- Chris Roebuck
-
Occupation Lecturer and author Website http://www.chrisroebuck.co Chris Roebuck, BSc, MBA, FCIPD, FCMI is a British economist who lectures on leadership topics and advises organisations on maximising performance through effective leadership, in particular developing lean leadership and entrepreneurial leadership. Roebuck has held senior Human Resource and organisational transformation roles in London Underground, KPMG, HSBC, and UBS. In 2009 he was appointed Visiting Professor of Transformational Leadership at Cass Business School in London,[1]. In 2011 he was nominated by HR Magazine as one of the top 20 Most Influential HR Thinkers.[2]. Roebuck advises the Chartered Management Institute [3], the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Corporate Leadership Council and the BBC[4] as an expert on leadership and organisational performance.
Contents
Education
Roebuck studied Economics and Geography at University College London where he chaired the Students Union commercial enterprises committee, whose operations turned over in excess of £1m in 1976. He later chaired the Union Council, overseeing the constitutional governance process, elections, and negotiations with the UCL authorities.
Military service
Roebuck served with the Royal Engineer sub unit of the University of London Officer Training Corps and was commissioned into the Territorial Army. During this period he led the team that blew up the 150 ft high chimney at the old pottery at Sandford near Wareham in Dorset to make way for a new housing estate. Roebuck was subsequently commissioned into the regular Army Royal Engineers via the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was the Best Young Officer on his Course at the Royal School of Military Engineering. During his service in Germany, Roebuck developed the modern pipe fascine now used by the British Army in operations globally to rapidly cross small gaps and obstacles that restrict mobility of armoured and other units.
Career
After leaving the Army Roebuck used his knowledge of leadership to develop performance improvement initiatives in organisations such as Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of New York, Bank of England, and other financial institutions; Arts Council, legal firms and UK Government. In 1992 he received his MBA from Cass Business School in London. His final dissertation on organisational communication was featured in The Times on BBC Television and published worldwide in the International Journal of Strategic Management.[5]
In the late 1990s Roebuck lectured at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Joint Services on utilising the best of both military and commercial leadership techniques for the benefit of students. He also advised on updating the course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
In 1999, Roebuck was a member of an expert panel on improving leadership in British business for the government [6]
After roles with the executive team at London Underground developing the Public Private Partnership, building a new business line for KPMG and helping HSBC investment bank put a leadership development system in place, Roebuck worked at UBS in Zurich from 2002 to 2006.
At UBS, Roebuck and colleagues led the delivery of a for the bank’s top 500 leaders and subsequently co-ordinated this via the business divisions for the other 70,000 employees.[7] This underpinned a new corporate alignment, culture and brand that improved the bottom line and the position of UBS in the global banking rankings through entrepreneurial leadership. As a result, in 2005 UBS won the title “Best Company for Leaders Europe” [8] and “Best New Corporate University awards”, won the Corporate University Best Practice and Excellence awards in 2006/7, [9] and was in the top 10 of best companies in Europe 2007. The UBS talent and leadership initiative now forms a key part of a Harvard Business School Case Study "UBS: Towards the Integrated Firm" on supporting strategic business change, realignment and improvement via talent and leadership activity.[10] This case is also reviewed from the organisational culture and performance perspective.[11] During this period, Roebuck developed the initial concept of Entrepreneurial HR which he continues to develop.[12]
Since 2006, Roebuck has worked with organisations as diverse as the British National Health Service (the 4th largest organisation in the world) and organisations working in international logistics, legal, transport, media and not for profit sectors. Roebuck also advised on the implementation of the 2009 report for the UK Government on Employee Engagement “Engaging for Success” and in 2011 advised the King's Fund on developing leadership in the NHS for their Commission to the UK Government.[13] . He is also an executive coach and business mentor.
Roebuck currently heads Organisational Design & Transformation at the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) and leads on culture and engagement within plans to combine services between Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This is the Tri Borough Project, part of the largest ever local government restructures, delivering £34m of collective annual savings by 2014/15 by reducing management and overhead costs by 50%, while improving service delivery to local residents.[14]
Publications
Roebuck has written books on leadership, communication and delegation. His book on “hands on” leadership was translated into 11 languages.[15] He has regular columns in CEO[16] and HR Magazines.[17] His work has been quoted globally, for example in the UK national press, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal,[18] Washington Post,[19] Time Magazine,[20] Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Le Monde, Times of India,[21] Vancouver Sun and 50 other global titles.
TV and Radio
Roebuck appears regularly on both TV and radio globally as a leadership expert, including BBC News, BBC World Business, BBC Breakfast, The Money Programme, Bloomberg, CNBC, Sky, Al Jazeera, Swiss National Television, BBC UK and Australian Radio channels.[22]
Public Speaking
Roebuck presents at international conferences, business schools and to professional and management groups such as NHS Chief Executives, the Institute of Directors CEO Summit, Confederation of British Industry and the All Party Parliamentary Committee on Management.[23]
Honours
In November 2011, Roebuck was granted the Freedom of the City of London.
See Also
Case studies on Roebuck's past work with organisations, articles and interviews can be found at [1]
References
- ^ Lane, Edwin (16 February 2010). "Why bankers are still making millions". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8516847.stm.
- ^ "Chris Roebuck, Visiting professor of transformational leadership, Cass Business School" HR Most Influential
- ^ http://www.managers.org.uk/chris-roebuck
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/?q=chris%20roebuck
- ^ Constructive feedback: Key to higher performance and commitment Science Direct
- ^ http://www.ideopolis.info/documents/FinalReport6b.pdf “Leadership and Management in the Changing Economy” Ideopolis International]
- ^ Business driven integrated talent strategy
- ^ http://www.internalcommshub.com/open/news/hewitt_study.shtml
- ^ http://www.corpu.com/site_media/journal/2004/1.pdf
- ^ http://hbr.org/product/a/an/506026-PDF-ENG?cm_sp=doi-_-case-_-506026-PDF-ENG&referral=00103
- ^ UBS Case Study
- ^ "Episode 101 - HR can lead the way in creating entrepreneurial leaders". Interview on YouTube. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
- ^ http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/document.rm?id=9114 King's Fund
- ^ Tri Borough Proposals Report Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
- ^ "Hands on" leadership
- ^ "Chris Roebuck" The Chief Executive
- ^ "Chris Roebuck" HR Magazine
- ^ Chris Roebuck: "Banks can't stop rogue traders" Wall Street Journal
- ^ "Roebuck sees broken link between CEO's pay performance" Washington Post
- ^ Quotes Time Magazine
- ^ Times of India
- ^ List of TV and radio appearances, www.chrisroebuck.co
- ^ List of speaking appearances, www.chrisroebuck.co
Categories:- Living people
- Alumni of University College London
- Human resource management
- Members of the Institute of Directors
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