Dr Phil St John Renshaw

Background

Phil started his career in international banking working in London, New York and Sydney. He then moved into the corporate treasury and corporate finance world, going on to become a Finance Director in the IT sector. Soon after he tuned into the important fact that people, and hence people skills, generate the numbers. And with that insight, he launched a new career. He is now a management and executive coach, leadership development facilitator and, through his research, an expert in the value of international assignments.

His greatest passion is teaching leaders the skills of coaching to use in every day life.

Research opportunities

Organisations predominantly remain incapable of demonstrating the value of their international assignment (or expatriation) programmes. These programmes are based on a belief-system and the management of these programmes is generally through cost not value. Despite this lack of knowledge, the use of international assignments, whether long-term or otherwise, is increasingly widespread in global organisations facing talent shortages around the world. Phil's research focusses on what the value of these interventions is, how it is created and where it sits. And hence ultimately how we can practically help organisations evaluate and increase the positive impact of these vital assignments. More recently Phil has expanded this research to include aspects of leadership.

Current activities

Phil is active as a facilitator and coach in Cranfield Executive Development programmes including, for example, Developing Leadership Potential.  

Phil provides facilitation, coaching and supervision support into the Executive MBA, the full time MBA, the Masters in Management and the Mastership programmes in Business Strategy and Leadership. His main focus is the provision of coaching support and the teaching of coaching skills for leaders.

Having been the Co-founder of CRANIUM, a student-led PhD researcher support group, he now jointly runs the School of Management's peer-to-peer mentoring programme. 

Phil delivers a regular Masterclass for PhD students on the impact of your philosophical perspective on your research. He delivers this at other universities as well as annually at the BAM (British Academy of Management) Conference Doctoral Symposium.

Alongside his co-author Jenny Robinson (Coaching On the Go), Phil is an interviewer for a series of podcasts for Cranfield alumni called Leadership On the Go launched January 2020.

Clients

A wide range of clients providing facilitation, leadership development and coaching/coach training over the years including Novartis, Veolia, Capgemini, PwC, National Trust, NHS, UnLtd and more.

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers
• Books