Frances Cook – Director
Frances returned to Penna in 2004 to head up the Senior Directors Unit after a period away from corporate life. She previously worked with Penna for over thirteen years latterly as Group International Director and Managing Director of Penna Sanders and Sidney and was a member of the PLC Board from 1996 to 2004. She has held a number of non-executive roles outside the group in the financial, charitable and educational sectors and served on the London Council of the CBI for over five years.
A passionate believer in the power of strategic career transition and leadership coaching, Frances is a past Chairman of the UK industry association, and was a member of the global board for four years. She has been a frequent commentator on senior executive issues on radio, television and in national and specialist press.
She has operated at board level for over twenty years and personally experienced considerable change during her working life. Her earlier career was spent in the retail and consumer goods sector in buying, marketing and general management roles with a number of companies including Nabisco, Guinness and Fine Fare.
Sally Davis – Managing Partner
Sally joined Penna via Sanders and Sidney in 1992 where as a Director she has held many senior management roles, including Group Marketing Director and Divisional Director responsible for a large part of the group turnover.
Her professional background is in senior marketing roles (Johnson & Johnson, Revlon and Glaxo). As Board Director of a top ten international advertising agency, she led client teams both in the UK and overseas for major accounts such as BT, Proctor and Gamble and ICI.
She has recently returned to working with senior executives in career strategy, transition and executive coaching, holds a qualification with the Academy of Executive Coaching and is currently studying at the Tavistock Institute. She has been a frequent commentator on work issues in national and specialist media and a speaker at the CIPD. Her external interests have included a school governorship and charitable trust work.
Jennifer Gregson – Associate
Jennifer is a career transition and executive coach with over 12 years experience of working individually with senior executives across a wide range of business sectors and functions, both private and public.
A Social Sciences graduate, Jennifer developed her Human Resources background predominately in financial services before leaving her last strategic corporate role as Head of Resourcing with the London Stock Exchange to build her own business. She has a sound appreciation of the business environment and her key interest is in supporting executives achieve personal change and development and contribute to organisational success. Her clients have come from sectors including financial services, pharmaceuticals, oil, manufacturing, retail, consumer goods, professional services, TMT, transport, property, NHS, central and local government.
Jennifer is skilled in assessment and uses a range of psychometric instruments in both coaching and executive search. She also enjoys her involvement in the development of her family business specialising in same-day dispatch, executive cars and associated logistics software.
Through the Executive Masters Programme with the Academy of Executive Coaching she has qualified as an Advanced Practitioner and is a Fellow of the CIPD.
John Naish – Associate
A banker by background, John Naish spent the first 23 years of his career with the merchant bank Hill Samuel in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo before joining NatWest Markets where he also worked in both the U.K. and Japan.
First becoming acquainted with the Senior Directors Unit as a client, John decided to include career consultancy in his portfolio of activities and joined the Senior Directors Unit in March 1997.
In addition to his Penna activities, John works with leading insurance brokers Willis as well as other organisations on Japanese business development. He is also engaged in the operational risk aspects of international banking capital adequacy regulatory requirements. Outside work, John has lectured on privatisation in Russia and Eastern Europe. An amateur astronomer, he was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Frank Thaxton – Associate
Frank has worked with Penna since 1989 concentrating on 1:1 consulting with senior managers and directors from the City, financial, IT, industrial, commercial and public sectors seeking new roles. He also specialises in advising candidates intending to start their own business - ranging from small sole traderships to large Management Buy-ins - and in 1992 established the Enterprise Unit nationally for Sanders & Sidney. Frank has over 25 years experience at Board and senior level in engineering and venture capital companies, both in the UK and overseas. He has successfully run his own consultancy since 1985, worked with the Dti and has extensive non-executive director experience in engineering, medical, nursing care, electronic and software companies ranging from small businesses to listed plc's.
David Cooper – Associate
David is a consulting Business Psychologist, specialising in executive assessment, development and coaching. He works with a range of clients around the UK and Europe spanning sectors including financial services, information technology, pharmaceuticals, automotive, private equity, engineering, and professional services. He is also a visiting tutor at London Business School and an executive doctoral student at Cranfield School of Management, where he is conducting research into financial and strategic applications of psychology. Previously, David spent 11 years working in the Leeds and Zurich offices of Arthur Andersen. During this time, he gained a broad range of international business experience and built up his skills in coaching and leadership development. David is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and a Chartered Accountant. He is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He was educated at the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics.
David Findley – Associate
David is an executive coach and consultant with particular experience in leadership development, career transitions, executive team effectiveness and large-scale organisation change/ M&A. He works with senior executives individually and in teams across both international companies and in the voluntary/ public sector and is also an Associate in the Centre for Management Development at London Business School. He has a track record as a Human Resources and Executive Development practitioner and leader and has worked with CEO’s, Boards and business leaders worldwide in three contrasting industry sectors over the past 25 years.
David was until recently Director for the Senior Executive Programme at London Business School which is the School’s top level General Management Programme focused on Strategy, Leadership and Transformation. Until April 2003, David was Global Human Resources Director for Lend Lease Corporation, a leading Australian real estate business, working with the top team and Board across their major operations in the UK, Australia and USA. Prior to this, he had 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry with Glaxo Wellcome mostly in senior HR posts. He was Director of Executive and Organisation Development in Glaxo Wellcome during the period after the Wellcome merger in 1995 and was Director of International HR until 2000. David’s early career was in the automotive and aerospace business in planning, IT and personnel roles.
David has a Diploma in Clinical Organisational Psychology from INSEAD and originally studied Chemistry at the University of Nottingham.
Simone Peridakis – Executive Office Manager
After obtaining an honours degree in History and English from the University of Wales, Simone spent many years working in the Middle East, in Human Resources, for an American Health Care Company. On her return to the UK she worked as an Administrator, heading up the Tyre Division of the British Rubber Manufacturers Association. She has been with the Senior Directors Unit since 1999.
Chris Coffils – Research Manager
Chris began his career as an information professional within HM Customs and Excise. The early part of his career saw him responsible for implementing department-wide electronic information retrieval systems. In 1999 Chris moved into business information research for executive search consultancy Egon Zehnder. After studying business at Kingston University he moved on to legal publication, The London Gazette where he was responsible for their web content and electronic information needs.
Lisa O'Connor – Regional Co-ordinator
Lisa has joined us from a firm of forensic accountants, prior to which she had administrative and sales roles back in Australia. She is currently working towards a Bachelor of Business degree majoring in Marketing, and studying French and Italian.
Melissa Lund – Associate
Melissa Lund is an image consultant and personal stylist with fourteen years experience. She trained at the London College of Fashion and with Your True Colours Limited, before launching her business in 1993.
Melissa works with a broad cross section of clients and offers a full service consultancy comprising image review (including work on voice and body language), wardrobe management and accompanied shopping. She specialises in coaching senior executives to develop their image as a powerful business tool. A strong commercial background enables her to appreciate the complexities of the business environment.
Melissa has been a Penna associate since 2003.
