Director, Valoro VGW

As a coach and consultant Mark has worked with chairmen, CEOs and senior executives in companies as diverse as the BBC, CBS, Granada, Five, Telewest, BT, 3GLab, RTE, Vitec, Swisscom and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. His 34-year career has spanned broadcast journalism, management consultancy and, most recently, a key strategy role advising the BBC’s Chairman and trustees. Mark knows first-hand what it’s like to work under pressure at the top of organisations and in the glare of public scrutiny.

He advised the BBC Chairman through the Gilligan/Hutton crisis and played a central role in creating new governance arrangements with the transition to the BBC Trust. The public value test he pioneered with others at the Trust is now seen as the benchmark approach to media regulation in Europe. As the Trust’s Head of Performance he also led the team that measured and assessed the effectiveness of the BBC’s services in using the privilege of public funding to create value for society as a whole.

Mark has experience of investigative journalism and knows how to tease out the story beneath the organisational veneer. He was the award-winning editor of Public Eye and worked on the respected business series The Money Programme as well as Newsnight and Panorama.

Mark’s coaching clients are board members and senior executives in the media, telecoms and technology industries. He specialises in enhancing personal effectiveness through clarifying personal values and career goals, coping with stress and improving interpersonal relationships. Mark’s friendly but challenging approach helps his clients grow in self-awareness and develop a renewed ability to deal with the challenges of life at the top in a way that’s right for them.

In his work both with individuals and organisations, Mark finds that questions relating to personal and corporate values are key to helping clients define effective strategies. At the BBC, he facilitated trustees in defining their key strategic objectives for the Corporation. His coaching clients attest to his effectiveness in helping them clarify and realise their goals, improve work-life balance and deal with challenging relationships at both the one-to-one and team levels.

Mark is a licensed practitioner of both the MBTI and FIRO-B instruments and holds an ILM Diploma in Executive Coaching and Leadership Mentoring. Mark is also an Anglican priest and sees all his work as an affirmation of the unique value of the individual and his belief that we are at our best when we are true to ourselves.

Email: mark.wakefield@valoro.co.uk

Read what clients have said about Mark’s coaching.