Associate
Criticaleye

Bernie has more than 25 years' international non-executive and executive leadership experience.

His current responsibilities include being a director of Kneip, a Luxembourg-based service provider to the global investment fund industry, and of PSE, who provide chemical modelling tools to global corporations. He is also a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School and a Trustee of the Venture Partnership Foundation, which supports rapidly growing entrepreneurial charities.

He spent two years in Copenhagen as Executive Chairman of the Maersk Data Group, a group of 4000 employees across 30 companies with turnovers ranging from $5m to $250m. Prior to that he ran IBM's Industrial Sector division for Europe, Middle East and Africa. In the late 1990s, at the height of the tech stock boom, Bernie was Director of Corporate Strategy based at IBM's global New York headquarters.

Bernie has an MA in Mathematics from Churchill College, Cambridge. He is married with three teenage sons and is enthusiastically involved in most sports, where possible as a participant, but increasingly, as a spectator.

Our Founders:

Andrew Minton

Charlie Wagstaff

Matthew Blagg

We've all heard the phrase, 'It's lonely at the top'. As chief executives across Criticaleye's Membership tell me, being a leader can be immensely rewarding, but also quite isolating. Who do you turn to when it comes to debating important issues on strategy? And, where can you go for solutions?

Unlike the individuals on the teams you lead, who are more than likely encouraged to share ideas and information, there are few people you can ask for useful and impartial advice. Your staff will expect you to have the answers already and professional advisors are likely to push their own agendas. In addition to this, the immediacy of today's business environment, where advances in technology and communications have intensified the pace of change, has created a world where leaders and directors have to be up-to-date and on-message around the clock.

Criticaleye was created in 2002 with the aim of helping leaders across industry sectors, business functions and geographical locations resolve business issues through peer-to-peer debate and discussion. Our Community works on the premise that business leaders and chief executives  need a safe space to ask questions and discuss solutions without the threat of being held to ransom by employees, stakeholders or the media for not knowing the answer to every problem or challenge that presents itself.

Being part of the Criticaleye Community means a number of things: Access to a managed network of leaders who can offer you fresh perspectives on and solutions to your critical issues. Intimate events on topics that have been generated from within the Community; a dedicated Relationship Manager to monitor your Membership activity and ensure you're getting the most value from it; a seasoned executive or 'Associate' to provide high level advice and ensure you are talking to the right people in the Community. And access to Criticaleye's Insight through an interactive online knowledge portal which is made up of cutting-edge business research, event write-ups, film footage of events and interviews and Community Articles by other Members.

Matthew Blagg, Founder & CEO, Criticaleye