Community Profile

Gary Browning, Board Mentor, Criticaleye
Gary Browning
Board Mentor
Criticaleye

After an executive career building and acquiring companies, Gary now has a portfolio career with both public and private companies, and is currently Chair at Harvey Nash Group and ECA and holds non-executive roles at AIM-listed Cloudcall plc and Talking Talent Ltd. Gary brings his experience of managing people businesses through high growth phases, leading to an ultimate realisation of value for shareholders.
 
Gary was previously Group Chief Executive of Penna Consulting, a role he held from 2005, having joined the company in 2002. In his early time as CEO, Gary led on several restructurings and turnarounds at Penna, taking the business off the full market and onto AIM whilst raising new capital for the group through a placing. He then led an expansion strategy through acquisitions completing four deals over six years before selling the company to Adecco Group for £105 million in 2016.
 
Gary’s experience is within people businesses and his philosophy has been to balance the 'hard' (sound commercial management) with the 'soft' (high employee engagement) simultaneously. During a period of transformation from a loss making business into a highly profitable one, Penna was also recognised on eight occasions in the Sunday Times best 100 companies to work.
 
In his earlier career, Gary spent 12 years with the WPP Group, where he was Group Managing Director of BDG McColl, a Design and Brand Communications consultancy. Gary is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and qualified with KPMG having studied for his degree at Warwick University.
 
He is a trustee of the Myotubular Trust and sits on the Governance Board of Career Ready, a charity which works on a cause close to his heart – supporting disadvantaged youths in their early career ambitions. He has run recruitment businesses and consults on a wide array of talent management issues with particular interest areas in engagement strategies, leadership development, M&A and HR Due Diligence. He coaches and mentors senior executives with a particular emphasis on improving performance and leadership competence.