Who we are
We share the values of the not for profit sector whilst also bringing in appropriate business experience - with an emphasis on what is appropriate, works well and is effective. The private sector has many lessons to offer, both good and not so good, and it is for our clients to learn from them.
We are a partnership of three consultants without the formal structures of a partnership. We work together because we want too, because we enjoy doing so and because we (and clients too) can learn from each other.
Rodney Buse
Rodney’s focuses on governance, leadership and performance improvement with the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of individual charities and the sector. He has worked with Boards to improve their effectiveness and to implement the most appropriate structures to meet their particular needs. His clients include central government departments, local authorities and grant making foundations as well as not for profits. He also helps individual leaders with coaching assignments.
Rodney has worked almost full time in the voluntary sector over the ten years since he left the private sector. He has been a member of charity boards over the last 25 years. He chaired the recent ‘Commission’ into the future of self-regulation of charity fundraising. He also chaired the voluntary sector’s Quality Standards Task Group throughout its project life. He brings to the sector his previous experience as a director in the private sector including being the HR director of a 40000 employee business.
He is currently Chair of the Charities Trustee Networks, the Venturesome Investment Committee and the Foyer Accreditation panel. He has been Chair of the charities I Can, ActionAid and Childhope and Vice Chair of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. He is a Trustee of the Charities Aid Foundation and Charities Evaluation Services.
Peter Lewis Jones
Peter specialises in change management, organisation effectiveness, change management and works with leaders, teams & people. He helps leader teams decide on their strategies and then implement them successfully. He has worked with senior groups across sectors on leadership and team issues and coaching, often using the MBTI as a useful learning tool. He has also clients develop performance management processes linked to organisational strategies and culture.
Peter has been a consultant since 1989 after a career in HR management and senior roles with private and public sector organisations. His clients cover a range of sectors including financial services, NHS, housing, IT and charities. Recent projects have included facilitation partnership workshops between NHS trusts and their PFI provider where the challenge has been to establish a real partnership looking forward to a 25 year contract and relationship.
He is Vice Chair of Watford Community Housing Trust which recently took over the management of Watford Borough’s 5000 houses and is a tenant-led organisation. He is also a Board member of Soha Housing which manages more than 5000 houses in Oxfordshire, Bucks & Wiltshire.
Robert Silbermann
Robert focuses on governance, strategy and performance improvement. He has worked with several charities on turn-around situations where they needed to re-organise their trading ventures into successful and surplus-generating businesses. His particular skills are his abilities to transfer his considerable commercial experience appropriately to charitable businesses, thereby helping them become more outcome-driven, competitive and effective.
Robert worked for more than 25 years in senior positions in international public companies, variously as Managing, Finance and Corporate Planning Director. He started his consulting business in 1994, focusing on work with not for profit organisations and charities. Assignments have included interim senior management roles with Shelter, Save the Children, the Southside Partnership and the Royal Institute for Public Health. He recently led the merger of two professional bodies with all the inevitable complexities.
Robert is a Trustee of the RNIB and the Galapagos Conservation Trust, with whom he is working as a volunteer in mid-2008. He joined the RNIB Board after a competitive interviewing process when the charity wanted to expand their trustee board with outsiders who had diverse business experiences. He was the non-executive Chairman of Shelter Trading for 20 years.
