About Us - The Team
Management Team
Matthew Farmer, Managing Director
Matthew is a founding member of Adopt a Business and is responsible for the development of the business in the UK other developed world markets. Matthew has a BSc in Psychology from Cardiff University and an MBA from IESE Business School, Barcelona. He has worked on a number of projects in developing countries such as India, Mexico and Poland and also on some economic development projects in Eastern Europe and UK. Prior to his MBA, Matthew was the director of a successful publishing and marketing services company.
Sandra Marshall, Assignment Manager
Sandra is Adopt a Business’ Assignment Manager, which means she is responsible for coaching new assignees through the assignment process, helping them prepare for and get the most from the experience.
Sandra has a background in management and business studies and has considerable experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She has been a hospital manager in her native Edinburgh as well as holding managerial posts in Great Ormond Street and University College Hospitals, London. Sandra also has consultancy and facilitation experience, having been a senior consultant with a UK based healthcare performance and benchmarking company, as well as having worked for companies such as IBM and Gartner. In parallel with her career, Sandra has devoted a considerable amount of time in the last few years to supporting the establishment of an international not-for-profit women’s organisation (Feminenza), set up to promote the growth and development of women and encourage greater understanding between the genders.
S. Saravanan, Indian Partnerships Manager
Saravanan is Adopt a Business’ Indian Partnerships Manager. He is based in Hyderabad, India and is responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with our partner organisations (adoptees) in India. This work includes helping partners to identify needs that Adopt a Business can support through assignments, capturing these needs in Terms of Reference and supporting the partner organisations through the assignment process to get maximum value from it.
Saravanan’s background includes 12 years of experience in Hospital and Health Care Management featuring senior management positions at the Aravind Eye Hospital and LV Prasad Eye Institute (both partner organisations of AAB), where he became familiar and highly supportive of the work of Assignees and Adopt a Business. His achievements include developing management initiatives to improve the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery as well as in providing consultancy to more than 150 eye hospitals across the world.
B.R. Shamanna, Assignee Support Consultant, India
Sham is Adopt a Business’ Assignee Support Consultant based in Hyderabad, India. He acts as the first point of contact for assignees when they arrive in India and also functions as a “sounding board”, always available to address assignee issues during the period of their assignments should it be needed. He prepares the assignees for the local context and briefs them on relevant partner information, as well as on cultural differences between UK and India. At the end of each assignment Sham also de-briefs the assignees, supporting their reflection and personal learning process and capturing achievements and areas for future development.
Sham is a medical doctor with a specialisation in Community Medicine and Maternal and Child Health. He has a Masters of Science from University College London and more than 14 years work experience with health agencies such as WHO, UNICEF and Program Against Micronutrient Malnutrition (PAMM) and with eye care programmes throughout India and beyond. Sham also regularly teaches at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Colin Williams OBE, Partnerships Manager – Africa
Colin Williams is African Partnerships Manager for Adopt a Business and is responsible for managing the partnerships and operations within Africa. Colin has a wealth of experience having been based in Africa since 1974, living in 6 different African countries in a variety of roles during a career which included 6 years as Africa Director for Action Aid responsible 1200 African based staff throughout the region. He was awarded an OBE in 2002 “for his contribution to the fight against poverty in Africa”.
Colin is a creative thinker with strong problem-solving and strategic planning skills. He has an extensive network within Africa and first hand experience of designing, delivering, managing and supervising a range of programmes and initiatives aimed at addressing issues of poverty within Africa. This includes helping found, support and grow - in distinctive, individual ways - local and international organisations some of which have reached very high levels of international stature such as TASO in Uganda, MACRO and Mzuzu Academy in Malawi. He is a believer in the power that properly structured and matched assignments can have upon organisations making a difference to people’s lives in Africa and has been supporting Adopt a Business’ move into Africa since August 2005.
Colin currently lives in Lusaka, Zambia with his wife Chanda.
Associates & Advisors
Steve Apps, Development Coach
Steve’s principal responsibility with Adopt a Business is for the personal development coaching curriculum that forms an integral part of the Outzone Experience process. However Steve also advises on other areas of AAB’s work including recruitment and the selection of assignees. Steve is a strategic level HR consultant, people development professional and facilitator with over ten years of experience working to improve people and organisations. One of Steve’s particular specialties is coaching participants through the assignment process – something that he has done on over thirty occasions.
He has personal experience of undertaking an assignment himself and believes that the experience can bring huge benefit to participants when managed properly
Professor Chris Bones
Chris Bones is Principal of the Henley Business School (formerly Henley Management College) & Dean of the Faculty of Business of the University of Reading. Previously, he was Group Organisation Effectiveness and Development Director for Cadbury Schweppes, who he joined in 1999, taking responsibility for Executive Education and Development Culture, Communications, Change, Knowledge Management and Capability Development. In his 22 years in business Chris has worked for Shell, Diageo (both in GrandMet and Guinness) and Cadbury Schweppes. He started in industrial relations, working on the UK's largest oil refinery and progressing through management teams in brewing, retailing and property to Board roles covering Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. He has significant international business experience and a reputation as a leading practitioner in executive education and development, change and HR strategy. Chris writes a regular column for HR magazine and is a highly regarded speaker at international conferences on change, HR strategy and employment branding. He is a Board member of the Skills for Government, the sector skills council for the Civil Service and an Independent Non Executive Director of the Agricultural and Horticultural Levy Board.
Anjaney Borwankar
Anjan is a founding member of Adopt a Business. Responsible for the Company's operations in the developing world during its establishment, Anjan now works with Adopt a Business as an associate consultant/advisor. He is an Indian national with a Bachelors degree in Nautical Studies from the University of Mumbai and has an MBA from the IESE Business School, Barcelona. Anjan has consulted for several organisations on sustainability and base of the pyramid issues in countries such as Sri Lanka, Serbia and Spain. Prior to his association with Adopt a Business, Anjan worked with McKinsey & Company and spent five years working in international shipping operations.
Peter Davies OBE, Advisor
Peter Davies OBE is the Sustainable Development Commission Vice-Chair for Wales and Associate Director of Business in the Community with responsibility for international programmes. He is also an independent consultant in the areas of CSR, Sustainable Development and Project Development. Formerly Peter served Business in the Community for 10 years first as joint managing director and subsequently as Deputy Chief Executive prior to becoming an independent consultant in 2005. He is passionate about the role of business in society and society’s role in international development. He feels that Adopt a Business provides a powerful and pragmatic way for companies to take action and develop their businesses while also making a meaningful contribution to the developing world. In addition to his consultancy work and support for Adopt a Business, Peter is also a regular speaker at international conferences and a trustee of a number of registered charities.
Linda Perry, Associate Consultant
Linda works with Adopt a Business as an associate consultant providing input on a range of issues drawing particularly upon her experience working with the Zurich Financial Services India Programme. Linda joined the Community Affairs team in Allied Dunbar (now Zurich Financial Services) in 1993 to research, develop and establish the India Programme. She also developed and managed a number of UK based community programmes for ZFS before becoming their first Corporate Social Responsibility Manager in 2001. Her background is in human resource management and she is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. She previously worked for Oxfam and is currently a freelance Corporate Responsibility Consultant.
Phil Radcliff
Phil is a highly experienced HR professional with a long history of working at senior level with major organisations whilst working at Diageo and RHM. More recently as an independent consultant and Executive Fellow at Henley Business School he has worked with a range of clients including Reuters, Cadbury-Schweppes, Aviva, BT, BBC and GSK, working on organisational development, change programmes and coaching. He has been an HR Director both in the UK and US and was involved in various change roles during the merger of Guinness and Grand Met and the major changes which have created Diageo, the number one drinks company in the world. He also has considerable experience of executive education beginning his career at Sheffield Hallam University and since 2005 as a Fellow at Henley Management College (now Henley Business School) where he is course director for their leadership programme and contributor to corporate programmes. Phil is a trustee of a charity providing mentoring in Young Offenders Institutes and also coaches leaders in the voluntary and educational sectors.
He works with AAB as a senior advisor and associate developing opportunities to apply the AAB approach to support companies develop leadership and undertake cultural change.
Kishore Rao
Kishore Rao has worked with Adopt a Business since its inception and currently provides occasional assignee support and briefings for those travelling to India as part of their Outzone Experience. Based in Bangalore, Kishore has a long and distinguished career in both the commercial and not for profit sectors. He also has an abiding interest in corporate social responsibility and has written and spoken on the subject, pioneering CSR before its acceptance in the mainstream.
Anthony Tabor
Anthony has been working as a business mentor to Adopt a Business since 2004. As such he provides regular input on business strategy, planning and performance measurement. A lawyer by training, Anthony has worked in London and Hong Kong and most recently spent 5 years with Vodafone in Newbury. He now practises as a freelance legal and business consultant, with a particular interest in social entrepreneurship. He has a degree in Law from Oxford University and an MBA (with distinction) from London Business School.
Rama Velamuri, Academic Advisor
Rama is Assistant Professor at IESE Business School in Barcelona, where he teaches Entrepreneurship and Negotiation in the MBA and executive education programs. He has also taught as a visiting professor in India, Germany, Austria, Peru, Uruguay, Nigeria and Egypt. He received his PhD from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining the academic profession, he worked for fourteen years as a manager and consultant. Rama is interested in how the assignment experience leads to individual learning in the Adopt a Business assignees, and the extent to which this learning can be leveraged by organizations to drive entrepreneurship, innovation and growth.
Gemma Wilson, Development Coach
Gemma’s responsibility with Adopt a Business is as a personal development coach for participants as they go through the assignment process. Gemma is a strategic level HR consultant, and has over ten years’ experience of helping people and organisations improve their approach to learning and development. Her work has included one to one coaching at all levels of organisations and has taken her to many different countries throughout the world. Although a recent addition to the AAB team, Gemma has more than four years’ experience of working with participants of the Zurich Financial Services India Programme.
Gemma undertook an assignment herself in December 2007 and is convinced that the Outzone Experience can be a valuable tool for developing assignees’ skills, knowledge and confidence.
Ed Williams MBE
Ed Williams is an experienced coach, people developer and senior executive whose previous roles include Head of Leadership Development & Learning and Head of CSR at Marks & Spencer. He is passionate about the role of business in Society and the link between people and corporate responsibility. He has consulted on such issues to a range of organisations including HM Revenue & Customs, Argent, Serco, Business in the Community and Virgin. He also provides coaching as part of Youth at Risk, working with prison officers in HM YOI Feltham and the Teach First scheme, which offers high achieving graduates the opportunity to begin their careers teaching in challenging schools. As an 18 year old Ed undertook a year’s teaching position in Zambia with VSO.
Ed works with AAB as a senior advisor and associate using his experience of leadership development and CSR to support the introduction and implementation of AAB’s approach into client companies.
Develop your people…Develop your business…Develop the world!