Community Profile

Stephen Pain, Board Mentor, Criticaleye
Stephen Pain
Board Mentor
Criticaleye

Having retired from his executive roles Stephen is pursuing a plural career.  He now provides mentoring and advisory services for senior leaders, is Responsibility and Reputation tutor on Henley Business School’s Global MBA programme and undertakes selected consultancy assignments.
 
Until 2022, Stephen was, for 11 years, the VP of Sustainable Business and Communications at Unilever plc, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies. He has extensive experience in corporate communications and organisational change, working across a range of leading FTSE 100 companies.
 
At Unilever, Stephen led the internal and external communication of Unilever’s purpose-driven, sustainable growth strategy and Connected for Growth (C4G) – the company’s transformational change programme. As a self-confessed ‘joiner-of-the-dots’, Stephen established a research-based communications strategy, upon which Unilever’s integrated approach to global communications was established. He business partnered with the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer and the Chief HR Officer and was a member of their respective Leadership Teams. 
 
Before joining Unilever, Stephen was Group Corporate Affairs Director of Aviva plc, one of the world’s largest savings, investments and insurance groups. There, he led the communications team during the merger and integration of CGU and Norwich Union in 2000, and then, in 2002, launched the Aviva brand. Subsequently, he was the architect of the Group’s transformation from 40 brands to one global brand - Aviva. Prior to that, he was Corporate Affairs Director at retail group, Storehouse plc, and at Severn Trent plc, the water and waste services company. 
 
Stephen’s own purpose is, ‘Being with others to grow something good’. He is expert in helping organisations leverage communications to become faster, simpler and have more impact through increased agility, flexibility and cross-functional teamwork.
 
He is a Board Mentor at Criticaleye, the peer to peer Board Community, and Visiting Executive Fellow at Henley Business School where he has co-written the following papers:
 
In addition to family, Stephen’s interests include the outdoors (gardening in particular), tennis, golf and health and wellbeing.  He practices Ashtanga yoga most mornings in an effort to stay fitter for longer and became a qualified yoga instructor to satisfy his curiosity in the discipline.