies and characteristics, identification of core strengths and limitations and included a matching process where participants were matched and mentored by a successful business people ( Scottish Enterprise Glasgow)-
• Design and implementation of a 360 feedback process and associated mentoring programme as part of the Fife Leading and Learning Programme a multi agency leadership development initiative (NHS Fife, Fife Council). Trained the in house team of facilitators to give effective feedback to participants
• Development of an organisation wide competency framework using job family approach - Pfizer (pharmaceutical Industry)
• Design and implementation of a Career and Succession planning process - Merck, Sharpe and Dhome ( pharmaceutical industry)
• Design and implementation of a competency based recruitment, performance management and coaching process for Barclays Bank
• Design and implementation of Graduate Recruitment Assessment Centre for United Utilities
• Design and implementation of Competency based Development Centre for Discovery Health (South Africa)
• Following a re-structure – designed and implemented an assessment process for employees to be matched against new roles in the organisation (Harvest Housing)
• One to one coaching for Chief Executives, Chairs and Directors to improve their strategic capability for a variety of private and public sector organisations.

Personal Competencies
• Ability to operate at both the hard (systems, structure, strategy) and soft (values, behaviour, attitudes) ends of the organisation change continuum
• Ability to apply in-depth academic and practical experience to design and implement solutions for people performance business problems
• Experience of designing and delivering accredited training programmes leading to the (Certificate in Training and Development and Diploma in Training Management)
• Experience of facilitating a wide range of development and training programmes focused on the management of change, leadership capability etc,
• Extensive experience of design and facilitation of organisation change programmes.
• Ability to design and apply practical diagnostic techniques.
• Experience in design and implementation of company wide HR Processes.
• Excellent interpersonal and presentation skills, with experience of working at Board and senior management level.
• Experience in coaching and mentoring and development of both teams and individuals.
• Experience in managing major change initiatives using project management disciplines

Catherine is a Member of:
• The Institute of Directors
• The Institute of Personnel Management
• British Psychological Society
• Association of Psychological Type
• Society for Organisational Learning

Liz Cross	Liz Brooks- Allen	Maggie Riley	Mags Porter	Lynn Harrop	Karen Flear	Peter Buglass	Carol Pickering	Catherine Thomson	Kanika Selvan	Dick Bunning
Leoni Antoniazzi	Fliss Bridgewater	Ben Blunt	Kirsty Holt	Theresa Hackett