Martin McEnery


Consultant - Coverdale UK

Career in brief

Martin qualified as a lawyer at Cambridge and as barrister at Gray’s Inn, London. He had two very formative years teaching law in newly independent Tanzania in East Africa in a new university with a new student body. He then spent time in the States working and studying for an LL.M at Berkeley, University of California, and working on an assignment with the United Nations Development Programme in New York. Subsequently he worked in the UK as a legal representative and law lecturer

The work as a legal representative led to experiences of setting up effective groups to meet needs in the areas of housing improvement and enterprise generation and to an interest in how organisations start-up, develop and grow. He became a founder director of two companies providing training, finance and premises for new business in inner city areas, and developed wide experience as a training consultant and as a manager of projects in the fields of enterprise start-up and computer training.

He has subsequently worked as a management consultant for over twenty years and since 1986 has been a senior consultant with The Coverdale Organisation. He has experience in the business sector, the public sector and the voluntary sector, with organisations in UK, Europe, USA and in India, Africa and South-East Asia. He is the chairperson of an international development agency providing expertise to twelve countries in the developing world.

In his work as a consultant and trainer he focuses on:
  • Enabling individuals to develop potential, skill, confidence and effectiveness in working with others
  • Helping organisations to develop and to manage change
  • Diagnosing organisational aims and needs, and strategy planning
  • Working across multi-cultural organisations and in international consultancy
  • Ensuring the results of consultancy interventions are measured and evaluated
Some recent assignments
  • Lead consultant in a programme of change facilitation, supporting a company-wide SAP supply chain installation, developing project management skills and planning and developing the skills and competencies required for change.
  • Team development and individual coaching for the cnage management team in a rapidly expanding London-based international bank.
  • Leading a team of consultants working with local Indian consultants to facilitate the conduct of a major change programme for the India office of the UK Department for International Development in Delhi.
  • Providing individual coaching and team development consultancy to the Senior Management Team of the public body charged with supporting and improving the performance of top athletes in the UK
  • One of two consultants, working in partnership with the UK Senior Management Team of a global multinational company in the hotel sector, to design and implement the development of hotel managers and other managers across the UK. The focus is to get common direction and a new culture across the company and to get collective thinking on key current issues.
  • Individual coaching and team development programme for the senior team of a major UK charitable foundation
  • Government of India/ODA: visiting consultant working across India with senior and middle level officers in the Agricultural Extension Service in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and other States to develop a core group of officers as coach/facilitators, and to improve the effectiveness of management development. This included personal coaching in consultancy and management skills.
  • Consultant manager of a Europe-wide project management development programme for the European division of a major US multinational manufacturer and distributer in the clothing sector.
  • One of a team of British and German consultants delivering a programme to develop a consistent approach to high level leadership for newly promoted senior managers in a major global company in the automotive sector.
  • Design and implementation of a programme to develop negotiation and influencing skills for multi-cultural staff in Department for International Development offices in Tanzania, Kenya, Central Africa (Zimbabwe) and SE Asia (Thailand).
  • Development and implementation of a common style of management and working in a UK NGO operating globally. Development and licensing of selected managers to run teambuilding programmes within the organisation.
  • Development and implementation of negotiation skills programmes for:
    • Accounts managers in a leading pharmaceutical publishing company
    • Europe-wide sales and distribution managers of a US software company
    • A team of educational support staff based in London
  • Personal coaching a newly appointed Senior Director of a major UK research organisation.
Career experience:
  • Lecturer in Law, University of East Africa
  • Barrister at Law, Grays Inn
  • Law tutor for the Diploma in Housing Management at the London School of Economics.
  • Manager and subsequently Director of Bootstrap Enterprises Ltd
  • Manager / Co-ordinator, Applying Computer Literacy
  • Trustee Director of the Coverdale Ownership Trust and Trustee of the Coverdale Pension Fund
  • Member of the Institute of Management Consultancy and the Institute of Directors
  • Licensed Myers Briggs type indicator practitioner with Oxford Psychologists' Press
Education and training:
  • MA University of Cambridge
  • LLM Berkeley, University of California
  • BD University of London
  • Diploma Geology
Working languages:
  • English
  • Some Spanish
Martin says:
  • My work in management consultancy is fuelled by the enthusiasm I feel for finding out what makes different individuals and organisations 'tick'.
  • Managing change requires energy, my role is to help individuals and thus organisations to generate and then direct this energy.
  • I greatly enjoy the cross-fertilisation of ideas that consultancy allows me, working with say two or three organisations at one time, so that the contrasts and challenges release fresh thinking.
  • I provide a combination of consultancy, team development, coaching and project management skills development to meet the needs of each client.
Martin McEnery
Martin McEnery
Coverdale UK