MEET THE TEAM
Creativity, disruption, ideation, financial performance and systems integrity seem like strange bedfellows. But that’s who we are and it defines our world - a world where a constant challenging of convention conspires to make the world a better one.
-
Whatever we can imagine we can make.
Whether in a virtual design lab or out of bricks and mortar. The world needs more dreamers but working hand in hand with executors for whom those dreams inspire the best in them
-
Design is everything.
For us, it is the manifestation and proof - it makes the dream real. And then we make the design real.
And then we do it at scale. And that in turn inspires more dreams as others realise it too.
-
Ownership and engagement at scale are what transforms peoples lives.
Our dreams and realisations are designed to change the behaviours of societies. Doing so for the common good and the positive benefit of humanity and the planet.
We are not driven by mountains of cash but by widening horizons.
We get up in the morning to create value and worth for the communities and industries we serve and transform.
At Consorticon, we’re proud of the range of expertise and breadth of experience our team brings to the table. Our interests range from mathematics and physics to digital marketing and transformative innovation.
A multidisciplinary team, we work collaboratively to provide the best possible outcomes for our clients, radically improving the industries in which they function.
Daren Williams
Chief Innovation Officer
Transformation Lead
Daren co-founded Consorticon in 1996 with a clear vision. He wanted to change the way corporate consultants worked with their clients. That meant creating a new offering where consultants sit on the ‘client side’ lending their expertise to organisations and empowering them to engage at the optimum level.
Consorticon then bring the insights needed to procure, integrate and manage expert 3rd party advisors and software vendors in support of client strategy and delivery objectives. This brings client’s fiercely loyal allies with expertise that does not exist within the core business, and may otherwise be out of reach. The ability to establish and sustain high-performing expert teams in even the most complex or challenging programmes is often the defining factor in transformation success or failure.
Throughout the journey at Consorticon, Daren has advised clients around the globe including RBI, Intesa Sanpaolo (VUB), Lloyds, Deutsche and HSBC Banking & Fintech groups, Deutsche Telekom, Virgin Media, KPN, Huawei, Siemens, DHL Systems and Battersea Power Station, among countless others. A privacy advocate, he also has extensive experience with a wide spectrum of technological challenges - as far ranging as the Office of the e-Envoy (Cabinet Office) to military communications warfare.
Leading product and innovation strategy, his current focus is on transforming entire industries. This entails developing methods, products, software and non-software IP, innovation capabilities and tooling. Before taking on the innovation lead, Daren’s primary activity was leadership of distressed, technically complex or enterprise-class critical transformations, leading on strategy, advisory, vendor engagement and delivery management.
Inspired from an early age by engineering, electronics & computing, Daren’s interests evolved professionally in the direction of applied mathematics & physics, digital telecommunications, innovation, experimentation and human performance.
These interests combine with a devotion to social change, sustainability and regeneration, a restless and forensic focus on delivery and provide the driving force behind the passion for meaningful innovation.
Favourite quotes:
“There are two rules of leadership: 1: Everything is my fault. 2: If in doubt, see Rule 1”
“Vision without action is merely hallucination”
Peter Critchley
Group Managing Director & Senior Partner
Peter’s relationship with Consorticon began during a project with the business in Eastern Europe in 2014. On the back of its success, he worked on another initiative with us in 2018, and over the next three years, the potential for more success stories became clear as aligned outlooks and synergy created an environment ripe for creative innovation.
Peter became Group MD in 2020, with a focus on delivering a sound financial footing and steering the business through the COVID-19 crisis. He is responsible for financial management, budgeting, strategy development and delivery, legal affairs, partner management and front of house duties with clients.
Building businesses from a greenfield site was a common theme throughout Peter’s career before joining Consorticon, including when working for corporate entities such as Lombard, First National and Santander to name a few. He was mainly involved with financial services projects ranging from creating Rolls-Royce Finance in the early 90s, raising significant funding for Blue Motor Finance in the 00s and building a new auto finance company in Eastern, Central Europe and Ireland. For most of these businesses, he was the lead and person responsible for creation and delivery, with many being borne from his early development of a “business map” and a “business in a box” concept.
Influenced by strong mentors throughout his career, he has been described by one as “tenacious to the point of adversity”, and learned valuable lessons from others on how to treat people in business. Highly motivated to be part of something that’s exciting, innovative, different, changing, agile, he thrives on working in an ever-changing environment and sees his work as both a hobby and a pleasure.
Outside of work, he is a keen motorbike enthusiast and has been described as the human sat-nav, having travelled all over Europe, leading groups of fellow bikers with uncanny accuracy. He has also tried his hand at palmistry.
A firm believer in confronting the truth, working diligently and treasuring important friendships, his favourite quote is: “Money is the route of all evil”. He believes that doing a fantastic job, listening and being responsible while building a business comes first, and money comes as a natural consequence.
Dr Steffan Thomas
Digital Marketing Expert
Steffan Joined Consorticon in 2016 to conduct research into the potential to innovate peer-to-peer microlending in the European financial sector.
He’s now involved with a broad range of initiatives spanning the cycling, dental and veterinarian industries, amongst others. Lending his vast digital marketing expertise to his clients, he investigates target industries and market segmentations, produces reports from primary and secondary data and develops robust marketing strategies to help them reach their full potential.
Beginning his career at an independent company producing for the BBC network, he later moved to the leading Wales record label Sain Records LTD. There, his role was to reposition their business to the online sphere which included the creation of a new web platform, implementing downloading capabilities and later transitioning to the streaming sector. Whilst working for the record label he wrote his doctoral thesis addressing the monetisation of digital music, with a focus on marketing and maximising revenue via digital distribution.
Along with his work at Consorticon, he now works as a senior lecturer in digital marketing and management at Bangor Business School. He has also supported the North Wales Business Academy by delivering workshops to upskill circa 120 SMEs with their digital marketing strategies.
Having worked in a multidiscipline environment throughout his career, Steffan has always been interested in discovering new ideas, solutions and products and is motivated by collaboration with a variety of people and skills across a diverse range of sectors.
A firm believer in sharing best practices, he believes that developing a section of any industry should enhance it as a whole. In his spare time, he enjoys flying light aircraft and playing the Welsh Triple Harp.
Favourite quote:
“Gwnewch y pethau bychain” which means “do the little things” in Welsh. This is what St. David is reputed to have said shortly before his death and Steffan sees it as a good starting point for any project.
Martin Emes
Partner, Director of Operations
Martin began working with Consorticon in 2018 on a project focused on the “human approach” to lending in former Eastern Block countries. He was impressed with the team on a professional and personal level, and joined the organisation as a partner.
His role is largely operational, focusing on the front end, gathering feedback to ensure real-time adjustments to business processes and credit policy. He is also involved with partner product and business development and training support at locations with front-line staff.
Before working with Consorticon, Martin acted as a board member and director for AAA Auto Prague, Europe’s largest independent used car retailer. After this, he took a role as general director of Russia’s fourth-largest new car retailer and then as a partner and general director at what became Ukraine’s largest car retailer within just seven months of start up.
Martin has always been curious about how things work. This naturally led to an interest in engineering, and he enjoys seeing the results of innovation in design and technology. Another interest of his is team sports, particularly rugby, and he regularly participates in veterans’ tournaments. Martin attributes his passion for the sport to its underlying fairness, its ability to question itself and the communal spirit it creates, not to mention the euphoria he feels when winning a game. The same sentiment is reflected in his attitude to his work with the Consorticon team owing to ample opportunities for rewarding, impactful work.
Favourite quote:
‘’Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.’’ Winston Churchill
Atul Pande
Chief Strategy Officer
Atul has been associated with Consorticon since 2015, officially joining in 2020. In his role as Chief Strategy Officer, he analyses company assets/strengths, market needs and trends then maps them together to create and execute strategies.
He is also responsible for product management, development and market engagement models – Strategic and tactical.
Atul has worked in over 30 countries, at fortune 500 companies and on projects spanning dozens of nations. He began his career implementing highly complex and precision high tech machines at nuclear and cold water plants, for laser robotic manufacturing and terrestrial guidance systems, amongst others. He then moved on to industrial automation and optimisation for the petrochemical, food and beverage, oil and gas, and pharmaceutical industries.
Later moving into the financial sector, he spent 15 years designing and managing mission-critical systems for retail banking, corporate and investment banking, non-banking financial services, lending and finance as head of global.
More recently, Atul has designed and supported machine learning, robotic and low code process automation projects for corporate, wholesale banking, automotive manufacturing, supply chain management and the healthcare sector.
Inspired by the idea that “everything is possible” Atul’s work in multiple industries has driven his hunger to learn new things and solve problems. He enjoys advising leaders on how to improve their respective professional fields and is passionate about the idea of being an accelerator for change.
In his personal life, Atul started learning to play the drums at the age of 42. He managed an Indian Drums band (DBUK) for a few years, once playing to an audience of 70,000 in Wembley Stadium.
Favourite quote:
“You have missed 100% of those shots which you have not tried”, a well-known golf saying.
Arne Johan Eriksen
Head of Programme Management Office
Arne’s involvement with Consorticon started in 2011 at the opposite end of the table from us.
While representing different clients on a large digital transformation project in Germany, it quickly became clear that we shared common foundational values and a drive for quality delivery, pragmatic solutions and consulting integrity.
This led to Arne’s participation in a Consorticon programme in 2015, after which he joined the organisation as a full-time partner in 2018.
Now responsible for programme office management, tool and methodology development, and supervision, he has worked with clients including Expobank, Digital Finance and Garden Vets, amongst others.
Arne spent the first two decades of his career in the telecoms industry working on projects across the globe. Being one of the first to successfully implement an interconnect billing project, he has been invited to speak at multiple conferences in Europe, Asia and South America. The last few years have seen him bringing the experience gathered in the telecom industry to other areas like fintech, mobile payments, mobility, and animal healthcare.
Arne is grateful for the opportunities his consulting career has offered him so far, such as the chance to travel and to continuously broaden his skillset. He is endlessly inspired by his colleagues, who all come from distinct industries and offer unique perspectives.
Outside of work, Arne is a snow sports enthusiast, having picked up his first pair of skis at the tender age of two. Norwegian by birth, he’s most at home zipping down a snow-blanketed mountain. He is also a keen long-distance cyclist, having taken up the hobby during the pandemic.
Favourite quotes:
“You’ll never walk alone”
“May the force be with you”
Kate Williams
Business Management Director, Founding Partner
Kate amassed 25 years of experience in business-facing and technology streams including service management, vendor & delivery management, product scheduling, marketing and operations at BP. She joined Consorticon as a director in 2015 immediately afterwards.
Acting as head of back office and directorate, her support of clients extends to occasional front-line project support, contracts and engagement management, talent care and fees management. Her primary duties include financial planning and operations in collaboration with the accounting team, and tax and compliance management. She also takes responsibility for team care and wellbeing and co-leads group strategy and operations.
Influenced from an early age by family members, most of whom worked in retail banking and the gas & oil industry, she sees humility and gratitude as two of the most powerful human characteristics. Driven by her desire for client success and the wellbeing of the teams in which she operates, she thrives as part of an international clan of professionals at the top of their games who strive for excellence and rise by uplifting others.
Her current inspiration comes from those who have and continue to serve their communities, volunteers, her husband, and three amazing children. She also has huge admiration for Michelle Obama and Lady Diana.
Favourite quote:
“Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it” Harper Lee