Graham Bennett CV: Professional and Personal Coach and Mentor

Summary:

Professionally-qualified coach (The Coaching Academy) with experience of successfully coaching range of clients across not-for-profit, educational, public and private sectors; empathetic and open personality provides safe and confidential space for frankness and testing new ideas; women and men clients from multicultural backgrounds (strong career involvement in women’s empowerment and gender equality issues); disabled clients; group and leadership coaching, including in Asia and Africa; use of range of tools to aid discussion and solution-finding; on-call service for urgent coaching and support needs; distance coaching using skype or email in UK or overseas

Top 10 career and personal achievements

  • Qualified as Professional & Personal Coach, with 70+ clients (90% female) in UK and overseas, as well as coaching senior leaderships teams (2011 onwards)

  • Led One World Action, as CEO, to Strategic Partnership with UK Government’s DFID worth £5 million, established OWA as pro-poor policy/women’s equality champion

  • Change Manager for successful restructuring of Amnesty International Secretariat, with 400 staff and strong trade union context

  • Amassed 30 years’ experience working with UK and international non-government agencies/charities including overseas in Asia and Africa, visiting 50 countries in five continents, working directly in 22 countries and living in four

  • Led Walthamstow School for Girls, as Chair, to Outstanding OFSTED status, working with multicultural Board in ethnically diverse girls school (80% non-white)

  • Managed global Amnesty human rights campaigns, including on Afghanistan, Former Yugoslavia and Turkey

  • Worked/lived successfully in Philippines, two years with squatter family in Manila during People’s Power Revolution (VSO post, with Filipino labour organisation)

  • Drove across the Sahara desert with two friends, from the UK via Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and Ghana, delivering land rover to development NGO

  • Travelled on the Trans-Siberia Express from Beijing to London via USSR (as was), Poland and Germany, studying GCSE Mandarin on my return

  • Overcame cancer to carry out consultancy/evaluation work as Tiger Consulting with major INGOs (Plan, Sightsavers, Action Aid, Womankind, Sense International, etc.)

Employment:

  • Coach and International Development Consultant (2011 onwards), NGO/public/private sector clients consultancy clients (see below for client list) and 70+ coaching clients

  • Chief Executive Officer (CEO), One World Action (2001-2010), budget £4 million, 20 staff

  • Director of Asia-Pacific, Amnesty International (1998-2000), budget £1.5 million, 35 staff managed including five at distance in Hong Kong

  • Information Manager & Researcher, Asian Research Center for Migration, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (1998), on HIV issues on Myanmar border (sabbatical from Amnesty)

  • Evaluator, IDEAL, Sarawak, Malaysia (1997), land rights and other issues of long-house dwellers (sabbatical from Amnesty)

  • Director of Information, Amnesty International (1991-1997) (sabbatical 1997-98)

  • Interim Country Director, VSO Sierra Leone (1990), emergency cover

  • Resource Centre Information Officer, VSO (1989-90)

  • Information/Research Officer, CARLS, Manila, Philippines (1985-88), VSO

  • Deputy Site Librarian, University of Wales, Cardiff (1983-85)

Consultancy:

  • MEL support and advice, Penal Reform International (2018-19), based in UK

  • Financial inclusion of disabled people in Philippines, Liliane Foundation (2018), including field visit to Philippines

  • Organisational evaluation, African Biodiversity Network (2017-18), including field visits to Kenya and Benin

  • Easy-to-Use How-To MEL Manual and grantee MEL capacity assessment, African Women’s Development Fund (2017), with manual for use by African women’s NGOs

  • Structured monitoring and MEL support to Tanzanian Women’s Legal Aid Centre, Womankind (2017), including field work in Tanzania

  • Evaluation of partnership response to Typhoon Haiyan in Philippines, CAFOD (2016-17), including three weeks in Philippines and staff workshop in UK

  • Baseline development and leadership coaching for violence against women project/organisation, Womankind (2016), based in Tanzania

  • Strategic Planning and leadership, Re-cycle UK (2016), including facilitation of all-staff workshop and coaching of CEO

  • Organisation development and leadership coaching, Practical Action Bangladesh (2016), including delivering workshop for 100 staff in Bangladesh

  • M&E Political Debate, ActionAid International (2015-16), with Kenya fieldwork

  • Being a good NGO partner: methodology manual, NIDOS (2015), practical approaches for NIDOS membership

  • Team-building, leadership and resource mobilisation in East Africa region, Practical Action (2015), including workshop in Nairobi

  • Leadership Coaching, Southern Africa region, Practical Action (2015), including skype/face-to-face sessions

  • Global synthesis of CBCPMs in Latin America, Asia and Africa, Plan International (2014-15), including report

  • Mapping and analysis of Community-based Child Protection Mechanisms, Plan International (2014), including fieldwork in Ethiopia and Malawi

  • Evaluation of publication approval and authorisation, Action Aid (2014)

  • Change Management and team-building, Practical Action (2014), including fieldwork, coaching and workshop facilitation in Zimbabwe

  • M&E framework and baseline for VSO/Restless Development (2013)

  • Development of participative and inclusive impact/qualitative indicators and tools, Sense International (2013)

  • Evaluation of Sightsavers Innovation Fund (2013), part of PPA, including fieldwork in Bangladesh and Pakistan

  • Evaluation of Womankind’s PPA/IPR (2012), including fieldwork in Zimbabwe

  • Research and report writing on protracted Burmese refugee issue (2011), Burmese refugees in Thailand, Chulalongkorn University/ARCM/UNDP

  • Evaluation/reorganisation of Statistics Division (1998), for UNESCAP, Bangkok

  • Evaluation of support for indigenous people in Sarawak (1997), for Hivos/IDEAL in Sarawak/Malaysia

Education/training/qualifications

  • Diploma in Professional & Personal Coaching, TCA (2011)

  • MA in Information Management, Sheffield University, UK (1982)

  • BSc (Hon.) Geography, Upper Second (Exeter University, UK (1980)

  • Coverdale and BIM training in managing teams, projects, people (1991-1997)

  • Diploma in CELTA/TEFL, SOAS, University of London, UK (1997)

  • Institute of Directors, member (2007 onwards); British Sign Language (2010)

Non-executive/Board/other

  • Board member, ChildHope UK (2011, current);

  • Board member, Walthamstow Citizens Advice Bureau (2011-15);

  • Chair of Governing Body, Walthamstow School for Girls (2007-10)

  • Board member & Chair of membership, BOND (2004-8);

  • Board member/Chair of Harbour Housing Project (1993-98) London/UK;

  • Board member/Treasurer, Commission for Filipino Migrant Workers (1996-2001);

  • Board member, Trax Program Support Ghana (1993-97);

  • Institute of Directors, member (2007, current);

  • Progressive Development, founder member/author of Charter (2013, present);

  • Personal Coach, Paul’s Cancer Support Centre (2012-present);

  • VSO Selector (2003-10)

Contact details for GRAHAM BENNETT

Media

  • Google “graham bennett one world action letters to guardian” for selection