Leadership & Talent Development with Commercial Outcomes

What Our Clients Say

“Polaris are the full stack equivalent of Learning & Development. What is remarkable about their work is the clarity and consistency of its impact. They are addressing the unique challenges and high pressure environments of scaling companies – in a very human way. “

C-Suite Leading Fintech

Polaris adopted an incredibly strategic approach to developing the right leadership solution for the business – not just for now – but for the future.  They very quickly navigated the complexity of a hyper-growth, rapidly expanding organisation and communicated the leadership development agenda in such an accessible way that reached - and inspired people - at all levels of our company.  The Leadership Development experiences were uniformly exceptional - at once blending both truly world-class engaging content with inspiring, engaging and interactive facilitation - factoring in divergent learning styles/varying needs.  The feedback we received from participants globally was excellent.  Leaders across the company reported how challenging, insightful, provocative, thought-provoking, as well as enlightening they were.   As a Chief People Officer, what impressed me most was both the instant impact of these initiatives coupled with their relentless focus on making learning stick to enable future growth.

Chief People Officer – Europe’s Fastest Growing Company

“David and I worked closely together at one of the UK's foremost fintech businesses, where he led L&D. He's one of the most insightful thinkers I've come across, and leverages his candour, humour, and interpersonal skills to maximise the potential of everyone he works with, measuring his own success by the successes of those he supports.

Among his most impressive achievements was to deliver a bespoke leadership programme which equipped dozens of our colleagues to take on progressively more responsibility and to enhance not just company growth, but culture. I'd strongly recommend David to any organisation looking to drive positive change, and I would eagerly hire him again in future.”

Chief Operating Officer – Leading Fintech

About Me

I am the Founder and Managing Director of Polaris.  We are a tribe of true Talent & Leadership Development Experts who have all been internal leaers ourselves - we focus on busines transformation through people.

With 20 years international Learning, Development & Talent Management leadership and consulting experience - a strong track-record of leading (end-end) large, highly visible and impactful Global Learning, Leadership Development, Cultural Change & O.D programs with some of the world's leading brands and most exciting hyper growth companies including TripleDot, Boeing, Curve, SHL, Patsnap and Thomson Reuters.

I focus on transformation through people - helping companies reach their north star - through engaging expertise across the full spectrum of talent development - strategy development, leadership development, international program design, organisational design and effectiveness.

Distinct & Different
The talent, leadership & development challenges for hypergrowth business are unique – different approaches, thinking and solutions are required.

I work with business leaders, by bringing together a deep understanding of the challenges hypergrowth organisations face with a comprehensive understanding of their context, competitive position and brand - to define and apply the specific solution needed. My work is known for being compelling, creative, and inspiring - but most importantly practical - with a focus on impact and commercial return on investment.

I hold an MA in International Human Resources Management, as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic HR and a BSc (Hons) in Business. I’m also a highly experienced executive and leader coach with extensive utilisation of psychometric tools - HOGAN, SHL, Gallup Strengths, MBTI, DISC, Insights, Strengths Deployment Inventory (SDI), and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Inventory (TKI).

Get in touch!