Associate Members Introduction – Selina Häringer & Aaron Lyons

The second session at our February monthly meeting gave us all the chance to get to know our new Associate Members, Selina Häringer and Aaron Lyons

Selina was introduced to us by acumen7 Member, Birgitta Schock. In October last year Selina moved from Germany to London to complete a Master’s in Business and Organizational Psychology at the University of Westminster. She met Birgitta during her (almost) three years as a Lean Construction Consultant at the Stuttgart, Germany-based refine.

Selina believes that outside of your comfort zone, the only way to grow, make a difference, and move forward is to take on new challenges and develop as a person.

Next up was Aaron who was introduced to us by acumen7 Member and former Chair, John Pilkington, and has a degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. He initially spent time with a company advising on energy in a very broad sense – a consultancy in the carbon agenda world. Aaron is now working at Carbon8 and is building their capability and credibility in terms of being able to market a, quite deliberately labelled, Carbon8 credit.

It was great to hear (and feel) the enthusiasm they both have, and we are looking forward to equally beneficial relationships over the next year.

Member feedback

April’s second presentation was from acumen7 member Andrew Cobden, who was seeking feedback from the network on some potential next steps in his career. Andrew has worked in the property industry for over 25 years and is currently MD of Vastint UK. Andrew’s experience has afforded him exposure to a broad range of property sectors and for the past 10+ years he has overseen three large-scale mixed-use city centre projects. He is as comfortable in setting the vision for a place as he is with defining the needs of the buildings and spaces that populate it. Andrew leaves Vastint in June and is exploring a number of options. He shared a few ideas, with the members then offering feedback and alternative views.

An overview of the Croatia project

acumen7’s March meeting had a true member focus. First up were Robert Williams, Robert Osborne, John Pilkington and Andrew Joss (and in spirit Donnie MacNicol). They showcased their teamwork from the last few years while they have been supporting the government of a developing EU country with its strategic investment planning. They shared their experience of working together as members of the acumen7 network, and highlighted reflections and things to think about when considering future assignments. They also sought input on ways the work might be utilised and leveraged for the benefit of the whole network.

 

Associate Member introductions: Meg Reed & Danish Mishra

The second session at acumen7’s January meeting was an opportunity to find out more about the network’s two newly appointed Associate Members.

Meg Reed is the Client Development Manager – Construction at Wilson James. Meg is a specialist in logistics, operations, construction, development, and real estate project and portfolio management. She is passionate about sustainability, innovative logistics and challenging the status quo.

For more information on Wilson James, visit: https://wilsonjames.co.uk/

Danish Mishra is Head of Analytics & Senior Consultant at Complete. Having started out in rocket science, he now helps organisations build competitive advantage. Danish specialises in how knowledge – specifically tacit knowledge – flows through networks, whether they are human, social or computer networks, and its implications for organisations and complex systems.

For more information on Complete Coherence, visit: https://complete-coherence.com/

A review of the Associate Member programme

acumen7’s first Associate Member, Dr Rosie Hughes, who is also an Associate Director at AECOM, reflected on the benefits she has gained from the network in terms of industry knowledge, and both horizontal and vertical learning, with the peer-to-peer learning being the most enriching aspect of the experience. Rosie also commented on the valuable support from her mentor, Richard Ogden, as well as network’s participatory approach and selfless support. acumen7’s Chair, Kim Vernau, echoed the thoughts of the members by saying that Rosie’s involvement has been a beneficial and insightful learning experience for the network as well. For more information on AECOM, visit: www.aecom.com 

Are you ready for exponential change?

A fascinating session featured acumen7 member Louisa Pavis. Louisa, COO and Head of Advisory at Apater Capital, Director of a Residents’ Company, NED for an Automation Consultancy and freelance Executive Coach, posed the question: “Are you ready for exponential change?” A fact-packed presentation covered areas such as trends set to impact business growth, the 9 game-changers, skills for the future and technology/humanity in the next 10 years. Louisa stated that the human element needs to come through strongly, to complement the rise of computer learning and AI. The opportunities to change the world are bigger than ever before.

Louisa is an accredited and published transformation and change expert who exploits digital and data insights to unlock human potential. A two-decade career has been spent analysing, innovating, creating, experimenting and doing, so people can be at their best. Having started as a graduate with a big four technology consultancy, Louisa most recently took up the COO and Head of Advisory role with Apater Capital, to accelerate fourth industrial revolution start-ups in digital, social media, pharma, retail, logistics, consumer products and esports. After success as Strategy and Change Director with the world’s largest bank where she improved employee engagement across Global Market Operations, positively disrupting c.3,000 employees’ experience and changed the future of work, Louisa founded SBD Transform in 2019. SBD Transform continues to deliver reimagined workspaces.