Stuart is the chief people officer at Zenith the UK's leading independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business. He's also a qualified business and executive coach.
He joined Zenith from Virgin Health Care, where he was chief people officer before transitioning to chief operating officer. He has also held senior people roles at Costcutter, Morrisons and Asda.
He joined Asda at the tender age of 16 working on the shopfloor where he learned the importance of good people management, involving people in decisions, respecting their opinions.
Stuart says people make or break teams. You don't have a strategy or culture or products or services without people.
Asda was both challenging and caring - it had a ruthless focus on performance, but also cared about its people. He was pushed really hard to deliver, but when his dad passed away he was flown down to the south coast to be there in person when it really mattered.
Retailers tend to be customer-centric, but Asda was very grounded and down to earth and kept things simple. They truly value colleagues at every level - something Stuart has taken with him into every business. At the time it gave him real confidence at a young age to have an opinion and a point of view.
He's most proud of the work he's done at Zenith on diversity, particularly on women in leadership. Taking inspiration from people like Emma Fox and Amanda Cox (both previous guests on Coach Class).
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