Niall Foster

Niall Foster is a pragmatic coach and facilitator with worldwide experience in human capital management, business culture transformation, change management, start-ups, value based management, strategic planning and competence development based on benchmarked best practices. Through his work he has extensive experience of writing on performance improvement themes with his best seller ‘Kaizen Strategies’ series published by the Financial Times/Prentice Hall. The Institution of Engineering and Technology publish his new book on Team Leadership in 2009.

Areas of Specialisation and Approach

Niall aligns an organisation’s vision, strategies, employees with technology, processes and culture to realise bottom line results. He diagnoses issues, designs and implements/facilitates enduring measurable solutions. Niall’s approach is at the cutting edge of development. His methodologies are based on the assumption that organisations must find ways of tapping the inventiveness of their staff and systems in line with their customers changing expectations. He works with his clients and coachees to enable them to close the gap between concepts and practical action. He helps align attitudes and processes to create environments where people are better motivated, thus helping to bring about change and continuous improvement. All this is founded upon his expertise and experience as a manager, trainer and professional coach.

Client Organisations

International work includes Microsoft and the Arab Academy of Science and Technology in Egypt; the Great Man Made River Project in Libya; Interlink College, Nigeria; Saudi Aramco; Al-Khafji Joint Operations, and Marafiq Power & Utility Company for Jubail and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, Qatar Gas; RasGas, and Transfield Emdad Services/Intergulf in Qatar; Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and PDO in Oman. During 2004-06 he delivered public programmes and 1:1 coaching for EuroMaTech and Glomacs, based in Dubai.

Private sector experience includes Computer Associates, Cisco Systems, Nestlé, Dell, Toshiba, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, State Street Bank, Coutts, BT, Henderson Global Investors, the European Bank of Reconstruction & Development, Cuisine de France, ABN AMRO and Hibernian Insurance. Public sector clients include the NHS Scotland, the London Boroughs of Islington, Hackney, Merton, Lewisham, Kingston and Croydon, the Ministry of Defence, London Transport and Homes for Islington.

Career Background

While Niall is a consultant he also leads considerable numbers of personnel in companies where he works as an interim director. He assists organisations that want to build competitive advantage through the development of employee talents and skills in support of their company vision and strategies. He was interim Group Training Director with Barclays Bank and interim HR Manager at Vodafone. Additional interim and non-executive board roles include Stafforce Personnel, Sterling Commerce, Henkel, SAS Institute and Sandvik Steel.

Qualifications and Training

Academic qualifications include a BA in Economics and an MSc in Organisation Development. He is a visiting lecturer and consultant at London Metropolitan University, Bournemouth Business School International, the Baltic Management Institute in Vilnius, Fairplace, Capita Consulting as well as a member of the European Bank of Reconstruction & Development’s Turnaround Management and Business Advisory Services team.