Peter Thomson

Based in the UK

Peter spent his formative years as the Personnel Director for Digital Equipment Corporation for Northern Europe, based in the UK. This was the era just prior to the birth of the Internet when DEC was leading the world in networked technology and was an early adopter of new working practices. Peter saw that there was likely to be a radical change in the way we worked as we moved into the 21st century and became fascinated with the organisational and leadership challenges this would present.

On leaving DEC in the early 1990’s Peter set up a centre at Henley Management College to study the evolution of work and help managers prepare for it. It was called the Henley Future Work Forum (not to be confused with the current Future Work Forum) and he directed it for 16 years. When the Management College merged with Reading University to form Henley Business School, Peter’s Forum was absorbed into a larger research centre but he still remains an active visiting fellow at the business school.

Peter has had many consultancy assignments over the last twenty years, helping organisations recognise that introducing new working practices involves a culture change, which should be driven from the top. He has worked with managers at all levels, coaching and training them to introduce a more flexible approach to work through trusting and empowering employees. He has spoken at numerous conferences on the future of work and its implications for leadership.

In 2011 Peter co-authored a book, ‘Future Work’, with Alison Maitland which was published by Palgrave Macmillan. This proved popular enough for the publishers to describe it as a ‘best seller’ and ask for an updated second edition. This latest version was published in March 2014 and contains many new case studies and an extra chapter on implementation. Peter continues to be a popular public speaker based on the messages contained in the book about the fascinating time we are living through in the history of work.