Eve Poole is an expert in leadership.
From her experience of working with thousands of leaders across the sectors and across the world, she knows that the work of a leader is not as easy as it’s made out to be. It is not the sort of thing you ‘become’ as the result of the right course or the right promotion.
This inspired her to develop the idea of Leadersmithing: a movement that teaches leaders the tricks of the trade, so they can become masters in the craft of leadership. She believes that leadership is all about the day-to-day craft of gaining real experience in the critical incidents of leading, so leaders develop the muscle-memory to do it well. She uses this approach to help existing and aspiring leaders achieve their goals.
Eve started her career at the Church Commissioners for England, after gaining a BA in Theology from Durham University. She returned to education to gain an MBA from the University of Edinburgh Business School where she won AMBA Student of the Year. She honed her business skills at top consulting firm Deloitte, specialising in change management in the financial services industry. In 2010, Eve combined her two career tracks by gaining a PhD in Capitalism and Theology from Cambridge University.
From 2002, she taught leadership for Ashridge Business School, and was the first female Chairman of Gordonstoun School in Moray from 2015-2021. She also served as Third Church Estates Commissioner for England from 2018-2021, and was Interim Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2022. She was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List for services to education and gender equality.
Her client list spans the sectors and includes: 10x, Ace Insurance, ACEVO, Amazon, Anthem Schools Trust, AstraZeneca, Atos KPMG, BAA, Barclays, BBC, BNP Paribas Fortis, The British Army, British Embassy Paris, Cadbury Schweppes, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Church of England, Clore Leadership Programme, Clore Social Leadership Programme, The Collections Trust, Computacenter, Credit Suisse, Credit Suisse First Boston, The Defence Logistics Organisation, Deutsche Bank, EBRD, Ecolab, Essex County Council, European Commission, EY, FCO, Five, Focus Trust, Frieze, GE, Greenbelt, Hammersmith & Fulham, Heineken, Hewlett Packard/Agilent Technologies, Highways Agency, IDeA, IHG, Inspiring Scotland, Jersey Leadership, Lufthansa, M&G, Marconi, Midlands Electricity, MOD, Myeloma UK, Network Rail, NSPCC, ODPM/DCLG, Orange, Rank, Rexam, RHM, Roche, RWE, Sadlers Wells, Scottish Council of Independent Schools, Seventh Day Adventists, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (Said Business School), St Paul Travelers, Street Soccer Scotland, Student Loans Company, Tesco, The Body Shop, The General Trustees (Church of Scotland), The John Smith Trust, The Kinharvie Institute, The National Gallery, The Natural History Museum, The Post Office, The Prince’s Trust, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Thomson, Time Warner, Traidcraft, TRC Media, Varta, WHSmith News, William Temple Foundation, World Duty Free.
