Stephanie Sanderson
Consultant : Wold Association of Zoos and Aquariums

June 18, 2014, Stephanie was a client of Gillian’s

I have worked with Gillian on a range of HR issues and, as well as her obvious technical knowledge, she has also proven to be a great sounding board, quickly building rapport and trust with her coaching clients. Gillian provides an ideal balance of challenge and encouragement so as to get the best out of people.

Lee Mathison
Global Category Manager - Fleet and HR at Brambles

August 29, 2012, Gillian worked with Lee in the same group

Gillian is an effective individual who is very focused and engaging. During a difficult period of change for the company Gillian adopted a very structured and professional approach to support both the management team and employees during change. This was achieved during challenging time scales enabling the organisation to achieve it's objectives whilst ensuring a fair and well communicated process was implemented.

The most striking aspect of Gillian's approach was a very no barriers approach challenging the business to think differently and pragmatically

Paul Caine
INTERIM - Helping People and Companies to solve problems and define/implement strategic change. AVAILABLE

January 21, 2011, Gillian worked with Paul in the same group

Having worked with Gillian for a number of years, initially as an external consultant to GB Group, and recently as an interim CTO, I have always been impressed with Gillian and her team who operate most efficiently.

In particular I have seen Gillian's activity around strategic initiatives such as the High Performance Environment really start to bear fruit in the way the organisation and individuals within it mobilise themselves and interact with others. The training sessions she facilitates really help the teams to work closer together.

The fact that this is now a key element of the GB Group objectives and strategy underlines the quality of this work,

John Lord
Our mission is to make safe commerce simpler

May 23, 2011, John was senior to Gillian but didn’t manage directly

Gillian is a gifted HR Leader with strategic, commercial and business unit skills. She has attention to detail for the here and now whilst keeping a strong focus on the strategic priorities of the organisation.
Gillian contributes both tactically and strategically both leading the HR function whilst adding value to the senior leadership teams she supports. It’s this skill that enables Gillian to contribute in a small business or across a large multitiered business.

Nick Brown
Group Managing Director at GBG

May 31, 2011, Nick was senior to Gillian but didn’t manage directly

Gillian really grasped the need for GB Group to build a high performance environment in order to propel the business to the next phase of its growth. As a result, we built a programme that encompassed management development, all staff workshops, personal coaching, communication and connection and effective goal setting. The measure of success may well be the 50% growth in shareholder value from GB in the last year...

Brian Blackshaw
Sales Director at Castle Colour Press

July 8, 2011, Gillian worked with Brian in the same group

In her role as Head of HR Gillian was greatly involved in the day to day operations of the business. At that time we were highly focused on the commercial status of the business and Gillian was an integral part of the team managing Sales and Cost Control.

Gillian headed up the particularly successful " Building the Best" program which drove business improvement with respect to People, Process and Technology. Gillian is a highly capable hands on Manager with real understanding on managing a program that directly impacts on managing the companies costs and improving performance.

Nathan Jamieson
Director at Cyber Cage

September 5, 2011, Gillian was senior to Nathan but didn’t manage directly

I have worked with Gillian over the last 3 years. I always found her approachable and despite her exceptionally demanding schedule she would always find time to offer advice, steerage and mentorship.

During her final years at GB, Gillian introduced and implemented the highly successful HPE programme (High Performance Environment). This programme enabled management throughout the whole business to learn new practical management and coaching methodologies which could be applied immediately within the work environment and have been shown to produce positive results.

The HPE environment and ethos continues to thrive despite Gillian’s absence and having recently left GB myself I also dip back into the HPE toolkit on a regular basis.

Leon Rossiter
Global Blockchain Marketing Manager at Colu

October 25, 2011, Leon was a client of Gillian’s

Gillian has understood our business from day one and utilised her previous experience to help accelerate our growth both as company and in terms of personal development. Gillian is a key asset to our business and would recommend to any business not looking for full time HR person.

Janet Hale
Director - Pilkington-Hale Partnership - and loving life!

December 8, 2011, Janet was a client of Gillian’s

I became aware of Gillian at just the right time in my career journey and she has helped me to realise how much I have achieved and how much I have yet to offer. She is very personable in her approach but doesn't shy away from challenging where she sees a lack of congruency between thoughts and actions. I have no hesitation in recommending Gillian.

Bernie Price
Executive and Personal Coach at Bernie Price Inspiring

February 7, 2012, Gillian worked with Bernie in the same group

Gillian was a key member of the Pragmatic Team on a substantial culture change/employee engagement programme for one of our clientsin 2011. The programme, spanning 1000 employees was designed to bring about a change of mindset, belief and behaviour in a workforce that had undergone challenging times. Gillian did a truly great piece of work as part of the facilitator team, in a industry new to her where resistance is often a challenge. She was exceptionally well planned, resilient and thorough, and communicated well and consistently to key stakeholders as well as sensitively supporting individuals on the programme who were concerned about the future and what the changes might mean to them. The programme was a huge success, resulting in the client winning awards reflecting the great results of the change. Since then Gillian has worked again as part of the Pragmatic team on a number of other projects acting as an external trusted advisor to our clients, helping to resolve extremely complex employee relations issues. She uses sound logic and provides a balanced voice of reason. Gillian approaches any project with a great sense of energy and focus, is highly resourceful and also has a flair for new ideas and creativity. She is a trusted and valuable colleague and has helped my business and my clients considerably in the last year . Thank you Gillian!