Bob is a ‘pracademic’ – a businessman and director who has always kept one foot in academia to ensure that he keeps his clients’, and himself, honest. He has consulted at the highest levels in some 40 countries and been chairman of consultancies in Hong Kong, Singapore and London. He has worked with the International Monetary Fund, Washington DC, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, and given evidence to the UK Treasury Select Committee on the Restructuring of the corporate governance of the Bank of England. His background spans architectural and community education at the Architectural Association School, London, Ulster College, Belfast, and then into top management and board review and development through The General Electric Company’s action learning-based Developing Senior Managers Programme. He was on the faculties of The Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge, and Imperial College, London.

He is a Professor Extraordinaire at the University of Stellenbosch and chairs its Centre for Corporate Governance in Africa; and he is a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, London University. He was an External Examiner for the Chartered Director examinations at the Institute of Directors, London; and is Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants. His public awards include the 2015 Outstanding Achievement prize from the Global Forum For Leadership, Organisational Development and Business-driven Action Learning. In 2006 he won the Indian Business Excellence Writing Award and in 2002 he won the European Business Forum and PwC/IBM Shareholder Value Corporate Governance prize.

Together with Sally Garratt and Professor Max Boisot, he created the China-EEC Management Programme – the first Chinese MBA programme – in Beijing in 1983; and in 1992 they created the ASEAN-EU Management Centre in Brunei Darussalam.

Read Bob’s latest blog: Corporate Governance is dead; long live Corporate Governance