As COO and board member of Red Gate Software, Gareth played a key, hands-on role in defining and implementing product and company strategy. In particular, he excels at creating and nurturing high performance teams that can crack hard problems. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Gareth – his integrity, honesty and thoughtfulness are second to none.

Gareth has helped me work through a number of organisational development challenges. As well as structured process he brings relevant start-up experience, insight and objective challenge. That experience comes through in his understanding of the particular needs of an early stage and growing business, and the people leading it. But rather than just pass on his ideas he has real enthusiasm and energy for helping us develop solutions. It has been effective, efficient and fun to work with him. I’m sure there will be more in future!

My boss recommended I get some professional coaching and I came to it somewhat sceptical as to how it would help me! Gareth completely changed my viewpoint. I have been very surprised by the positive impact it has had on my confidence in particular, but also on helping me identify my career direction and pathway. He also gave me some very useful and practical tips on managing teams, time and motivation. I highly recommend Gareth as someone who can help you draw out where the problems really lie and work to address them in a straightforward and constructive way.

Gareth gives clear articulate explanations as to why starting a software business isn’t just about building some good software, putting up a slick website, and waiting for customers. His focus on helping you to determine what the customer needs and why they need it by talking to them, establishing the values and beliefs behind the way you want to run your company, and that building a business/marketing/sales strategy can be done in a rational and scientific manner, are all backed up by steps and actions that you can actually take. If he wrote a book, I’d buy fifty copies and give one to every EVP, CTO and CEO I met. The two days I spent being coached (and occasionally berated) by him are the best and most mind expanding two days I’ve ever spent.

Gareth is that rare talent – a great understanding of how companies work, the systems and processes that create value, plus a deep understanding of how to build and really lead teams to create that value. When I was working for him, I saw this at first hand – one of the best teams I’ve ever worked in, and certainly a manager that really understood me, and coached me to expand my horizons. Working alongside Gareth on the board, I’ve seen him deftly steer his department, and us as a team towards great decisions. He’s also then done a great job of following through and implementing those decisions, bringing large numbers of people along with him – true leadership.

I can happily state that Gareth is the best manager that I have ever worked for. Gareth inspires and nurtures individuals to find their own greatness and he does all of this in a very interesting and open way. He is a great deal of fun to work with as he attacks problems with intelligence and smatterings of humour, he helps to break down complex problems into much smaller and more manageable chunks. I have learned a huge amount from Gareth over the years, asking him to remain as a mentor to me long after I left his direct management, and also after I moved companies. When the chips are down and I have a business problem to solve, Gareth is one of the first people I think to call.

I’d relish the opportunity to work with Gareth again and can’t recommend him highly enough. If you want a people focused leader who gets shit done in the right way, then Gareth is your man.

We recently went through a rapid growth phase and felt that we needed to re-work our Vision & Mission statement to create greater clarity. Through a number of workshops Gareth helped draw out the salient themes that motivated the leadership team. Starting with some industry examples, guiding principles and the occasional nudge from Gareth we were able to identify several motivators that laid the foundation for word smithing the Vision & Mission. Gareth was very helpful as he identified the different personas quickly and was able to structure conversations & workshops to meet the different working styles.