PAUL BRANKIN OBE Paul has been a director of Oxford Executive Coaching since it was founded in 1995. As one of OEC’s senior coaches, Paul oversees the highly successful Executive Coaching Course, takes care of a portfolio of senior clients and, with Maire, has responsibility for the general management and direction of the company.

Paul’s professional background provides him with first-hand knowledge of the issues his clients are facing. He has served on the boards of several large organisations in both the private and public sectors and has worked in R&D, engineering, production, marketing, sales and general management. During his business career, Paul has been instrumental in developing ideas from initial concept through to profitable commercial exploitation, growing new businesses and establishing successful marketing operations in East Asia. He also successfully completed two major acquisitions and has been a central force in helping large public organisations through periods of significant change. Following a first degree in physics at Kings College, London, he took up research in low-temperature physics and, in 1971, was awarded a PhD by the University of Warwick. Paul started his business career working for British Oxygen Company and Magnetic Corporation of America. In 1974 he moved to join Oxford Instruments Plc, where he worked in a variety of senior roles, becoming Managing Director of one of the company's subsidiaries in 1983. Since then, his career progression has been at the highest levels within both the private and public sectors, encompassing such roles as Director and Chief Executive, and often operating in the cross-cultural business environments of Europe and East Asia. Such was his success that, in 1994, Paul was seconded to the DTI to assist companies developing their business in Japan. He was awarded an OBE for services to exports to Japan in the 1995 New Years Honours list. Paul has had a variety of roles in the public sector. From 1988 to 1995 he served as a Governor of Oxford Brookes University and was a Visiting Industrial Fellow at Green College, Oxford. In 1991 he was appointed as a Non-executive Director of Oxfordshire Health Authority, where he served until April 2000. In addition to his work with Oxford Executive Coaching, Paul is Chairman of the Oxford Trust, a charity that encourages the pursuit of science and enterprise in Oxfordshire. Paul is particularly interested in the growth of new businesses, strategic planning, developing technologists as general managers, corporate change in larger organisations, international marketing (especially in East Asia), healthcare and working across cultures. His specialist knowledge and high calibre business experience have served to enrich his work as a consultant, mentor and Executive Coach.