Martin Thomas Biography

Martin Thomas has 30 years of international experience, including living and managing in France, The Netherlands, Colombia, Kenya, Israel and his native England. This includes multinational assignments with Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer products companies, known for a philosophy of global strategies combined with adaptation to local market realities.

Martin’s leadership roles in multinational environments have spanned serving as a Chief Financial Officer, as well as planning, implementing and managing start-ups, joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and organic growth strategies. In addition to heading the Group global planning function at Unilever plc, Martin was the Managing Director of an international division of Tate & Lyle plc.

Building on his experience within major multinationals, Martin has been a consultant on strategic international change since 1999 – first in his own firm call4change; with NormannPartners, management consultants dedicated to growth, innovation and entrepreneurship; and through growing-global.com, founded with principals Mick Yates and Patricia Shafer. Together with Yates and Shafer, Martin was also a founding member of The Change Leaders, an international community of practice dedicated to the human side of change. In each endeavour, Martin has been committed to enabling visionary change to become reality.

Martin is multi-lingual, able to work effectively with clients in English, French, Spanish and Dutch. He is a Chartered Management Accountant with a Masters Degree in Financial Control from Lancaster University and a Masters Degree in Consulting & Coaching for Change (CCC), a joint-venture programme of Oxford University, and Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), Paris. His analysis of the potential for scenario planning at country level in turbulent conditions was one of the most highly rated dissertations in the CCC programme. Martin also completed the Advanced Management Program from INSEAD, France, a university recognized worldwide as a top-tier business school with a unique global perspective.