Bob Garratt

Bob Garratt is a “pracademic” - company director, consultant, and academic working on corporate governance; board and director review and development, organisational learning,  change, and strategic thinking issues.  He is based in London and consults on five of the six continents.  His consulting experience of board development, review and strategic business issues ranges from large corporates to family businesses, state-owned enterprises, professional practices, not-for-profits, and regulators to central and local governments.

His international experience is wide.  He helped form the China-EEC Management Programme in Beijing in 1983 (the first Chinese MBA programme), and the ASEAN-EU Management Centre in Brunei Darussalam in 1992.  He has worked with many financial services institutions including The International Monetary Fund, Washington DC, the Public Investment Corporation, South Africa, and for the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority on corporate governance issues.  He is a specialist in the evaluation and development of boards.  He has made lecture tours at Government level on corporate governance and board performance issues to India, South Africa and Australia. He is a Founder Member of The Commonwealth Association for Corporate Governance.  He has led the Organising For Tomorrow and Developing Strategic Thought programmes at the IoD, London, and was also an External Examiner there.

In 2011-2012 he was on assignment as Advisor to KPMG LLP on Board Effectiveness and Corporate Governance helping them rethink the future of boards and owners.  He has extensive boardroom experience in his own right both as a Chairman and as a trusted advisor/mentor to Chairmen and Chief Executives internationally.  From an early age he worked with GEC-Marconi on their action learning-based executive and board development programmes and for ten years he co-directed the LloydsTSB bank director development programmes. He is a member of the City Values Forum restoring integrity and credibility to the directors and top teams of City of London financial services firms.

He is a Visiting Professor at the Cass Business School, City University, London where his work spans the Centres for Corporate Governance, The ETHOS Research Centre,  Health Management, and Entrepreneurship development. He is Professor Extraordinaire at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa, and Chairman of its Centre for Corporate Governance in Africa. He was previously a Visiting Professor at The Tanaka Management School, Imperial College, London, responsible for the board development of the faculty ‘spin out’ companies; and Senior Associate, The Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge. He is a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants, and a Freeman of The City of London.  He has chaired the Association for Management Education and Development, and led management education in both Ulster College, Belfast, and The Architectural Association School, London. 

His latest book Stop The Rot:  Rethinking Governance for Directors and Politicians was published in July 2017 by Greenleaf/Routledge. His books include:  The Fish Rots From The Head: Developing Effective Boards (1996,  2003 and 2010); Thin On Top: Why Corporate Governance Matters (2003); Developing Strategic Thought (ed) (1994 and 2003); and The Learning Organisation:  Developing Democracy At Work (2000 and 1987). He is on the Editorial Advisory Boards of  the Journal of Business Studies;  Action Learning; The Learning Organisation, and Organisations and People. In 2015 he was awarded an Outstanding Achievement prize by the Global Forum for Leadership, Organisational Development and Business-Driven Action Learning.  In 2002, he won the Shareholder Value corporate governance essay prize sponsored by the European Business Forum and PwC/IBM.