PROFESSOR COLIN J COULSON-THOMASDr Colin Coulson-Thomas is Professor of Direction and Leadership at the University of Lincoln and Chairman of Adaptation Ltd, Cotoco Ltd and Policy Publications Ltd. An adviser on business development and corporate direction he has helped over 100 boards to improve board and corporate performance and reviewed the processes and practices for winning business of over 100 companies. He is also Chairman of the Judges for the e-Business Innovations Awards; an Investors in People Ambassador; Visiting Professor at the University of Bedfordshire; and a member of the Institute of Director’s Professional Standards Committee and Board of Examiners and the Corporate Governance and Risk Management Committee of ACCA.
He has spoken at over 200 national, international and corporate conferences in some 35 countries.
From 1994-97 he was Willmott Dixon Professor of Corporate Transformation, Dean of the Faculty of Management and Head of Putteridge Bury at the University of Luton and a Senior Associate at the Judge Institute of Cambridge University. He was Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor, McMaster University, Canada in 1995, and a Visiting Professor, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai in 1996; and at the Management Development Institute, Delhi 1997-200. He is a former Professor/Head of the Centre for Competitiveness at the University of Luton.
Formerly chairman of ASK Europe plc for eight years, he served for ten years on the Board of Moorfields Eye Hospital, and for six years as Deputy Chairman of the London Electricity Consultative Council. He served two terms on the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine, nine years on the National Biological Standards Board, five years on the Council of the Foundation for Science and Technology and four years as Corporate Affairs Adviser to the British Institute of Management. He is a past Chairman of the Crossbencher parliamentary liaison programme, a past Chairman of the Bow Group, a past Chairman and past President of the Focus Group, and a former a member of the European Union’s Team Europe.
Colin has served on various corporate boards and governing bodies of representative, professional, learned, and voluntary institutes, societies and associations, including as chairman and president.
He led the European Commission’s COBRA initiative which examined restructuring across Europe, was the principal author and co-presenter of the ‘employment and training’ module of the ‘CBI Initiative 1992’, and is principal author of the ‘Induction Package for New TEC Directors’.
Colin has led various change management, re-engineering and transformation projects and surveys of entrepreneurial/boardroom issues, attitudes and practice for the Institute of Directors, Institute of Management, Institute of Personnel Management, Government Departments and the NHS. Practical lessons derived from his surveys and work with entrepreneurs and boards are summarised in books from ‘Creating Excellence in the Boardroom’ (McGraw-Hill, 1993) to ‘The Knowledge Entrepreneur’ (Kogan Page, 2003), ‘Winning Companies: Winning People, making it easy for average performers to adopt winning behaviours’ (Policy Publications, 2007) and ‘Developing Directors, A Handbook for Building an Effective Boardroom Team’ (Policy Publications, 2007)
His other publications include ‘Creating the Global Company: Successful Internationalisation’ (McGraw-Hill, 1992), ‘Transforming the Company’ (Kogan Page, 1992, revised edition 2002), ‘The Future of the Organisation: Achieving Excellence through Business Transformation’ (Kogan Page, 1997/8), ‘Developing a Corporate Learning Strategy’ (Policy Publications, 1999), ‘Individuals and Enterprise’ (Blackhall Publishing, 1999), ‘The Information Entrepreneur’ (3Com, 2000), ‘Shaping Things to Come’ (Blackhall Publishing 2001) and ‘Pricing for Profit’ (Policy Publications, 2002). He is the editor of ‘Business Process Re-engineering: Myth & Reality’ (Kogan Page, 1994), and executive editor (all Policy Publications) of ‘The Responsive Organisation: Re-engineering new patterns of work’ (1995), ‘The Competitive Network’ (1996), ‘Winning Major Bids’ (1997), ‘Developing Strategic Customers & Key Accounts’ (1998), and the ‘Winning new Business in ….’ series of reports (1999-).
Colin was educated at the LSE (Trevennon Exhibitioner), London Business School, EAESP - Fundacao Getulio Vargas (Brasilian Government Scholar), and the Universities of Aston, Chicago (Deans List) and Southern California (Graduate School Distinction). He obtained first place prizes in final examinations of three professions.
Address: Mill Reach, Mill Lane, Water Newton, Cambridge, PE8 6LY, UK;
Tel: +44(0)1733 361149
Email: colinct@tiscali.co.uk
Web: www.coulson-thomas.com
