Neil is a Senior Associate at the Partnering Initiative, running partnering programs and leadership development courses in effective partnering for a range of clients from the public and private sectors, as well as international development organisations and NGOs.
Neil grew-up in Asia, where he initially pursued a career in international development, working in the British Council, and with the UNHCR and Save the Children in fieldwork roles in the Vietnamese refugee camps in Hong Kong in the 1990s. He also worked with Amnesty International on campaigns against human rights abuses, notably in Burma, as well as World Vision in Taiwan, ANAI Wildlife Conservation Programme in Costa Rica, Tibetan monastic refugee communities in India, and various UK charities and NGOs.
From the British Council, he moved into the private sector holding senior Asia-Pacific partnering roles in marketing services firms within WPP in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo. His clients included global corporates across financial services, FMCG, oil and gas, automotive, IT, telecom and luxury goods including Diageo, Coca Cola, Unilever, LVMH, Samsung, Virgin, BP, Motorola, HP, Boots Healthcare, AMEX and adidas. He also worked with public sector bodies such as British Embassies, UK High Commissions, the British Council, the UKTI and Visit Britain.
He was asked to relocate to London in 2004 to manage the agency’s global partnership with Shell, and then subsequently within Dentsu Aegis extended his portfolio to include the global management of the Shell, HSBC and Heineken businesses. Neil also held global Executive-level leadership roles with an Omnicom operating company and US-based technology firm, establishing and managing their global client partnership functions.
It was on an assignment with the British Council in Israel, involving world leading scientists, international governments, NGOs and CSOs that Neil witnessed first-hand the power of cross-sector collaboration to deliver sustainable and inclusive prosperity. Neil then decided to integrate his partnerships experience and focus on building cross-sector partnerships to support international development goals. He is particularly interested in sustainable business agendas, and helping organisations from the private sector achieve commercial growth whilst simultaneously creating broader economic and social prosperity.