Margaret Exley CBE BA (Econ) MSc

Margaret is an expert on change management and business growth and is frequently retained as an advisor to UK Boards and Government Departments. 

Well known in the UK and Europe, she has appeared regularly in the pages of Management Today and the FT as well as on the BBC, and written chapters and articles in business books and journals. She is also known for the large study which she conducted on the characteristics of high-growth companies.

She has extensive experience in dealing at CEO and Board level in significant organisations in the private and public sectors and she has particular expertise in board operation and effectiveness. She was a contributing author to 'Building Better Boards' by David Nadler and has worked on board effectiveness with a variety of household name firms.

Margaret is also a serial entrepreneur, having successfully founded and built several very successful businesses. She founded Kinsley Lord, with three colleagues in the mid-80s, grew it to a sizeable business, and sold it in the mid-90s when it was the leading change management company in the UK. She then went on to become the European Head of Consulting for Towers Perrin.  She set up Stonecourt in 2007 with a partner, having founded and led Mercer Delta in the UK for five years, and launched SCT Consultants in 2011 to focus on her work with Boards and on her advisory and coaching work.

Margaret has held a number of non-executive roles, including being the first non-executive member of the Board of HM Treasury.  She was an advisor to the Boards of several social enterprises and is a trustee of the Portrait Trust of the National Portrait Gallery.

She has a degree in Economics and Social Sciences, and a Master's degree from Warwick Business School, followed by a Research Fellowship at the Manchester Business School.  In 2001, Margaret was awarded a CBE, in recognition of her work on organisational effectiveness and her role in improving management in public services.