GARETH JAMES....

- A brief biography -

Gareth set up his personnel consultancy, PEOPLE PLUS, in 1993 after an 18-year career as a Personnel / HR generalist. The first 6 years were in the food industry with Robertson Foods, the next 12 in the pharmaceutical and chemical sector with the Rhone Poulenc group. His final role was as an International HR Director for a sector of Rhone Poulenc, covering Africa, Asia, Australasia and Latin America as well as the UK.

Gareth has a deep interest in the development of people and decided to work freelance, creating a portfolio of services for clients across the private and public sectors. Over the last ten years, he has worked for many diverse organisations on assignments that have included selection, management development, career review, executive coaching, personal development, stress management, and team development. The use of psychometrics and 360° feedback tools to improve decisions by and about people forms the basis of much of this work.

In addition to these mainstream activities Gareth has undertaken assignments in staff relocation, search & selection, pay structures, HR due diligence, HR audits, change management, business start-ups and redundancy. He is retained by a number of companies to provide out-sourced generalist Personnel / HR input.  

Collaborations with other organisations include a joint venture with a medial practitioner to run stress management workshops - providing public and in-house programmes for the Institute of Personnel & Development; participating in large-scale project teams in the Car and Telecommunications industries through Alexander Consulting and T-Three Consultants; chairing and speaking at major conferences on Profit Related Pay for Industrial Relations Services and Stress Management for the CIPD and developing and running programmes for the pharmaceutical industry with Rostrum Personal Development.

Gareth studied Business and Personnel Management in Bristol. Later study has included General Management at INSEAD, France and a number of programmes in advanced psychometrics, assessment techniques and 360° feedback. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and Fellow of the Institute of Personnel & Development.