Peter Shaw


Consultant - Coverdale UK

Career in brief

After university Peter spent four years in North America trying to work out what he should do for a living and finally plumped for teaching. He spent 19 happy years working in the changing world of secondary education, finishing as Headteacher of a large, mixed comprehensive school in a challenging area of a midlands city. It was in this role that he became interested in how to work with people to make change work. He joined Coverdale in 1989, initially as an employee but latterly as an associate. From 1994 onwards he developed his own consultancy practice. His central consultancy focus remains in helping organisations succeed in managing change. He can now bring a range of skills to bear on this complex task, including project management, coaching, facilitation and training.

In his work as a consultant and trainer he focuses on:
  • Helping organisations plan their change programmes, mobilise their people and ensure the desired outcomes are delivered.
  • Developing management capability to ensure change is sustainable through refreshing processes, relationships and structures.
  • Getting to grips with upgrading managers’ inter-personal process skills.
  • Renewing teams at every level and improving collaboration.
  • Increasingly, this has had a multi-national and multi-cultural dimension as he has carried out assignments in North America and mainland Europe as well as the UK
Some recent assignments:
  • Consultancy on the planning of a major business transformation programme involving business process
  • Re-engineering, restructuring and culture change and facilitating workshops during the mobilisation and implementation stages.
  • Consultancy on developing an enhanced project management methodology in a multi-national manufacturing organisation and delivering training to embed it.
  • Facilitating project management workshops on live projects, including the launch of a major infrastructure project and the implementation of a re-location project.
  • Team and individual development for a senior management team seeking to bring about a step change in performance.
  • Facilitating the development of a new organisation’s management and governance structure.
  • Personal coaching on a senior management leadership programme for a central government department.
These assignments have been carried out across a diverse range of organisations including the financial services, energy and car parts manufacturing industries, central government, local government housing services, state education and the voluntary sector

Previous career experience:
  • 1997 - date Principal, Peter Shaw Associates (self-employed)
  • 1994 - 1997 Co-Principal, Project Innovations (self-employed)
  • 1989 - 1994 Consultant, The Coverdale Organisation plc
  • 1983 - 1989 Head, Lees Brook School, Derby
  • 1978 - 1983 Deputy Head, Stokesley School, North Yorkshire
  • 1974 - 1978 Head of Sixth Form, Bosworth College, Leicestershire
  • 1971 - 1974 Teacher, Creighton School, Muswell Hill, London
  • 1968 - 1970 Assistant Editor, The Ryerson Press, Toronto, Canada
  • 1966 - 1968 Teacher, Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Education and training:
  • 1970-1971 London University Institute of Education, Post-Graduate Certificate in Education
  • 1963-1966 Cambridge University, Corpus Christi College, BA. (Hons. 2:2) Theology
  • 1956-1962 Pocklington School, nr. York. A levels - Latin, Ancient History; nine O levels
Working languages:
  • English
 Peter Shaw
Peter Shaw
Coverdale UK