Praesta Executive Coaching

Peninah Thomson

Three threads run through my work: a belief in real communication, which I think is the engine-room of understanding and co-operation between individuals, groups and nations; a commitment to helping people identify more options than they thought they had; and the buzz I get from helping good people work their way through to decisions and to action.

Experience

Peninah’s career began in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Based in Paris, she worked direct to the Board of National Delegates of NATO in Rome, Paris, The Hague, Munich and Washington. After Doctoral Studies at Oxford she joined PricewaterhouseCoopers, where in 9 years in Government Services Division she worked at Cabinet Office level in the UK and in 14 countries. She spent 2 years seconded to the UK Cabinet Office and subsequently became a Director in the Corporate Transformation Practice, working for 4 years at Board level in FTSE 100 companies. For the last 8 years Peninah has worked exclusively as a Board level executive coach.

Peninah has published four books and several refereed articles on leadership, corporate governance, business ethics and organisational change and is an experienced conference speaker. With a particular interest in women’s leadership she co-founded in 2003 Women Directors on Boards, a consortium in partnership with government, academia and business to address the lack of women directors in FTSE 100 companies. She also co-founded the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Programme, sponsored by Praesta, in which Chairmen mentor senior women to assist their development as credible candidates for Board roles. Her latest book A Woman’s Place is in the Boardroom published in Autumn 2005, is going into a second edition in the UK and the US and is shortlisted for MCA Management Book of the Year.

Energetic and enthusiastic, Peninah loves theatre, music, art, reading, eating out – and the gym! She is the Aunt of James, who is 9, and the Godmother of Eleanor, who is 13.

Professional Expertise

Peninah has worked extensively with Chief Executives and Boards on strategy, organisational change and culture, and leadership. She specialises in 1:1 and group work, applying her technical skills in coaching, process consultancy, facilitation, counselling and psychotherapy; grounded in a broad experience base, an approachable style, maturity and common sense. She combines an interest in the process of managing change with an analytical approach to the substantive issues that cause change. Her combination of technical and process skills enables her to carry conviction, and she has been engaged by the World Bank (IBRD) and by a number of Boards, in the private sector and in Government, specifically to help in the conversion of conflict to a negotiated settlement.

Selected Client Companies

Arts Council of England
Barclays Global Investors (BGI)
BBC
The Cabinet Office
Channel 4
Crown Prosecution Service
Department of Health
D S Smith plc
Emap plc
Ernst & Young
European Investment Bank (EIB)
Granada Television Ltd
H J Heinz Co Ltd
The Home Office
International Water Ltd
J P Morgan Chase
Lloyds TSB Group plc
Marks & Spencer plc
N M Rothschild & Sons
Orange PCS
Philips International b.v.
The Post Office
Shell

Education, Qualifications, Professional Positions

BA (Hons) English and French Literature (Class 1) Oxford Brookes University
Doctoral Studies (DPhil) (not completed); Beatrix Warr Goodman Scholarship, University of Oxford
Certificate in Counselling, The American Hospital, Paris
Trained as Gestalt Psychotherapist, Metanoia Institute, London
Trained to level VIII Masterclass: Management of Change (Strategy & Architecture) with W. Warner Burke and Dr Daryl Connor, Consultant Psychologist
FRSA - Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; awarded the Society’s Silver Medal

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