Paul Taffinder

Psychologist, strategist and award-winning author Paul Taffinder lives in the UK, on the banks of the River Wyre south of the Lake District. So fascinated was he as a boy by the underlying motivations of people – the good, the bad and the vile – that he completed three degrees and then a PhD in psychology and still found out that there was a lot to learn. Accordingly he has worked in the deepest mines and travelled to the highest places on earth, by flying Concorde (as a passenger, not a pilot). He is a devotee of fantasy and science fiction because it is a celebration of human possibilities. With four acclaimed business books to his name, he course corrected and created his own world in his debut trilogy The Dream Murderer Cycle.

Dr. Paul Taffinder is also the founder and Managing Partner of Taffinder Consulting, specializing in CEO advice on strategy, leadership and organizational performance. A recognized expert on leadership, innovation and organizational behavior, he advises top executives of Global 500 companies on large-scale change and specializes in CEO-led transformation. His 30-year consulting career has spanned a broad range of industries, including aerospace, automotives, electronics, energy, financial services, insurance and media. He spent 4 years as an executive responsible for Strategy & Innovation for a global insurer, working in London, Tokyo, Singapore and Silicon Valley, focussed on building and launching digital transformation.

Dr. Taffinder has also written extensively about leadership and change, beginning with his first book, The New Leaders (Kogan Page), in 1995. His second book, Big Change (Wiley), won the prestigious Business Management Book of the Year Award in 1999 for what the judges called his inspirational approach to corporate transformation. The first edition of his latest book, The Leadership Crash Course (Kogan Page, 2000), was republished in seven languages, and a new, significantly revised second edition was released in March 2006. An all-new edition appeared in late 2019, subtitled 'Creating Leadership Impact in the Digital World.'

In addition to writing, he speaks regularly at conferences and to the press. His views have been quoted in leading publications such as The New York Times, Fortune, the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, The Times, The Times Educational Supplement, The Independent, The Observer, The Guardian and Industry Week. Broadcast interviews have aired on BBC Business News, Bloomberg Television, European Business News (EBN), BBC Radio and Capital Radio, among other stations.

Prior to founding Taffinder Consulting, Dr. Taffinder was a Partner at strategy firm Marakon Associates as well as Mercer Delta. Before that, he was a Partner at Accenture, where he led the Organization and Change Strategy practice in the UK. Previously, he held a number of management roles in the mining and professional services industries. Dr. Taffinder is also a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society as well as a Visiting Professor at Goldsmiths College, University of London and sits on the Advisory Board of the University's Prospect & Innovation Unit.

Education

B.A. (Honors), Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Organizational Psychology, Witswatersrand (Wits) University in Johannesburg.